Air America

Al Franken has a new book coming out soon. In a "comedy" skit for a promotional video at Amazon.com (scroll down a bit), Al Franken knees a self-described "right-wing jerk" in the groin. As the man keels over in pain, Franken then picks up a nearby stool and strikes the man with it. The man falls to the ground. A "fan" of Franken (played by Franken producer Ben Wikler, if I'm not mistaken) then smashes the man over the head with a bottle.

Hmmm ... Violence against those with whom you disagree?

Question: Would a Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly ever get away with a publicity video like this without an "outrage" in the liberal media? (Not that they would ever produce anything similar to this, but to pose the question ...)

When Media Matters took out of context a statement Bill Bennett made on his radio show, the mainstream media were more than willing to comply and show outrage over his remarks.

But another radio host made comments even more explosive, and even elicited a response from the Jewish Anti-Defamation League.

NewsBusters contributor Dave Pierre noted that on Sept. 21, Air America host Randi Rhodes compared the evacuation of refugees in New Orleans to the Nazi transportation of Jews to concentration camps.

A caller was troubled that when they bused people out of the Superdome, they "wouldn't tell them where they were going." Rhodes responded that it "reminds me of a little visit I made to the Holocaust Museum, and I saw these cattle cars." She added, "So, what are you supposed to do? Just do a 'faith-based evacuation'? 'I'm sure he wouldn't send me to Auschwitz,'" Rhodes said, mimicking a New Orleans resident.

Readers of a September 22, 2005, Newsbusters story, posted by this writer, may be pleased to see that the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has written a letter to Air America radio host Randi Rhodes. The letter, posted publically at the ADL web site, was in response to inflammatory remarks by Rhodes on her September 21, 2005, show, in which she made an "on-air comparison between the evacuation of victims of hurricane Katrina and the deportation of Jews to Auschwitz during World War II." The ADL says that her "analogy comparing rescue operations -- as mismanaged as they may have been -- to Auschwitz deportations is a perversion of morality and history." Founded in 1913, the ADL is an organization committed to "combating anti-Semitism and bigotry of all kinds."

The ADL's letter closes with the following: