Right Wing Radio Week in Review: July 20 – 24, 2009

25 Jul, 2009 by Kathy Shaidle

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As we’ve reported here throughout the year, the White House has made no secret of its antipathy towards conservative talk radio.
So Radio Ink magazine took note on July 24, when, discussing health-care reform at a "town hall" Q&A, President Obama said, "You know, all those folks who are out there saying, we can’t afford this; this is socialism; this will lead to government-run health care; all the folks who are getting ginned up on talk radio and some of these cable news shows, you know, I have to say that they have an effect on members of Congress."

Obama added that comments on talk radio make members of Congress "nervous."
Comments like that do little to squelch rumors that the Democrats want to restore the Fairness Doctrine, which would destroy conservative talk radio as presently constituted.
The feeling of antipathy is mutual. This week, Rush Limbaugh took to speeding up audio clips of Presidential comments, making Obama sound like one of the cartoon “Chipmunks.” The purpose, said Rush, was to mock “the hurry the Dems are in to pass health care.”

Rush was on FOX News Thursday and Friday, talking to Greta van Susteren about Obama’s health care reforms. Limbaugh called the Obama presidency “the media’s Waterloo,” claiming they’ve lost all subjectivity and credibility due to their fawning coverage of the new President. (Free video clip.)

Meanwhile, the Beltway criticisms of Limbaugh continue, with another tiresome nobody slamming Rush, this time for his criticism of wimpy moderates. It proved to be a popular theme this week: middle of the road conservatives bashing Limbaugh and Mark Levin for their “extremism.” Yawn.

While the ankle-biters bitched, talk radio got on with what it does best: entertaining and informing. Favorite guest and old pal Dana Carvey was back on the Dennis Miller show, doing his imitation of “Dennis Miller as a coffeepot” – a goofy bit much requested by listeners.

Miller rushed to have Harry Alford on the show this week. Alford made a big impression on Miller (and millions of other Americans) after he accused Barbara Boxer of racism and condescension during a Senate hearing – or, as Alford put it on Miller’s show, “She went to Colored Town on me!”

Miller enthused, “You’re my new hero, baby!”

Now if only Alford would run for public office…

(Alas, Dennis Miller’s audio archives are members only. For the price of an annual membership to that show, however, you can purchase software that will record his show and other online programs – it’s like TiVo for the radio.)

* Speaking of black conservatives: the best radio interview I heard this week was on Wendy Sullivan’s BrassBallsRadio. She spoke to Duane Brayboy, who runs the blog BlackInformant.com. What a breath of fresh air! You can download the podcast for free. BrassBallsRadio is up to half a million downloads a week – look out, Laura Ingraham; you’ve got competition…

* The Foreign Office ban, forbidding talk radio host Michael Savage from entering the U.K., was quietly lifted this week. Great analysis from the San Francisco Politics Examiner here.

* Mark Steyn slammed President Obama during his weekly stint on Hugh Hewitt‘s show, for publicly commenting on the arrest of Harvard professor (and friend) Henry Louis Gates (free audio):

I think the President of the United States has absolutely no business intervening in a matter for the Cambridge Police Department, and should it happen to come to that, whatever court in the city of Cambridge it comes down to. This was disgraceful by him, and he should be ashamed of himself in intervening in that in a national press conference. It’s unbecoming to the President, and it was a disgusting moment.

* Every year, Dennis Prager has his father on his show, to celebrate his birthday and share his 91 years of wisdom. Always an annual highlight of the show, and a listener favorite. What a treat. I always end up wishing he’d been my dad…

(Again, Prager’s audio archives are members-only, but special software lets you record his show and create your own archives and podcasts.)

* G. Gordon Liddy talked to Norwegian, Swedish and Canadian guests to get first hand horror stories about life under socialized medicine. (Free audio.)

According to Gawker.com, “Chris Matthews Almost Killed G. Gordon Liddy On Live Television” Wednesday night, which given Gawker’s kneejerk liberal bias, is another way of saying that both Matthews and Liddy both got worked up about "Birtherism" and nothing much happened. (Free video.)

Fred Thompson took time out from his own radio show (which has a greatly improved new website, with free audio clips) to talk to the Washington News Observer about what’s going on in the nation’s capital (free video):

He [Obama] is basically taking us down a left-wing road that is going to bankrupt the nation and is going to make us weaker and less prosperous as a country.

"It hasn’t worked out. You can’t spend your way to prosperity. You can’t borrow your way out of debt."

Finally, I can’t possibly improve upon HotAir’s headline for this video clip: “Glenn Beck wearing lederhosen now for some reason”