because she not only had a terrible voice, she was an embarassment, as all she did was yell and peddle bs, not to mention calling Hillary a whore, and having no rationality at all during the primary.

The Left side of the aisle has no 11th amendment.  We bash each other to death over single issues.  Even if a person agrees with you on 90% of the issues, if they don't agree with you on 1, and they are not your candidate of choice, than you must do everything in your power to destroy them.

The GOP has never acted this way and it is a large part as to why they have been so successful since 1968.

I agree with gavoter about party unity, and I'd like to make a similar comment.

Liberal talk radio has not been as successful because it's just not as entertaining. Liberals, by our very nature, don't like the slash-and-burn, black-and-white politics of people like Sean Hannity.

I grew up listening to Hannity, and I know how effective his sort of commentary is. I try to emulate his style to a certain extent, but as a liberal, I just can't bring myself to make the sort of apocalyptic statements he makes on a regular basis.

'Cos their Clearchannel masters probably demanded it....

Rhodes was over-the-top often, but she was passionate and entertaining. I disagree that liberal talk radio is not entertaining.  That is an old right-wing trope.  The truth is, liberal radio  voices are boycotted by big advertisers and locked out of choice frequencies by the corporate media monopoly.

Apart from Rachel, the best liberal radio hosts are not on Air America -- Stephanie Miller and Ed Schultz.  The three of those combine intelligence, values, and serious radio professionalism, and most of AA's other personalities are lacking in at least one of those areas.  (Seder had no idea what he was doing with a microphone in his early days with Garofalo, but I heard him filling for Thom Hartmann (I think) the other day and he was much better.)

Apart from a voice that's as unlistenable as Randi Rhodes', Lionel seems to be lacking on both the intelligence and values fronts.  I don't think this clip is all that damning until the shots at the blogosphere, but the few times I've heard him on the air he's struck me as interested in self-promotion rather than the ideas -- he seems to have no soul.

My local AA affiliate in western Massachusetts doesn't run Lionel -- they have Stephanie Miller 10-12, Hartmann 12-3, Schultz 3-6, and Rachel 6-9 when there's no Sox game.

God knows what Mark Green thinks he's doing -- what's the point of a flagship program that your flagship station doesn't want (if Josh Orton has that right above)?

But Lionel is rather lame.  I like Kuby.  Rachael Maddow is the best.

Nova M is where it's at these days.

But not any more. It's boring.

At a time when progressives lead conservatives by every imaginable organizational metric, why keep a radio show host on an ostensibly "progressive" network who goes on TV and bashes progressives?

Because progressives believe in balance. Thus, a progressive network is eventually going to let conservatives have their say on the network. In the progressive network view, they should seek a "fair" host, or progressive hosts will have to be balanced out by conservative commentators.

This principle also holds for judicial judges. Progressives feel that to be fair that they must appoint some conservative judges. On the other hand, conservatives have no need or feeling to appoint progressive or even centrist judges. That's why the judiciary and network radio will always be conservative.

Conservative commentator George Will illustrated my point when he said on This Week with George Stephanoupolis: (To paraphrase) "I forbid my children to say the word fair because life is not suppose to be fair."

Is it just me, or does caring about Air America's suckage sound like caring about the lack of left-leaning LPs?  In the age of podcasts, radio is obsolete.

...I can honestly say it has been a mixed bag.
Al Franken's show was great radio.
Rachel Maddow went from obscurity to becoming a power and charismatic voice.
Randi Rhodes was smart, funny...but with an overblown ego and a total star-f*cker. Her Clinton remarks in SF were junior high stuff.
Once Seder was separated from Garafalo (bad) he became a star.
He should be more prominent.
Ron Kubi may have been a great lefty lawyer, but a dreadful radio guy.
Malone can be funny, but sometimes his hate gets the better of him. Nova M needed him to get on the map.
Big Eddie suffers from the problem as randi, too much inside baseball...and he is not that knowledgable (sp). Also way too in love with Obama.
Jon Elliot - worst radio guy ever.
But, I have to admit that I find the Lionel show pretty interesting. He is smart, funny and not a party line talker. I think it is good radio.

All that said, Seder, Hartmann and Maddow the best talent...and we need waaay more Seder.

Lionel should have stayed in his syndicated nighttime slot.  

AAR NEEDS partisans.  Lionel was actually for the FISA compromise (or at least thought that it didn't matter).

