Randi Rhodes is the host of Air America’s afternoon drive-time talk show (3-7 pm EST). Although I generally prefer NPR to Air America when it’s on, I left work early for “personal reasons” so I got to listen to a lot of Randi. (I would have listened to Fresh Air, but they were interviewing a musician, and musicians, while nice enough as a group, rarely express themselves nearly as well via speech as they do through music – that is, they’re dull.)
As a person with generally liberal views, I don’t have much problem with Rhodes’ politics. It’s the way she expresses herself. She was talking about the fact that Rove had been outed as the Plame leaker, and about half of what she said was incoherent sputtering. It was all “Whaaa …” and "I mean … I can’t … how can they … this is so … there are no words … unbelievable … what the … "
Every last thing she said which could be described as a sentence, which contained a thought or at least a fragment of a thought, was bracketed with this gibberish. It really downgraded the content of what she did say. There was one interesting portion of the show in which she read verbatim an account that has been posted on the Net by a former CIA agent who states definitely that Plame was an undercover op. The sputtering was greatly suppressed during this portion of the show, but afterward it returned, an almost indistinguishable white noise of outraged sounds.
Speaking purely as a listener, I found the show boring and frustrating. When Rhodes did squeeze out some coherent thoughts and observations, she seemed all right, but all that sputtering made her sound really, really, really
Stupid.
Not the impression I think Air America wants to make. Now, I’m as outraged as the next person by the things the Bush Administration has done, if not more so, but if you want to get others to share that outrage you have to actually speak and form sentences. It’s not too much to ask of a talk show host, is it?
I have not had that experience with RR. If anything, I wondered when she would pause for breathe. She was extremely articulate and pithy during the campaign. I wonder what has happened?
I stopped listening to AA when they went off the air here in Chicago. I cannot stay at my computer all day, so listening that way was limited. Also, NPR has spoiled me–I don’t want to listen to harmony.com or cort-a-slim commercials every 7 minutes…I also have a problem with Jerry Springer, in any form, so am lukewarm on AA right now.
I have started listening again, since I discovered that AA was back on the air here. The receptiion is soooo bad. Very hard to listen to (I do all of my listening in my car).
I pick up Air America on the net (it is not the kind of thing Boise radio stations carry) and can only listen to Ms. Rhodes for a few minutes. Like you, it is her delivery that grates, not what she says.
Evil Captor, What is your location? It may be a regional dialect kind of a thing because as a transplanted east coast guy, I don’t find her speech mannerisms to be a problem. I will also confess that her voice sounds like distilled sex to me, so that may color my perspective a bit.
I am in Atlanta. It’s not her accent, I could make the words … what words there were … but a lot of them were disjointed mutterings that contained no actual thoughts, just expressions of outrage. It was very hard to listen to.
I think that I am talking more about a speech pattern rather than a full blown accent. I can see what you mean, but I guess that I have know a lot of folks that talk like that, and so it seems pretty natural to me. Plus there is the whole distilled sex thing.
Randi’s an acquired taste, and she has good and bad shows. She was excellent during the whole Terri Schiavo fiasco. And when she gets going, she really gets going. I listen to her most days on the way home from work, but I don’t go out of my way. I do enjoy her comedy sketches though. Anyone catch “Fly On The Wall Theater” last week? Good stuff.
I prefer Al Franken and Mark & Mark, but I’m glad Randi is there.
She grates on me sometimes, but the thing that saves her for me is her information. The woman knows what she’s talking about, backwards and forwards, and then insides out and upside down.
I listen to Randi most days too. She is an acquired taste. I do know that when she’s really pissed off (which is normal with the Rove/Plame issue), her mind works faster than her mouth.
Some people just have a hard time getting words out when they’re angry, that’s not something to make a generalization about her character, nor Air America, over. Try listening to her more than once before making snap judgements, don’t judge a book and all. The woman knows what she’s talking about and does a LOT of research. She gets emotional and she’s a ballsy bitch, but she’s the type of radio personality I like. Someone who’s not afraid to ask the hard questions, someone who doesn’t care what others think, someone who says exactly what’s on her mind. She may come across hard and loud, but someone needs to quit dancing around the issues.
Al Franken’s okay. He’s a little boring for my tastes. Try listening to Stephanie Miller in the morning as well. She doesn’t get into the nitty gritty like Randi, but she is hilarious. She keeps me laughing all the way to work. She’s intelligent, beautiful, witty, and a liberal - the perfect mix!
She’s very addicting. One of the guys on her show is a professional voice guy, and hands down he does the best impressions of Bush and Tom Brokaw I have ever heard. She makes fun of everyone on both sides of the aisle but it’s obvious she’s a liberal. She’s very sweet too, I met her a couple months ago during a live broadcast. Her ratings have gone up something like 3000% since she’s been on the air. Great show if you need something not so serious in the morning.
Holy hell - this is hilarious. She was doing entertainment news and mentioned that Tom Cruise is converting Kerri Russell to Scientology. One of the guys asked what happened to Katie, and did Tom need a backup? Stephanie opined that perhaps Katie wasn’t mating well in captivity.
Randi Rhodes drives me bat shit. I usually listen to NPR but I try to tune in to Al Franken but when Rhandi Rhodes comes on its straight back to NPR for me. I don’t know what it is about her. The stammering. The repitition of the over the top hyperbole.
I do not think it does the progressive or liberal cause any good to exaggerate the crimes of the Bush administration. They are bad enough without the hyperbole. Her exagerations just make those who honestly detest the current aqdministration seem like a bunch of screeching loonies.
A specific instance I recall was the allegation that Roves outing of Plame resulted in the death of CIA operatives. I do not know if this is true, though I doubt it, but merely repeating it over and over without proof just makes me (a self proclaimed died in the wool liberal) think she is talking out of her ass.
Just another vote for Stephanie Miller here – I catch her in the mornings on my alarm clock, and the way she manages to spin exasperation and comedy makes it awfully tempting to just lie in bed and listen to her longer. I thought she was only regional, though, an El-Lay only host, and not part of the regular AA lineup. How far is her reach?
As for Randi Rhodes, I don’t mind her speech pattern at all, though I agree she can get oveerboard at times (but then, given the gaggle of crooks we’ve got in charge these days, I can’t blame her ). I think her no-holds-barred knuckle-bashing demeanor makes a good opposite to Al Franken, actually, who’s a bit too soft-spoken and genial IMO.
I get her here in Ohio and there are some stations in Boston. So I know she’s definitely all over the map. Not all the AA affiliates of course, but she has a great market share.
I’ve been thinking on and off about pitting Randi Rhodes for months. I can’t stand her. Everything from her “I love you more” comment when a caller says “I love you” to her deliberate twisting of the things her conservative callers say. I saw a documentary about the founding of Air America, and all I took away from it about her was that she was a whiny twit. She whined about her studio (IIRC she demanded a private studio separate from what other Air Am hosts used). She whined about not being included in every publicity story about the network. She whined that people didn’t acknowledge her fabulousness at every turn.
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They were interviewing IGGY POP!!! Are you MAD?
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None of my local stations carry Air America. We have the ultra-conservative talk station and the mega-conservative talk station. The ultra-conservative station becomes All Comedy Radio every night at 7, so they have a redeeming quality. The mega-conservative station carries Rush, Dr. Laura AND Michael Savage. groan
I thought she was only regional, though, an El-Lay only host, and not part of the regular AA lineup. How far is her reach?