And Don't Even Get Her Started on the War (NYT on Janeane Garofalo) [View All]

[struggle4progress]

<snip> For the past year - March 31 marks its first anniversary - the fledgling liberal network called Air America Radio has been trying to counter the conservative dominance of talk radio, and Ms. Garofalo and Mr. Seder have shared its evening time slot. In the process, Ms. Garofalo has become a genuine radio personality: not one with the clout and reach of a Rush Limbaugh, but one who seems less a comedian-with-a-cause and more a committed stalwart, happy to spend the rest of her evenings slinging insults at the powers that be. <snip>

But she was enough of a name that the filmmaker Robert Greenwald, organizing a group called Artists United to Win Without War, sought her support in late 2002. "She was willing to be one of the earliest and most articulate voices" opposing the administration's policies, Mr. Greenwald said. "Every time I'd call and ask her to do something, whether it was a small radio station in Kansas or a rabid right-wing talk show, she didn't hesitate. She was totally fearless." <snip>

Yet animosity seems practically a prerequisite for talk-radio success, and Ms. Garofalo slings it with the best of them. Reaching out to find common ground with political opponents? Building bridges? "That's over," she declared. "I don't have any desire to build a bridge with an antigay evangelist who supports war and the death penalty and actually believes the tsunami was God's retribution. ... The bridge has been blown up." <snip>

With a recent capital infusion, Air America is solvent and apparently stable. It broadcasts on 51 affiliates nationwide, including stations in 15 of the top 20 markets, among them Los Angeles and draws more than 2 million listeners who tune in at least 15 minutes a week, the latest Arbitron ratings show. In New York, where it's heard on WLIB-AM, (1190), its ratings trail the talk-radio giant WABC, home of Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, but already top WOR, the other major talk station. And it attracts a considerably younger and more ethnically diverse audience than either. <snip>

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/arts/27span.html?pagewanted=2