About time

that liberals fought back.

America's liberals to 'bash Bush' with talk-radio network By Rupert Cornwell in Washington 13 March 2004 After a decade of battering from the right on the airwaves, America's liberals will finally have their first ever talk radio network later this month, featuring an array of celebrated and less celebrated Bush-bashers, spearheaded by the comedian Al Franken. Air America Radio, owned by Progress Media, will launch on 31 March on stations covering four of the biggest US media markets, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco. By the end of the year the project's backers plan to be on the air in a dozen markets across the country, offering an ideological alternative to conservatives like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage, who have long had the field to themselves. "We are going to stick it to Bush," Mr Franken said as final plans for the network were announced this week. "Bush is going down in November, and then we're putting it to the rest of the right-wing media." The kingpins of right-wing radio however seem notably unimpressed by the upstart challenger, saying liberal radio will never take root. "It's a very tough job," Mr Savage said. "It sounds easy, you get up there and attack Bush. But it's a phenomenal demand that no one can understand until they try it." Media specialists also point out that the stations where the network will launch have much lower ratings than those of the established right-wing stars - meaning that Air America will have to spend heavily on promotional advertising. But Air America, which says it has $20m of financial backing, insists it is in for the long haul. It promises "compelling and entertaining programming" - in other words that it will take on the conservatives at their own game, avoiding the liberal tendency to nuance and political correctness, qualities which may be worthy but tend not to make riveting radio. The clearest pointer to the intended future direction is Mr Franken himself, comedian, author and perennial baiter of the right. Last year, he was briefly taken to court by Fox News, as Rupert Murdoch's TV network tried to gain an injunction to block distribution of Mr Franken's best-selling book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Fox's objection was that Mr Franken had stolen the network's tagline "Fair and Balanced" to mock it. The move backfired however as Fox became a laughing stock, and sales of the offending volume soared. The suit was quickly dropped. Air America Radio's weekday programming will run from 6am to 11pm with a separate weekend line-up. Mr Franken's flagship show will be called The O'Franken Factor a title deliberately echoing Fox's The O'Reilly Factor, anchored by its top-rated conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly. Among the new network's other big names are Janeane Garofalo, the actress, who will co-host the main evening show, and Chuck D, a hip-hop artist, who will co-anchor a morning programme. The weekend hosts include Robert F Kennedy Jr, environmentalist and nephew of former President John F Kennedy. And for all the predicted difficulties ahead, Air America Radio may yet surprise everyone. The country is politically polarised as rarely before, and the success of anti-Bush literature suggests a market for left of centre views may exist on the airwaves as well. In addition to Mr Franken's diatribe, the New York Times top 10 non-fiction bestsellers included three other books which criticise Mr Bush: Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country; the recollections of former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill; and Kevin Phillips' portrait of the Bush family's wheelings and dealings, American Dynasty.