Radio Issues

First:

Gosh! It would appear that Air America is going bankrupt. What? An insufficient audience to keep it going despite a manual infusion of cash on any number of levels from the Democratic Party all the way to Mr. Soros?

Huh! Imagine that. No one willing or wanting to expand the lugubrious audience of such stellar persons as Mr. Franken, et al. From ThinkProgress:

Air America Radio will announce a major restructuring on Friday, which is expected to include a bankruptcy filing, three independent sources have told ThinkProgress.

Air America could remain on the air under the deal, but significant personnel changes are already in the works. Sources say five Air America employees were laid off yesterday and were told there would be no severance without capital infusion or bankruptcy. Also, Air America has ended its relationship with host Jerry Springer.

More information here and here.

Also, "conservative" talk radio is being blames by CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) for an alleged "rise" in so-called hate crimes against Muslims. From WorldNetDaily:

CAIR said it received 1,972 complaints in 2005, the most since it began compiling annual reports after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. About 2,300 reports were received, the group said, but some were found to be illegitimate.

Most of the complaints, according to CAIR Legal Director Arsalan Iftikhar, were of a "due process" nature, such as racial profiling. Second were denial of religious accommodation and third were employment discrimination.

It should be noted, though, that as WorldNetDaily reported, CAIR's chairman of the board, Omar Ahmad, was cited by a California newspaper in 1998 as saying that the Quran should be "America's highest authority."

Not.

He also was reported to have said Islam is not in America to be equal to any other religion but to be dominant.

How odd, I note, that in the entire WND article I see no clear evidence of overt violence against Muslims. In the rest of the world I see, daily and hourly, violence of Muslim against Muslim and Muslim against others. Consistently. I do hear on much of talk radio, however, words against Islamists and Militant Islam.

Who are the practitioners of real violence, I wonder?

Of final note from Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush's approval rating has rebounded to 44 percent, the highest level in a year, in the latest USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, the newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Really? Imagine that.

BZ