Speaking truth to power is a bad thing.

I thought journalists were done with the Air-America-is-a-good-idea-but-no-one-likes-liberal-talk-radio pieces. Nicholas von Hoffman's article in The Nation had some real gems:

It remains to be seen if the cerebral Franken, with his cerebral guests ambling cerebrally up the high road, will make it in the long run. Air America has a peppery veteran performer in Randi Rhodes, who noncerebrally drove cerebral interview guest Ralph Nader out of the studio with a high-decibel, high-speed verbal barrage against his candidacy. I was lucky enough to tune in on Garofalo one day when she was discoursing on "ass babies." Ass babies are infants conceived by buttfucking young women who will do anything of a sexual nature except have their hymens broken by a marauding penis before marriage to, presumably, a person of another gender. There's another question. You and I may be tolerant, fully nuanced elitists who have been known to pop a horny-goat-weed pill from time to time, but coupled with Springer's reputation and Garofalo's mouth, is there a danger that Air America may be a hit among a white-boy, 14-to-24 demographic and Smut America to political fence sitters in Ohio, Washington and New Mexico? No one can say how large the ass-baby vote is, but on the face of things it does not seem probable that it will elect many Democratic senators. Besides, Jon Stewart and The Daily Show already do what they want to do better.

...and to spare you the entire article, here's the end:

Progressive talk-radio has to be for something. You can't live off a straight diet of political paranoia. Liberalism has to have its thrilling moments, its heroes. It has to have a platform, a positive agenda, a program. But the invention of same is not the job of a small group of overwrought men and women leaning into microphones. When liberalism and liberals do find their platform, their new, progressive talkers will surely broadcast it. And if all will not be good, it will be better than it has been.

Had he chosen to thoroughly research his work, Mr. von Hoffman would have known that Randi Rhodes didn't drive Nader out of the studio. He was on the phone. He hung up on her. Details, details. Also, Janeane Garofalo is a comedian, and though I didn't hear the ass-babies bit, I will say that reading about it was hi-la-rious. Lighten up. Take a horny goat weed pill (what the fuck?) or something. The end really bothered me. Like it or not, Air America has established itself as a new liberal institution. The argument that liberals/progressives are suffereing from political paranoia, and that they can't find their platform is sooooooooooo Election '04.

I need some sleep.

Happy 1st Birthday, Media Matters!