You know, it’s bloody weird to sit here behind this desk on this beautiful island in this great corner of the earth and watch the goings on down south. Here in Montreal, like much of the country, the headlines are rife with Liberal scandals, hockey schedules, that lovely Khadr family, and the suddenly unsilent Joe Clark spouting off about Stephen Harper.
Clark dumped on Stephen real nice this past week, urging Canadians to vote for the Liberals rather than the revamped Conservatives, because of the latter’s "secret" agenda. Above all, the visuals are funny: Clark, whose slate-grey horn rims, fabulous ties and well-pruned eyebrows make him look more suave hustler than politician, trash-talking Harper, the only man able to come off, at once, as an annoying know-it-all and disgruntled schoolyard bully whenever he opens his mouth.
But as funny as it is, this tiny little piss-up is the closest thing we’ve had to an ideological battle in this country in a long, long time. Remove their packaging, and you’ll see that it’s a fiscal conservative against his social conservative equivalent, two distinct visions going toe-to-toe. If the packaging were a little better (or, at least, a little less guffaw-inducing), it could be the stuff of soap operas and political thrillers. As it stands, though, it’s a humorous distraction.
This, friends, isn’t at all bad. It means (most) Canadians are settled, as far as ideological issues are concerned, and can stand to laugh at the messengers for a little while. Compare that to what is going on in the States, and you’ll see we have it pretty good.
Last week, one million people took to the streets in Washington in a raucous celebration/protest over abortion. It was a lively affair, and for good reason – despite being enshrined by the Supreme Court in 1973, the right to abortion has been in peril in that country ever since, through a string of both Republican and Democratic presidents. To this day, over thirty years after Roe vs. Wade, that country has yet to get a fix on one of the most important debates in civilized society. For all its bluster, the most powerful nation on earth is utterly insecure over the issue, and there’s no end in sight.
Like abortion, gay marriage isn’t a political issue in the States. Were it so, no one would invoke God, Sodom and Gomorrah and the end of civilization while debating the pros and cons of letting Adam and Steve get hitched. Ditto guns. Ditto drugs. Ditto war. Ditto death penalty.
It’s gotten to the point where the left feels that in order to fight and win the next election, never mind whatever ideological battle is popping up at any given moment, it has to morph into that overheated, soundbite-friendly, name-calling ogre known colloquially as talk radio. Air America has billed itself the left’s answer to the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, giving American lefties a set of teeth and a stomach full of bile. It the kind of thing you have to do, apparently, to get yourself heard in these entrenched, thoroughly divided times in America.
We here at First Watch have listened to Air America, so you don’t have to. The verdict? Bizarre. Let’s start with the name. Why radio executives would name their progressive radio network after a Vietnam-era, CIA-sponsored heroin ring is either incredibly dumb, or smart in its realization that your typical consumer of talk radio, left or right, won’t care anyway.
The hosts, meanwhile, are mostly non-radio types, and it shows. There is Chuck D, who breaks my heart. The man behind Fear of a Black Planet and It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, two of the best albums ever recorded, fumbles around, completely out of his depth. The marquee show, the O’Franken Factor, though, is slightly more cohesive than Chuck’s Unfiltered, but the hosts have yet to get the joke. Rush Limbaugh is good at what he does because he spurts enflamed rhetoric with the gumption and authority of a lesser Greek god. He is able to do so partly because he’s a good radio man, but mostly because he knows he is preaching to the converted.
Al Franken, though, doesn’t seem to understand this. He recently spent three hours dissecting Rush with a glee that bordered on the clinical. He brings in acres of facts, making his show sound a little like a left-wing Rush Redux, mixed with a thick dose of National Public Radio.
What he doesn’t do is enflame – which is what you need to do on American talk radio. Franken sounds like he’s trying to recruit conservatives, an impossible task. If long-festering debates about abortion, guns and God are any indication, he should be instead talking to the well entrenched. It’s the American way.
OOO
Did he or didn’t he? So did former councillor Anthony Housefather compare Côte-Saint-Luc’s demerger plight with that of Israel? Yes. No. Well, maybe. In a merged city, living in Côte-Saint-Luc and Hampstead would be like being "engulfed in a large Palestine," as he was quoted in Le Devoir. The quote was found buried deep in a recent Suburban story, picked up by the mainstream press this week and quoted directly by Le Devoir’s Antoine Robitaille, who heard the tape. Housefather, who says his statement was taken out of context, nonetheless says he wishes he hadn’t made the analogy. "It was in the heat of the debate," he told me Tuesday. "I apologize. It was a silly analogy. I shouldn’t have made it."
