Pardon my naiveté, but I was unaware that the venom, nastiness, and malice spewed so rampantly and callously on Air America.
On Air America's Mike Malloy show on Friday night, September 2, 2005 (link to entire show audio (3 hrs.)), Malloy said this about our First Lady, Laura Bush (audiotape on file) (emphasis mine):
"A murderer herself. Somebody getting killed, one of her former boyfriends, in a drunken stupor, being behind the wheel of a car ... So here's Laura Bush, another killer. This Bush family. In order to get in the Bush family, it's like the way it used to be in order to get into certain gangs in Chicago. You had to kill somebody. And once you killed somebody, you're part of the gang. Well, Laura, Laura Bush is apparently that way. She murdered somebody in a car wreck, so she's in the gang. She's part of the gang."
In 1973, Laura Bush was in fact involved in a horrible accident in which the car she was driving caused the death of a friend. But there is zero evidence that any alcohol was involved. This snopes.com piece and this USA Today article are about the incident.
Malloy's remarks are just plain awful. But it should come as no surprise considering what he had said earlier in the show about the Bush family and the Bush administration:
"Thousands of examples of human suffering and tragedy [in the aftermath of Katrina] ... It was deliberate. I swear to Christ, it was deliberate ..."
"This Bush crime family is about theft and greed and fraud and lies and war and death and posturing. They are beyond evil."
"You want thugs and punks and liars and killers? Look at the Bush crime family."
"I think the Bush crime family wanted people to die. They wanted these horrible images of dying brown (?) people; and riots, so they could get a few of those started, and some fires maybe ... Let's throw in some rape. How about a little cannibalism."
"I hope you people who listen to this program around the world on the internet, I hope you will call your local newspapers, I hope you will call your government agencies, I wish you would implore your governments to break off diplomatic relations with the United States or send an army over here to liberate us. We are under the control of devils and demons and dictators."
I know I've posted a lot, but, I swear, this is the heavily edited version. There was lots more rancor that I've edited out. (My wife said to me, "They'll never read all that.") What was spewing from this man's mouth over three hours was just ugly. And, again, this was just one show.
He also said this about Shepard Smith, the Fox News host:
"[Smith] is having an absolute meltdown. This is what happens to these people who sell their souls to the devil."
And this about Sean Hannity:
"And Sean ... I know you listen, you listen to the first hours of the program every night, I know you do, you son of a bitch, I know you do. Shame on you ... You little rat weasel ... Let me tell you something, Sean. You make me ashamed to be a male, you make me ashamed to be white, you make me ashamed to be in the radio business, you make me ashamed to be an American. You pig. You little pig."
Last week, I posted this item about AAR's Randi Rhodes (Rhodes: Bush "takes a lot of joy about losing people"). A couple months ago, on TheMediaReport.com, I posted an item about an awful thing that Air America's Sam Seder had said. Co-hosting the July 7, 2005, episode of The Majority Report show with Janeane Garofalo, Seder introduced an audio clip of Fox host Brit Hume by saying this:
"Let's go to Brit Hume, the horrible scumbag, who many people consider somewhat responsible for the fact that his son committed suicide."
Not being a regular listener of Air America, I thought comments like these were just aberrations. I mistakenly thought that Air America was simply about "giving the other side" and providing a counterpoint to conservative talk radio. After hearing Malloy's show, I've come to realize that I was wrong. It's nothing like that at all.
Air America is garbage.
Let's hope the money runs out soon.
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