Radio For Idiots
Hinderaker reports on his appearance on FrankenNet today. "I can say without hesitation that it was the stupidest interview I have ever been involved in," says Rocket Man, and he's been involved in some very stupid radio.
To be fair, though, this was only the third-stupidest bit of radio I've heard; Nick Coleman's fill-in for Wild Wendy topped the list, while every other Wild Wendy show comes in second. Every day. In perpetuity. (To be fair, I've heard her show four times. To be fairer, it was probably two too many).
Rocket Man followed Nick Coleman, apparently. Money quote:
Coleman triumphantly claimed to have caught TCF chairman Bill Cooper in a lie; Cooper was quoted as saying that he didn't even know about Power Line "until the Time article." But Coleman quoted from an article in the Grand Forks, North Dakota newspaper which predated Coleman's column, in which the Trunk said that Cooper "has been very supportive" of his work. Franken seemed to think this was a good point. What neither Coleman nor Franken understood, however, is that there have been two Time articles about us. The first one was in September, after the Dan Rather episode, when we were on the magazine's cover. It was the first Time article that alerted Mr. Cooper to the existence of this site.
Coleman really needs to be more careful about throwing around these careless accusations.
Cue dramatic theme.
If Nick Coleman were a cub reporter making these kinds of boneheaded errors - and he's made a long string of them, just in re the Powerline story - he'd have been looking for a job with the Sun-Sailor chain quite a while ago.
Brian "Saint Paul" Ward has observations as well.
Posted by Mitch at
January 28, 2005 06:52 PM
| TrackBack
I hate to say that's what you get for sitting down with the "smartest kid in the class",at least in his mind.His humor is so painfully forced and being glib was funny the first time not the next ten thousand times.That's the new,insecure, midlle-aged Al Franken-unfunny,unnatural and soon to be unemployed as the air goes out of Air America.Here comes a US Senate bid in Minnesota.I can feel it.
Posted by: Ed Viehman at January 28, 2005 04:14 PMThe class clown vs. the debate champ.
It didn't work in high school, it doesn't work today.
Posted by: mitch at January 28, 2005 04:20 PMI downloaded it but couldn't bear to listen to more than one minute of it....that was dreadful! it went right into my recycle bin. I hope Al keeps an eye on the blogosphere tonight. he's about to be ripped a new one!
Posted by: debbie at January 28, 2005 04:57 PMOh. My. God. I listened to the audio. Coleman speaks about as bad as he writes, and I didn't think that was even remotely possible.
I particularly was amused by his near-dismissive sneer when he called the Powerline guys BANKERS and LAWYERS. It was like he was talking about leprosy. What a fool.
And Franken's about as funny as foot fungus.
Posted by: Ryan at January 28, 2005 05:05 PMOnly the 3rd stupidest, after Nick Coleman and Wendy Wilde?
Have you forgotten Tury Ryder?
Posted by: Shawn Sarazin at January 28, 2005 10:13 PMFranken's Hindrocket interview was the aural equivalent of swimming through Jell-O. But Nick Coleman impressed me; while he was as idiocy-laden as his host, he didn't sound nearly as old and as drunk as I had expected.
Posted by: Dave in Pgh. at January 29, 2005 12:33 PMShawn, you rascal. Yes, I had forgotten Turi Ryder - until you brought her up.
Some things are better left unmentioned.
Posted by: jdm at January 29, 2005 04:41 PMShawn,
The big difference between Ryder - she was irritating, but a competent broadaster. A woman who could carry off a trite and painful interview in a professional, if venal, manner.
Franken, OTOH, was completely unprepared; it seemed when talking with Hinderaker he was pre-reading his material live on the air.
Posted by: mitch at January 29, 2005 05:03 PMHere's what I think happened:
Al Franken had some some trick question planned for Hinderaker (a few weeks ago Franken had Rich Lowry on the show, and confronted him with an embarassing, but fifty year old NR article).
However, sometime just before the segment. Al Franken went to the Powerline page and found the Big Trunks's "A Former Fan's Notes". Franken was so incenced that someone found is work less than brilliant, he could think of nothing else.
It seemed that Franken was pleading for Hindrocket to take back Trunk's words, and remove this blemish on his comic glory. He reminded me of the aging Nora Desmond, I think
Posted by: rick at January 29, 2005 10:12 PMHinderaker tends to sound like Mr. Haney of Green Acres when he gets excited (which is often). Pat Buttram RIP.
Posted by: Simon Isley at January 30, 2005 12:05 AM