If you ever wondered why Air America’s ratings suck, you need look no farther than this partial transcript from The Franken Factor:
FRANKEN: Well, you did, you know. And what you said after you quote the two sentences from Moynihan was —
KLEIN: Were there ellipses between the two sentences?
FRANKEN: No.
KLEIN: No. No. So in other words, there’s something that is missing.
FRANKEN: Yeah.
CONASON: Al, this is Joe. Why don’t you read the actual, what Senator Moynihan really said —
FRANKEN: This was —
CONASON: — as opposed to what’s in Mr. Klein’s book.
FRANKEN: Well, this is what Moynihan said, and this is how he got into it. He said, “Now I have the great pleasure to welcome Mrs. Clinton to the farm and turn over the microphone to our candidate. Before you do, before I do… Oh, my God, I almost forgot. Yesterday Hillary Clinton established an exploratory committee as regards to her candidacy for the Senate, United States Senate from New York, a seat which I will vacate in a year and a half.” And then you pick up with, “I’m here to say, I hope she will go all the way. I mean to go all the way with her. I think she’s going to win. I think she’s going to be wonderful for New York.” So you leave out —
KLEIN: I left out an ellipsis.
CONASON: You did not.
FRANKEN: You didn’t leave out an ellipsis. You deliberately left out the —
KLEIN: There’s no —
CONASON: I know you don’t have the book in front of you. How much would you like to bet there’s no ellipsis on that page?
FRANKEN: No, he’s saying that’s what he left out.
KLEIN: That’s what I’m saying, Joe.
CONASON: No, there’s no ellipsis.
FRANKEN: No, he’s saying he left it out.
KLEIN: I should have put in an ellipsis.
Now, I am sure Franken, Conason, and the good folks at Media Matters had a point about all this, but, quite honestly, I started to fall asleep reading the transcript and had to go watch paint dry for a quick pick-me-up.
Fascinating radio, that.
Don
Your point is that tracking down and pointing out misquotes and misrepresentations makes for less stunning radio than yelling and misquoting?
John Cole
My point is it was so boring it made my hair hurt.
Steven
This is why right wing radio is so much more effective. On the left, you have comedians who are trying not to be funny and succeeding, which just makes them boring. On the right, you have guys who pretend to be serious, but are really funny, which makes them interesting. I mean, if you really listen to Limbaugh and O’Reilly, those guys are really great political comedians. Mort Sahl would be so proud.
John S
Transcripts are always boring. It’s like reading song lyrics – they always look stupid written down.
Your greater point is true, though – I’ve only heard Randi Rhodes, and I find her insufferably stupid and plodding. I can’t work up any energy at all to listen to AA, even though I’m in their target market, and used to work for a short-lived lefty talk radio station in Colorado.
rush
Radio is not meant to be read.
Mike S
Actually, listening to it gave you a good idea of just how much of a bullshitting assole Klein is.
Like people said above. TR is not for reading.
James Emerson
The live broadcast was a thing of beauty.
Franken redefined the term “asswhupping.”
SeesThroughIt
True, but as a copy editor, I’m glad to see they were discussing proper ellipses use–not to mention that they were actually using the term “ellipses” and not just saying “dots.”
JG
How do you soothe hair pain? Advil?
Don
JG – razor.
John Cole
I was a DJ for a number of years and worked in radio news- I wrote copy and know it is not as lively when it is read vs. spoken. But this is still awful radio, any way you slice it.
John Beck
John, I really suggest you listen to the whole thing, Its available here: http://mediamatters.org/static/audio/airamerica_klein_20050624.mp3
Klein loses all credibility on the air. Kind of sad, but not really.
Zach
wow, i can’t believe you’d read a transcript and decide right there if the show was interesting or not. i actually LISTENED to that show and was VERY entertained. That transcript you have lasted all of about a minute on the radio. Try LISTENING to the show before you make stupid comments.
Gary Farber
John, actually trying to make people tell truth is boring. So is punctuation.
Apparently, civilization and truth and precision are boring. What do we do about that?
Gary Farber
And how do we survive the fact that people find facts and precision and punctuation boring?
Because, of course, lack of any such can and will kill people. Like, dead, and all. Which turns out to not be so boring.