He’s right.
6 comments
Well, that a bloated puff of nothing. Thanks for the inane prattle, anyways.
So to sum up that overly long and completely pointless article, what you’re saying is “Thank God we’re not Americans”. Wow, came up with that one all by yourselves, eh? What a groudbreaking revelation. Hark, I see the heavens part and am struck speechless by this column! My soul is now forever cleansed for I have beheld the truth as shown to me by the HOUR’s First Watch column! I must now go forth and spread the holy word…
Ugh!
We could talk about the government’s proposed ‘fat tax’ or do a follow-up story to any of the more important and intriguing issues surrounding us today but NO, let’s yammer on endlessly about something we already know about.
Hey, guess what? Canada and Canadians have always and will always be better than them there Ol’ Glory salutin’ yahoos to the South of us in any multitude of ways. This isn’t national pride talking, it’s just a stone cold fact. Yes, the U.S. of A. is THE stronger and more strident forerunner in all of the obvious categories but we aren’t no slouches ourselves. We have a lot to be proud about. Ok, maybe not our entertainment industry as a whole and our constitution is a dodgy nightmare every few years but besides that, I am proud to NOT be born with Ol’ Glory running through my veins.
Anyways, enough with that…on with the show.
According to Martin Patriquin “We here at First Watch have listened to Air America, so you don’t have to.”
Please, don’t do us any favors. If we ALREADY don’t listen to it (heck, I have enough trouble listening to the crap that floats on our airwaves…) what makes you think we want to hear from you why we shouldn’t? Think, people…why?
By the way, as to former councillor Anthony Housefather comparing Côte-Saint-Luc’s demerger plight with that of Israel…Who. The. Hell. Cares.
Seriously, this is worthy news for reactionary busybodies ONLY.
Must really be nice to hear yourself talk, even if it is in print format.
First Watch has put out some astounding puff pieces in the past but this one is especially daft. Was attacking Air America the point? Was the fact that we’re blessedly not Americans the point? Really, I’d love to know because it seems to me that nothing in the entire article was worth my time.
Was pointing out the obvious good journalism? Was it even interesting journalism? I don’t know. I’m not a journalist but I am a reader with a brain and this wasted ink is just insulting and a waste of my time.
Was the point of this week’s First Watch to illustrate that perceivably intelligent people in the public eye do say stupid things regardless of geographical location, OR am I just simplifying it? What was your point? I’m not sure that there is any news value to past news. Who really cares what these insignificants think, say or do. We the people could care less.
Well, as inexperienced and strident as the Air Americanos are, I get my liberalism from the source: Waylon Smithers. Or more commonly known as ‘Le Show’ by the great Harry Shearer. It also now happens to be free at http://audible.com/leshow or http://www.harryshearer.com/ if you prefer. If promoting commercial interests, free that they may be, is counter-culter to this forum, I apologize with hopes of making the apology of the week. Fat chance.
If we as Canadians are dull and boring compared to the Americans then I as a Canadian am proud to be a Canadian.Jean Chretien with all his faults is a giant compared to the likes of George W. Bush.This moron is whittling away at the hard earned rights of women to a safe and legal abortion.He lied to the world that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.None were ever found and none will be found.
The less we have to do with the Americans the better off we are.What did Pierre Trudeau once say about the Americans?When you sleep with an elephant he is bound to turn over!
Because Joe Clark’s commentary is closely aligned to Air America how exactly?
Frankly (Frankenly?) I am a huge fan of Chuck D. and Al Franken, and think that although they have started with rust that eventually they will grow into capable radio commentators. And, as has been mentioned by one or two other responders, compared to the utter crap that rules Montreal radio, if I’m going to listen to radio at all (and that is a rare occasion) it might as well be to what Chuck D. has to say – which is more often than not going to be interesting, whether he fumbles through it or smoothes his parlay over.
It seems that a) Mr. Patriquin ran out of ideas this week or b) Mr. Patriquin hit the deadline too quickly and didn’t have time to edit his article properly, because there is simply no apparent connection or transition between his points. Let’s get back to the regular (and usually interesting) First Watch programming, shall we?