{"id":61,"date":"2006-11-13T05:10:13","date_gmt":"2006-11-13T11:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php\/2006\/11\/13\/al-franken-kingmaker\/"},"modified":"2006-11-13T06:02:51","modified_gmt":"2006-11-13T12:02:51","slug":"al-franken-kingmaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=61","title":{"rendered":"Al Franken: Kingmaker!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m told that there’s a certain sect of Zuni tribesmen in the American southwest whose shamen pray every morning for the sun to rise. Since the sun rises every morning, they say, it must be working.<\/p>\n

In a more-or-less unrelated matter, did you know Bill Press had a radio talk show?<\/p>\n

Me either. But according to Brian Maloney, Press believes he – and Al Franken, and Fast Eddie Schultz – are the real<\/em> impetus behind the electoral turnaround for the Dems:<\/a> and for pretty much the same reasons as the Zuni shamen believe it:<\/p>\n

But it also wouldn’t have happened – without progressive talk radio.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

Think about it.<\/p>\n

Two years, there was no progressive talk – It was all right-wing – and we lost our ass.<\/p>\n

This year, there is progressive talk – and we won big time.<\/p>\n

So shows like this really can make a difference.<\/span> Not just me, of course. But Ed Schultz and Stephanie Miller, Al Franken and Randi Rhodes, Alex Bennett and all the rest.<\/span><\/p>\n

And you, the listeners.<\/p>\n

By speaking truth to power, every day – we helped get American back on track.<\/p>\n

Be proud of what we accomplished in 2006.<\/p>\n

And now – On to 2008!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Brian Maloney notes the absurdity of the claim:<\/p>\n

<\/strong>Sure, Bill – your tiny ratings and small number of affiliates made all the difference in the world! It couldn’t have been that the Republican Party blew it, right?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Liberal talk radio is straining to justify its existence, granted – but given liberal talk’s anemic ratings (only in rare markets does the entire <\/em>libtalk genre get out of the one-point cellar), to claim that libtalk had any impact at all is comical.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m told that there’s a certain sect of Zuni tribesmen in the American southwest whose shamen pray every morning for the sun to rise. Since the sun rises every morning, they say, it must be working. In a more-or-less unrelated matter, did you know Bill Press had a radio talk show? Me either. But according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}