From 2011—2016, I was an obsessive Jimmy Dore Show fan. Jimmy was the first lefty comedian I’d heard who was actually funny. He assembled a panel of hilarious comedy writers—MST 3K’s Frank Conniff, The Daily Show’s Jim Earl and Steve Rosenfield, Robert Yasamura, and many others. I first discovered him on his Pacifica radio show (at KPFK Los Angeles 90.7). Subsequently, I started podcasting the show. I listened walking my baby daughter in her stroller. I fell asleep listening to it on my ipod. I listened during bathroom breaks at work on my iphone.
I felt guilty about wringing out so much entertainment from the show for free, so I joined the premium podcast. I was not only entertained, it was where I first learned about Mike Pence. It chronicled Chris Christie’s rise and fall. Through the talents of the incredible, inimitable Mike McRae, it gave voice to a foul-mouthed Bernie Sanders and Mitt Romney. More than the premium—“the price of a cup of coffee that costs $5”-- I paid attention to the show, maybe listened too closely, which was ultimately my undoing.
The overarching theme of Jimmy’s show was pointing out the false equivalencies posited by the main stream media—“the Republicans did this, but the Democrats did that,” neutrality instead of objectivity, or “both sides do it.”
Until the 2016 election. After the Democratic primary, Bernie booster Jimmy rapidly pivoted to shill for Jill Stein. He had fallen for her radical-chic proggy-lefty theatrics hook, line, and sinker. Frank Conniff, an early Hillary adopter, went into exile from the show. Pretty soon Jimmy was transforming his show into a Stein platform, airing an entire speech on his show, asking his listeners to vote for this “greater good,”and taking to the airwaves making a last-minute appeal for her on KPFK the day before the election. He himself began incorporating Stein’s false equivalencies between Trump and Clinton into his increasingly unfunny rhetoric.
About this time, TJDS sent me an email saying they rejected my donation. Turns out my credit card had expired, and Paypal stopped my recurring payment. Pretty soon, I heard back from TJDS, asking me to re-up my membership. I sent them this response instead:
Dear Team Jimmy,
[complaints about quality deficits of premium podcast removed]