Right Wing Radio Week in Review: June 1 – 5

06 Jun, 2009 by Kathy Shaidle

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Jonah Goldberg’s bestseller Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left, From Mussolini to the Politics of Change is finally in paperback after 18 months. He made the rounds of conservative talk radio shows, talking to Glenn Beck on Monday.

Goldberg congratulated Beck for his constant attempts to educate Americans about the history, and dangers, of “progressive” politics, telling the host, “you’ve probably done more than any other public figure in the last 40 years that sort of focused on progressivism in a way that reaches out to large numbers of people.”

GLENN: "That’s sad. I’m a recovering alcoholic deejay who is a self-educated guy who just cares. That’s sad if that’s true."

Goldberg also made a point that fans (and even reluctant admirers) of Hillary Clinton may want to store in their long-term memory:

I’m one of the four conservatives in captivity who’s read her book It Takes a Village (…) In her book she talks about how in every place where people gather, wouldn’t it be wonderful. We could have giant television screens that teach us how to raise good progressive babies which will show us how to breastfeed and all this. She wants them at the DMV, at the doctor’s office, at bus stops. Any place where large numbers of people gather, she wants on a 24 hour loop people to be educated by the state with large television screens.”

Glenn Beck’s comedy tour got underway this week as well. The New York Times was quick to pan it (of course — in fact, I wonder if the critic even went to see it… Naw, that’s crazy talk…), but PajamasMedia’s Christian Toto gave it a mixed but fair review.

On Tuesday, Dennis Miller was “flabbergasted” by reports that the State Department had invited Iranian bigshots to the annual U.S. Embassy Independence Day celebration in Tehran. (You remember: the Embassy the Iranians held hostage for 444 days back when Jimmy Carter was in office…) I’ve listened to Miller try to remain supportive of Obama and give him a chance since his election, but Tuesday morning, Miller declared, “Obama is fast turning into an idiot.”

Hugh Hewitt devoted a number of segments this week to “the descent of GM into socialism.” The generally mild mannered Hewitt declared, “I will not buy a socialist car,” and added, “The president is off the deep end today.”

Mark Steyn joined Hugh on Thursday and talked about the resigned, helpless, "head in the sand" mentality that permeates Washington, and much of America at large:

Well, you know, people used to say to me, write to me all the time, well nothing’s going to change until there’s a second 9/11. And this time, it had to be nuclear. And I found that incredibly depressing, and didn’t really want to engage with it. But I think in a sense, it speaks to a sort of reality that you know, we are broadly a reactive political culture. It’s that Katrina mentality. They tell you the hurricane’s coming, you don’t do anything about it, and then the hurricane hits, and you complain about why the government didn’t do more to help you. And I think certainly, that is basically going to be the Democrat line. Terrorism will be irrelevant until Los Angeles is nuked, and then they’ll want to hold a committee investigation and find people to blame for it.

One of the best segments this week: Dennis Miller spoke to author and “Shalom in the Home” host Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, who came across as much more conservative than I remember him being before. Boteach was funny, and happy to play along with Miller’s off-the-cuff riffs, but he also had some pointed criticisms of Obama’s Middle East policies. (Audio archives are subscriber only.)

Rush Limbaugh masterfully dissected Obama’s “outrageous, absurd and embarrassing” speech to Cairo University, countering Obama’s assertions about Muslim “inventions” throughout history point by point.

Michelle Malkin singled out a tearful call to Mark Levin from a soldier’s wife as her “Audio Clip of the Day.”

Meanwhile, Radio Equalizer’s Brian Maloney interviewed Levin about the mainstream media silence surrounding his million-selling book/Movement phenomenon Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto. Levin told him:

The story not being told in the mainstream media is that this book is the most popular and successful non-fiction book in the country, and has been for over two months; and it has succeeded without a single major media story or ad buy. This is a harbinger of a grassroots sentiment.

Maloney added:

For conservatives, the lesson here is that they don’t need the mainstream media to promote their work. Word of mouth, in addition to talk radio and the blogosphere can ignite the sales of a high-quality book to levels that have their state-controlled foes green with envy.

The Free Speech Alliance delivered a 400,000 signature petition on Capital Hill, supporting Rep. Mike Pence’s (R-Ind.) “Broadcaster Freedom Act of 2009”, which would “ amend the Communications Act of 1934 to stipulate that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) cannot, by law, require talk radio stations to broadcast varying views on controversial issues as was the case under the Fairness Doctrine.”

CNS News’s report on the petition is an outstanding summary of the history of the Fairness Doctrine, and the current debates about talk radio censorship and creeping “localism”. One to bookmark.

Finally: A new show is starting up on Saturday, June 6. Wayne Allyn Root of the Libertarian Party – who’s a regular guest on FOX News – begins broadcasting a one hour show in the three biggest markets in the country. For more information about times and stations, click here.

(Kathy Shaidle blogs at FiveFeetOfFury, now in its ninth year. Among other things, she runs a new site devoted to Conservative Talk Radio.)