Ask and ye shall receive — what’s predictable.
Ask someone on the right about what they think of comedian Al Franken’s stint as Air America‘s highest-profile talker and they will say he was a failure.
But enough about Bill O’Reilly. Others will say the same thing, too.
Ask many people on the left what they think of Franken and they’ll say he put progressive talk on the map, countered the right-wing talkers, got good ratings in some key cities. Etc.
But the truth is truly somewhere in between:
(1) Al Franken did not set the world on fire as a radio talk show host. You don’t see a slew of Al Franken imitators out there trying to emulate the kinds of ratings he got or his style.
(2) He did reportedly get some good ratings in some markets but never quite matched the advance hype or the expectations. But a “failure?” That word is usually not used about Franken by stand-back analysts but more often by people who have a political axe to grind.
In fact, since its inception it’s been one “sports team” (conservative talk) against the other “sports team” (progressive talk). Even before he was on the air, Franken was denounced as a flop-to-be, unfunny, someone who didn’t know a thing about radio and someone doomed to go off the air because there simply was no market at all for progressive talk.
What happened?
–Progressive talk is alive and well. In fact, two of the most engaging radio shows to listen to are The Stephanie Miller Show and The Ed Schultz Show. Neither are Air America.
–Yes, Air America crashed but it has been bought and will be around (presumably for a while).
–Franken made an error that Miller and Schultz have not made and that many Air America hosts (particularly some of them who have local shows on Air America stations) do make: at times his show seemed more like the counter-the-conservatives-talk show than the Al Franken show.
–Franken’s BRILLIANT moments came when he did his show before live audiences. He and the program came alive. Jokes scored more than missed. The irony was truly funny. Too bad that format was not extended.
–The in-studio shows were more pro-forma. Franken is one of the original Saturday Night Live writers who used irony so adeptly when the show took TV by storm in the 70s. But on his radio show he should have realized: a little irony goes a long way. Skits and sketches were sometimes a bit weak. Still, he was a good interviewer.
–He was a trailblazer but sometimes the tone of his show seemed to mirror the angry conservative talkers. I know of a woman who is not a fan of the Republican Party or George W. Bush. She simply could not stand Franken’s show: “He sounds just like Rush!”
–Franken was absolutely shell-shocked when John Kerry lost in 2004 (he like many others thought the exit polls showed it was a slam-dunk). But he celebrated in 2006 — as he well should. Just as conservative talk radio has had a role beyond being radio to actually being a rallying-point for partisans, Franken’s show helped gather like-minded listeners.
But that’s the flaw with most conservative talk shows and with Franken’s: the denunciations of Republicans/Democrats is usually harsh so it’s hard for an ideological talk show host to get many listeners who don’t already agree with them (exceptions include Michael Savage on the right and Ed Schultz on the center-left).
To be fair, Franken is a highly-engaging and often-charming personality — something that came across in the DVD of the documentary God Spoke about his political journey. He will remain a hero to many progressives and to many fans of comedy who appreciate his role in ushering in a generational change in comedy styles.
So he did NOT flop; but he did not start a new trend either. He helped solidify a kind of talk-radio that offered another viewpoint so that the days when you drove 500 miles and only got Rush and Sean and Michael Savage were (presumably) forever over.
And now he’s going to run for Senate in Minnesota. Can he be serious? WATCH THIS VIDEO and judge for yourself.
FOOTNOTE: Franken will likely face what the two bloggers who resigned from the John Edwards campaign faced. Every flip comment, every cuss word, every statement he made to shock listeners and audiences will be recycled in commercials, sent out in mailers with screaming headlines and be used by foes who will demand explanations.
And that’s just by the other DEMOCRATS whom he’ll be battling for the Senate nomination…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.