Although Air America has yet to provide show archives, archives of The O'Franken Factor, The Majority Report, and Unfiltered are available at the unofficial
AirAmericaPlace.com, while Randi Rhodes archives are available at
RandiRhodesArchives.com.
There's been a controversy lately that conservatives have been eager to foment about how Air America is supposedly anti-minority. For evidence, people have pointed to Air America's partnership with Inner-City Broadcasting, as well as to the minority status of Air America's lineup. I may write about Air America's ICBC relationship later, but today I thought I'd take a look at Air America's minority makeup, and compare that with the general population and with the top 20 talk show hosts in America. Here's what I found:
| General Population (%)
| | Talk Radio Top 20 (%)
| | | Air America (%)
[F]emale | 50.9 | 20.0 | 50.0
[B]lack | 12.3 | 0.0 | 18.8
[L]atino | 12.5 | 0.0 | 6.3
[A]sian | 3.6 | 0.0 | 0.0
[G]ay | ? | 0.0 | 6.3
[J]ewish | 1.8 | 25.0 | 31.3
Methodology, breakdowns:
GENERAL POPULATION FIGURES: All general population figures on sex, race and ethnicity are based on
Census 2000 figures.
GAY FIGURES: No one knows how many LGBT people there are in America. Figures vary widely, the methodologies of most surveys have been poor, and there's always the factor of gays who aren't willing to admit their sexuality to a pollster. There's even a considerable population of men who have sex with men but do not consider themselves "gay," largely in minority communities. Among Air America hosts and the talk radio top 20, only those who identify as gay were counted. For example, Michael Savage is not counted as gay, even though romantic letters signed by him to openly gay poet Allen Ginsburg are publicly available among Ginsberg's collected papers at Stanford University.
JEWISH FIGURES: The US Census doesn't measure Americans' theologies, but the 2000-01 National Jewish Population Survey estimates there are 5.2 million Jewish people in America. That amounts to 1.8 percent out of 281.4 million Americans from the 2000 census. Among Air America hosts and the talk radio top 20, anyone who a Google search determined is Jewish was counted.
If you have additions or corrections, please make a comment.
AIR AMERICA
Al Franken [J]
Katherine Lanpher [F]
Janeane Garofalo [F]
Sam Seder [J]
Randi Rhodes [F,J]
Lizz Winstead [F]
Chuck D [B]
Rachel Maddow [F,G]
Mark Riley [B]
Sue Ellicott [F]
Marc Maron [J]
Marty Kaplan [J]
Kyle Jason
Davey D [B]
Martha Diaz [F,L]
Laura Flanders [F]
TALK RADIO TOP 20 (Spring 2002)
Rush Limbaugh [J]
Sean Hannity
Dr. Laura Schlessinger [F,J]
Howard Stern [J]
Michael Savage [J]
Art Bell [J]
Jim Bohannon
Dr. Joy Browne [F]
Don Imus
Neal Boortz
Ken Dolan
Daria Dolan [F]
Clark Howard
Mike Gallagher
G. Gordon Liddy
Glenn Beck
Kim Komando [F]
Jim Rome
Doug Stephan
Bruce Williams
A few points against Air America are that all black and Latino hosts are on "ensemble" shows of three or four hosts, and that a large portion of these hosts are on one late-night Saturday show. One point in favor of the top 20 talk radio hosts is that Robin Quivers, a black female, is the primary foil on The Howard Stern Show, but she doesn't get anywhere near equal billing with Stern.