On the substance of your clip. Lionel is right. This is far from a cakewalk for Obama.

I've been with MoveOn from the days of the Clinton impeachment and as a person involved in the ad and media business one thing I know about them is that they don't know shit about media and message. They are amateurs that are talking to themselves.

The betrayus ad was rank amateur. A cheap and easy pun with no message.

Putting that headline over the image of the general was just stupid.
If it were placed over the image of forlorn bedraggled troops with a headline like "Will Petraeus Betray Us?" It would have made a better point. It should have been about the soldiers being used as pawns instead of making the general into Benedict Arnold.

MoveOn has lots of money to spend, I send them money regularly...but sometimes they are like a rich kids with a fat wallet and not sure how to spend it. Generally, their ads suck...especially the one that you posted.

It would better if they spent the money going to states where ID is now required for voting and helped people pay for those IDs or get them to the DMV to get IDs. This ad is a waste of money preaching to the converted.

Ron Kubi is hardly non-ideological. He started with William Kunstler as an lawyer on significant cases.

The problem is that isn't ideological, it's that he is not RADIO!

I live in NY and religously listened to Air America in the 9 to 12 time slot.  I didn't like Lionel particularly but I could have lived with him.  But the snake oil salesmen that have replaced him in NY City in an election year in the most liberal city in the country is a disgrace and an insult to Air America listeners.  When these infomercials came on I emailed Air America and didn't even get the courtesy of a reply.  All NYers should besiege Air America with emails.

Ed Schultz does not work on Air America-does not want to work for them.

Maddow, Sedar and Hartman are definetly their best, why do they treat Sedar like a servant?

I like Randi-she is passionate, you may not like everything she says, however the way AA treated her was disgusting!  And I think their ratings are probably down since she left.  And they will continue down with Lionel-I turn him off.  He is only on for the attention.  What-does he have a friend in the top office of AA. How did he get this job, Sedar is by far more intelligent and progressive.

Hartmann, Maddow and Seder are the core...and I wish they would recognize the value of Seder.

Sometime Randi is too much about Randi.

Not classy, not tasteful, not illuminating, not thought-provoking - it's a complete waste of time.  Mark Green - why did you hire this moron?

Maddow is a star who earned it the hard way-through talent and intelligence.  Hartmann, Seder, Franken are/were all great.  We don't get Hartmann in NY anymore, Big Ed instead.  If Lionel got good ratings I could live with him however in New York, the most progressive city in the country, we don't even get Lionel but some snake oil salesman instead who belongs on QVC.

If the infomercials are a local matter then AA should find a slot somewhere else.  I can't believe that a progressive firebrand in an election year could not muster ratings in New York.  

is an embarrassment.  Sam was a good guy, why did he go?

The cut and dry reason Lionel is not on AAR any longer is because he never towed the Obama line to the point of being an apologist for the candidate that AAR adopted.  Listen, Shulze, Rhodes, etc. bashed Hillary to the point of being tasteless and yet they still play everyday on AAR.  Lionel never thought the Obama craze was justified and stated several times on air how he thought Obama was unqualified and not thoroughly vetted by the dem party.  And that's why he got canned.  No other reason that makes good sense.  It's not clear channel, it's Green.  Period.  "Either you're with us or you're against us"...

Lionel started out as just another caller in the local Tampa market, he quickly got hired and promoted up.   His show is different and I always enjoyed it especially during the heydey of the Terry Schiavo days.   Randi Rhodes does get carried away but she was screwed by AA.   Stephanie Millier has some great people on her crew, I enjoy her a lot.

Rhandi doesn't even count.  She has embarrassed herself with her comments about Hillary.  Good riddance to her.  I liked Sam- but I also like Lionel.  He is one of the more RATIONAL voices.  I think that's what you don't like- the moderate voices.  I kinda get it- but why do we need to be over the top like the O'Reilley's of the world? We CAN be progressive without being radical.

OK, I get it, Randi said some mean things about Hillary, but look at the things the so-called Liberals like Alex Bennett and Lynn Samuels are saying about Obama on their Sirius talk shows.

Since this thread has obviously expanded past just Air America and moved to all Liberal talk, I think we need to single out some other bad eggs.

But I agree that I like Stephanie Miller and I also like Mike Malloy, who has been doing Liberal talk for over 20 years.