Night Light

Radio show with Bob Cesca and Lee Stranahan

I did a one-hour (slightly longer) radio show last week with Bob Cesca and Lee Stranahan, colleagues & pals from The Huffington Post.  Topic:  health reform.   Here it is:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Stranahan/2009/10/15/Agree-to-Disagree-with-Bob-and-Lee

Free Speech and Responsibility: The Conversation With Ron Kuby

Note that I didn't use the words 'debate,' 'fight,' or 'argument.'  I enjoyed the conversation and think it's an important topic that deserves more scrutiny and discussion.  Here it is (it runs about 11 minutes in total):

Free Speech and Responsibility: The Mitch Albom Show

Here's a clip of my appearance with Mitch Albom discussing Bill O'Reilly and the murder of Dr. George Tiller:

Albom Eskow-0

The broadcast was yesterday (Wednesday).

A couple of radio appearances (today and tomorrow)

This is last minute, but I’m making a couple of radio appearances (both booked in the last couple hours) to talk about the media and the killing of Dr. Tiller in Kansas. One is today at 5:20 Eastern, on the Mitch Albom show (he’s the guy who wrote “Tuesdays with Morrie” and “The Five People You Meet in Heaven”).  It’s here:

http://mitchalbom.com/radio

The other is with Ron Kuby, the lawyer I argued with Sean Hannity about a while back.  I’ll get you a link for that when I can.  That’ll be at 1:30 Eastern tomorrow.

Radio Interview on the White House Health Summit

Here's audio of the interview I did yesterday on Bill Scher's Liberal Oasis radio show.  We discussed Thursday's White House Health Care Summit.  Bill asked excellent questions and kept me on point.  (Not a single "but I digress ..." in the entire segment.)

As for health reform itself?  As they say, stay tuned:

young turks clips

These are excerpts they posted from Friday's show.  They picked segments with a nice rhythm:  Cenk does the set up and commentary, then I make comments and conclude.  It kinda works, I think, but let me know if you think otherwise:

Michael Savage's savage battle against gay marriage

Coded Race Messages All the Way Down

"Spread the Wealth" = Welfare = You-Know-What

Palin's Complaint

My Appearance on Al Jaz English

I appeared again on Al Jazeera English's show Listening Post, which tracks American media and popular culture.  It seems to have been renamed "Election Post" for the campaign.  This episode is embedded within a show about US agriculture and starts about 20 seconds in.  It's here:

I first appear at 1:33 secs in and then sporadically thereafter.  It runs about five minutes in total.  It's a good summary for non-US audiences.

appearance on air america show

Ron Kuby is a lawyer whose name I'd heard years ago, in association with Bill Kunstler.  Didn't realize they picked him to replace Randi Rhodes. 

It also turns out that my appearance on his show today was an attempted sandbagging, where the host doesn't tell you he's going to attack you beforehand but tries to surprise you instead.  A couple folks from Air America contacted me afterwards to apologize for his behavior, but no problem - it worked out fine.   

At least as far as I'm concerned.

Kuby pulled some quotes of mine and tried a lawyerly defense of right-wing extremists and their rhetoric.  For some reason he focused on Sean Hannity and not anyone else I'd named in my first post. That was a poor choice tactically, since it turns out that one of Hannity's books was in the killer's house when police searched it.  He could've picked someone else and had a slightly stronger argument - although it still would've been a weak one from my point of view.

Kuby seemed to be arguing for the man he kept referring to as "Sean" on free speech grounds.  This, despite the fact I had specifically written that nobody's freedom of speech should be abridged. 

One of many ways Kuby goes wrong, in my opinion, is in claiming that on the Right don't bear moral responsibility for a consistent pattern of violent rhetoric  - even if someone reacts to that violent rhetoric with actual violence.  Nope.  No responsibility of any kind, says Kuby. 

Ironic.  Kuby defends Hannity et al. and their violent language.  Yet if Randi hadn't been fired for using harsh language Kuby wouldn't even have the gig.  (They don't carry his show on Air America here.  They carries Randi's from Nova M.)

Air America posted a version of our discussion on their website, but it's been cut by three or four minutes.  I was on the phone and Kuby interrupted/spoke over me a lot - so their version, which also deletes my closing statement, doesn't fully get my points across.  I've posted an unedited version of the exchange below.

You can evaluate it for yourself without the suppression of anyone's speech - his or mine:

Air America Interview

I'll be interviewed today at 5:30 pm EST, 2:30 Pacific, on Ron Kuby's Air America show.  I'll be talking about the Knoxville church shootings.

If you don't get the show, they stream it here:

http://airamerica.com/listen

all me, all the time.

Someday we'll have the ultimate in narrowcasting media .  You'll have the you channel broadcasting all you all the time.  The star will be you, the audience will be you, the subject will be you - and it will provide endless loops of pleasure to you.

Until that day comes, how about a little ... me!  (although the ratio of me to other people   is very low in these clips, meaning I don't say all that much.)

First up is a brief Young Turks clip, since I did the show again today.  Then there's a BBC radio piece on Saturday Night Live and the election (I make a few comments here and there ...)  Another is Al Jazeera English Language TV, their "Listening Post" program.  When the host said "thanks for coming on the show," I said "thanks for getting me on the No Fly List."  He didn't laugh enough for me.   It made me kinda nervous (though Tommy Franks has been on the show, too.)

But enough about me ...

The Young Turks:

BBC Radio:

Go here (I first appear about 2/3rds of the way through the clip.)

The Listening Post: