Air America is busy promoting itself ahead of its March 31 launch, giving reporters previews of its content...
This week's
Newsweek gives us a glimpse into Al Franken's show. From a rehearsal session:
At one point, Franken gleefully cues up an audio clip of Donald Rumsfeld denying that Bush officials had ever said Saddam was an immediate threat--followed by his sputtering response when a reporter read him a transcript of the Defense secretary saying just that. "Did I say 'immediate threat'?" Franken asks later, slipping into his mock Rumsfeld voice. "Sure I did. Was I lying? Maybe, you tell me." Even the name of his show is a jab at Fox's Bill O'Reilly, whose "O'Reilly Factor" tops the cable ratings. One minute, Franken's doing a dead-on impression of Limbaugh reading an "ad" for "Delicious Beef-Fed Beef." The next, he might launch into one of his characters, like Liam the Loose-Boweled Leprechaun (don't ask), who is, depending on your stomach, either achingly funny or stunningly juvenile.
...And Howard Kurtz provided some insights into Air America's overall composition in Sunday's Washington Post:
Kicking Kerry has become a daily preoccupation on talk radio [...] . [...] Can a fledgling network compete [...] ? [...] A promotional tape suggests that anti-Bush animus is a driving force.
Franken: "I know the enemy."
Garofalo: "If you're going to steal an election, don't you think you should be dazzling?"
Florida radio host Randi Rhodes: "This guy spends money like a woman in Hermes with her husband's credit card."
["Daily Show" co-creator Lizz] Winstead: "Don't we really have to blame Peter Ueberroth for this whole mess? If he had just made Bush baseball commissioner, we would all be living a little bit easier. But he realized nobody wants to screw up baseball."
Chuck D: "A thug is somebody who can actually create a crime or murder or whatever and get away with it. I think in this country thug life starts from the top."
The programs, which will take listener calls, won't be entirely off the cuff. Winstead is overseeing a staff of 11 comedy writers who are churning out produced bits for all the shows. There will be fake commercials and lighthearted travelogues for each state. Winstead is planning a routine called "Waking Robert Reich," where she calls the former labor secretary at 3 a.m. and asks him a question. She's invented a grizzled reporter named Stet Pressman -- a cross between Jimmy Breslin and Howard Cosell -- who's always getting the story wrong.