My Aisling

Just gotta get this out ...

Being conservative is like being the only adult in a room full of kids. Liberals run around with such lack of perspective, screaming their heads off ... just like children.

Proof? You raise several million dollars to start a radio network to air your views. You have been concerned that the other side has a de facto monopoly.

Your centerpiece is a comedian with political views. Strike one.

He has zero radio experience (Sean and Rush had many years in before being syndicated - it's ironic that the phrase "cutting your teeth" is apt). Strike two.

You don't limit your overhead or enhance your goodwill by offering a menu from which stations could choose; you compel them to take you entire day's offerings - from 600AM to 1100PM. Strike three.

You change your mind about the policy in strike three. You do so inconsistently so that one station gets nothing to air on your first broadcast day but another station does. You come across as unprofessional and disorganized. Stations think you are a bunch of amateurs. Strike four.

You focus on small stations that have limited access and very little broadcast power. You ignore that these niche stations are actually filling a community role and don't need you to help them. The result is an African-American station in NYC has its on-air personality pool queuing in the unemployment office. Strike five.

Your major talent can't help himself - he has never been original, only reactive. As a result, he names his show after a television show that expresses conservative views. The joke, as all jokes, will wear thin and the name will change. Of course, this presumes the show survives. Either way, your major talent loses face. Strike six.

Your second major talent is also a comedian. She is known primarily for her foul mouth. This alienates a large segment of your potential audience. Strike seven.

First impressions are lasting impressions. Look at the titles in this Google News search. I searched on "Air America" - no adjectives or adverbs or modifiers of any kind. The hits? Air America Radio is a Joke (#1); Black community turned off Air America (#2); Franken's Air America not Flying Here (#3); Join Our Air America Listening Room! (#5) (sounds ok, then you look at the url morons.org); Nader Blasts "Hot Air America" (#6). Even Nader despises you? You're in trouble, pal. Strikes eight through twelve.

To paraphrase Pat Buchanan - that great sucking sound you hear is a radio network on life support.

Twelve strikes? Yes, for those of you my age (45), perhaps you recall when we were kids, our baseball leagues played by the rules - three outs and you're done. Then about the time the next group of kiddies came (mid-1970s) the folks thought that the rule was too tough, some kids had their feelings hurt when they didn't get to bat. So they willfully violated a sacred rule of baseball and created a 4th out. (They later had to created yet another rule cutting off an inning when 7 sevens runs were scored.) After the killing of Bobby Kennedy, I think that changing the rules of youth baseball may be the single most defining moment when society changed from conservative to liberal.