Last nail goes in

Way back in only the second post of this blog, I complained about the local Air America station and their insistence on carrying local programming in lieu of Randi Rhodes, who I adore.

Welp, nobody's listening to the Rhodes on AA now.

Randi Rhodes, the radio talk show host who was suspended last week from Air America after going on an obscenity-laced tirade against Hillary Clinton and one of her prominent supporters, has resigned.

Mark Green, president of Air America Media, told FOXNews.com that Rhodes terminated her contract Wednesday after she refused to apologize on air for her remarks.

“We sought an apology, because of what she had said…like Imus, like David Shuster,” Green said. “She refused and instead last night informed us she was terminating her contract with Air America, which she has the option to do.”

Well, I should have talked about it at the time, which I regret not doing, but I'm not sure what the hell motivated Air America to suspend her in the first place.

For one, Imus and Shuster made their comments in the contest of their respective programs, while Rhodes made hers in the context of a stand-up performance at a public though limited-audience event, though as you'll notice the stories published on the FAUX news site don't make that distinction clear (and in fact make it out to be something she said on-air!).

In a statement issued on the liberal radio network’s Web site, Air America chairman Charlie Kireker said that kind of salty talk has no place in the political dialogue.

Why not? These days it's practically fscking patriotic. (Lil' linux humor there, forgive me. :)

And as far as the "mysogynistic" part, well, sure, that's just beyond the pale in respectable political discourse.

As Stranger puts it well over at Blah3.com:

And with that, Air America has dismissed the last interesting bit of on-air talent from the original lineup they went on the air with, as well as late additions and replacements for shows that didn't survive early on.

Randi? Gone. Seder/Garafalo? Gone. Franken? Gone. Young Turks? Gone. Morning Sedition? Gone. Mike Malloy? Gone.

You get the idea. In the name of staying straight down the center, AAR has eviscerated itself. Expect plenty of non-threatening, uncontroversial radio like Lionel. I'd be extremely surprised if the lone bright spot left on the lineup, Rachel Maddow, sticks around much longer.

[snip]

But this probably is the beginning of the end for Air America. With few compelling hosts and what looks like a recitence to rock the corporatist/mainstream boat, they'll be a weak-tea version of NPR in short order.

Cripes, definitely. (And as far as NPR goes I've GOT to do a post one of these days on the yell-at-the-radio festival of centrist shallowness that is "On Point". Eeeeeyurgh.)