Steve Smith
The point is that Franken clearly hadn’t bothered to prepare himself for the interview. He effectively skewered his guest, but he didn’t plan ahead of time how he would sound to his audience in the process, so the segment was dull, and his non-captive listeners turned the dial.
SamAm
It’s still more interesting than debates about kerning.
brenda
The whole point is about Klein’s inept character assasination of Hiliary. And you complain it’s boring? How about addressing the facts instead of whinning about not being suficently entertained?
Kimmitt
I thought Air America was doing okay.
Simon
I’d have to agree. Not defending AA really, but that was a good old-fashioned beat down if you listened to the whole thing on the air. I can’t believe a single person would by the book after having heard that. Klein came off sounding like a complete fool.
John Cole
Brenda- I already have stated I think the book is an outright smear. But that was just boring radio, and it didn’t have to be.
Jeff Altemus
John,
I have to agree with some of the other posts. I listened to entire segment and it was captivating radio. The transcript just doesn’t do it justice. Besides that was the weakest moment of the segment as there was some misunderstanding of what was being said.
What really came across was what a hack Klein is.
I was embarrassed for the man. He couldn’t defend most of what he wrote and the defenses he did attempt were so sad I cringed. No wonder most pundits on the right are running as fast as they can to get away from him.
You really should listen to the segment and then judge whether it was good radio. If you still think it sucked
John Cole
You need a radio show to hash out that a man who would suggest that Clinton raped his wife is a hack?
Gary Farber
I don’t know who you are speaking to, John, but I’m still caught in the notion that a country that thinks punctuation is boring doesn’t care about meaning, and thus, well, you know, thinks we should all just die.
Meaning is meaning. I want to fight for meaning. I hope you’ll fight with us.
Gary Farber
“It’s still more interesting than debates about kerning.
And when kerning is the crucial question, apparently we should just kill ourselves.
Oliver
You need a radio show to hash out that a man who would suggest that Clinton raped his wife is a hack?
Not to many on the right. The misogyny is overwhelming.
hank
Thanks for posting that. I have to wonder why you don’t just listen to the whole thing instead of just saying you didn’t like part the transcript and panning it from ignorance. That passage was key to one of Klein’s lies.
John: “I didn’t listen to this but I read part of a transcript and didn’t like it, so the whole thing stinks and shows AA is not worth the listen.”
As for the interview, I think it was very revealing. I don’t think Klein is as big a liar as he came off being, though. I think the problem with his book is he depended too much on the previous lies and half truths the right has been basing their world view on to write it. This is a problem. The right is now feeding off their own previous propaganda – lies. They are piling lies onto lies getting further and further from reality.
Great radio, you ought to try listening to it, thanks for the link.
I enjoyed the haircut part. Most rightwingers still don’t know the reality of that. Likely never will.
John Cole
Why do you guys keep assuming I didn’t listen to or didn’t read the whole trancript? And hey, if arguing about an ellipsis is your idea of stimulating radio, be my guest. Persdonally, I would rather have had Franken just do the run-down how he was a lying scmuck himself, but if you liked that- by all means, listen in tomorrow.
Kimmitt
You need a radio show to hash out that a man who would suggest that Clinton raped his wife is a hack?
For a guy who just had to change a major opinion, you sure are dismissive of folks who feel as though the obvious should be thoroughly seen to. I’m not saying; I’m just saying.
That said, is Air America doing poorly? I’d heard that some poor business decisions were made but that it was basically successful.
Geek, Esq.
I enjoyed the part where they asked him about describing as “mannish” a woman he had never seen.
It was a serious beat down.
tbone
That segment may not come off well in a transcript, but it was hugely entertaining to listen to. Klein is so transparently sleazy, it was fun to hear him dismantled so thoroughly by Franken and Conason.
Then, at the end of that show, they were all hauled off to prison, per O’Reilly’s suggestion. Can’t beat that.
Air America stumbled badly out of the gate due to bad faith on the part of their then-chairman, but they’ve been growing rapidly in recent months. Clear Channel has picked them up on a number of stations, so I assume the ratings must be pretty good.
HH
Air America ratings hype vs. reality
Defense Guy
“Not to many on the right. The misogyny is overwhelming.”
Oliver, you will just never give up on this will you? The idea that all of the evils of the world can be so easilty attributable to one particular party is just to easy a game to play for you I guess.