Brave New Films has set up a petition to let Air America know that we want Sam Seder to have a 5 day per week show. Go HERE and sign. Then write to pcollins@airamerica.com and let him know what you think about the lineup, the celebrity guest hosts, and what this country needs as far as the liberal voice goes.
I'm not down on Richard Belzer, who is filling in from 3-6 PM this week in Randi Rhodes sold slot, but the problem with him is alot like the problem with Jerry Springer or Lionel; there is a lack of real reporting and deep knowledge of the issues there. They may be able to get guests or liberal callers, but they don't stretch our awareness of the issues much past what is on the normal news or in the paper. If you want a talker who is just there to lull you from a left sided viewpoint, then I can understand liking these guys. But of you want to be challenged, to think, to find out more about the surface story, and to find out what you can do about it, then Sam Seder is better for the network.
When the Green brothers took over Air America and put Lionel in the morning slot that had previously been Sam's, there was talk that the feeling was that Sam was too substantive and that there was a desire for...er...less substance in the morning. Now, already, Morning Sedition had proven that wrong as the numbers were good and climbing when the plug was pulled on that for no other reason than that one person didn't like it. And I would also say that the fact that there are a range of news programs in morning drive time disproves that as well. I think that its completely disrespectful to the audience to say that they should have less substance in that time slot. I suppose that a morning zoo with content would be nice...but one would have to rebuild that from the ashes of bad management decisions.
The thing is, that where maybe Randi Rhodes was maybe too wild for the new owners, and not enough of a Hillary soldier, (and good luck trying to find anyone who is anymore,)or they didn't like her contract, or whatever it was, to replace her with Richard Belzer who is a bit of a snooze, but might be fine in a night slot, is gonna alienate any listeners who haven't followed Randi but who tune in for a peppy afternoon show with a little anger and energy. I just cant imagine how the casting is done over there in the bowels of AAR, but the management of said casting and the way that the very talented Sam Seder has been treated, is deplorable if one wants to go for continuity and keep the audience that they have.
And in a nod to the brilliance of the late great Morning Sedition, Belzer had a Kent Jones character call in. Unless management is renewing Kent's contract, I find it in pretty strange taste...though I am not in that loop at all, so who knows what goes on...but the thing is, Belzer is not a sketch comedian of the sort that played those sketches originally. So the comparison is brutal, and the sketch didn't make alot of sense...and as much as Belzer is held in high regard in the liberal community, the comedy community, and the NYC community, he just didn't hit it right, leaving those of us who knew the origins of that sketch shaking our heads, and those who didn't wondering what the fuck that was. There is a need for more of the funny on AAR, but digging this stuff out of the vault and trying to recreate it is not the way to go. That's the recycled funny and it doesn't work unless the originals are called in to reunite with these characters; to do it right, you've got to build it new from the ground up, and with some very talented people who have the time to work together so its not so strange and stilted.
I suppose I'm pretty well finished with AAR. I wrote a pretty good second letter to Phillipe Collins, and I signed the petition....I don't know how much I can even care anymore...and as long as Mark Green is in on these decisions, and I keep seeing his face on Hardball and the like, I get an icky, sticky, smarmy feeling about the whole thing. The edgy coolness is all gone now...you only have to look at Green and know his history in NYC to hear that bell toll. So, I'm expecting the worst, and Ill be happily surprised if they do anything that makes sense. But we are not in an age of sense, and I can see that there is gonna be a time soon where all of the media content out there is going to be cobbled together by subscription, and delivered by WiFi (wait...get this...I ordered an 80 gig Zune!...more on that as it develops.)I really hope that Sam is offered a good, 5 day per week slot, with some job security, but I also know that he is so talented and so interested in the media of the future that not being saddled with AAR could be a good thing for him too. So, in the long view its exciting to see what he might do...its just that in the short term its going to be a real bummer not to have him navigating the decline and fall of the Bush empire, and the election and cleanup of whatever comes next. This is a season that I would hate to go through without his voice and point of view out there with me.
c/p RIPCoco
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