http://www.airamerica.com/blog/2008/apr/03/statement-air-america-radio-chair-cha rlie-kireker-1

As a diehard Obama supporter, and a big fan of Air America, I have to say that Randi Rhodes was way over the edge in the rant which is available on Youtube.

She has an absolute right to freedom of speech, and her employer has an absolute right to suspend her for any behaviors which they deem harmful to the company.

And she's certainly young enough to know that anything said publicly will be on Youtube within the hour.

I suspect AA will release her, and she'll sign up for triple the money with a syndicator to become the left's shrill, extremest version of Ann Coulter. A position the left should have left unfilled.

I heard a clip of her speaking and seriously think she may have been on medications or maybe had a few drinks.

It's hard to tell, but her speech appears somewhat slurred and she definitely spoke in an extremely uninhibited manner in public.

Remember, she had some weird event happen a few months back. I'm not going to pile on here. I truly think she may need some help.

Herb

Where is the rant?

Never mind...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/03/air-america-host-randi-rh_n_94863.html

Well, there is this:

1. A prostitute.
2. A person considered sexually promiscuous.
**3. A person considered as having compromised principles for personal gain.
intr.v. whored, whor·ing, whores
1. To associate or have sexual relations with prostitutes or a prostitute.
2. To accept payment in exchange for sexual relations.
**3. To compromise one's principles for personal gain.

Number three fits Clinton, so on substance, it's defensible. Frankly, I agree with that. It fits and that's really more Clinton's problem than anybody elses.

The more common #1 & #2, make it inflammatory however. I see where AAR is coming from, and I've few issues over the suspension.

Besides, we get Sam Ceder for a while, and he's great!

As for Randi Rhodes in general, she's just great. Everybody has moments and clearly this is one of hers. It was SF, for god's sake! Bet they loved it! Over a longer period of time, she's done some great radio. That hasn't changed.

It will pass, like a bunch of other stuff like this has passed. It will happen again, just like a bunch of other stuff like this has happened.

I'm no wuss about ugly things requiring some ugly speech some times. That is exactly what happened here. The majority of people will get over it, and perhaps Clinton should reconsider her current behavior.

It's tougher to do material like this when the behavior doesn't just BEG for it. Besides, Bill Mahar does this kind of thing all the time. It's not the end of the world. It's more like Randi being an easy target.

I don't carry water for Randi Rhodes and disagree with her 98% of the time.

However, if it were Chris Rock or some other GUY who said it, it wouldn't be as much of an issue.

It sounds more vulgar when spoken by a lady, from whom we customarily expect a tad more decorum and restraint.

Herb

And of course Air America is following up on this moment by gaining an "Air of Respectability"
by suspending Rhodes over all this.

And that in itself is bigger news than what she said about Hillary and Geradine in the first place.

Good publicity. I don't listen to her show but I'm sure her listenership will increase after she goes back on the air.

Andrew

Sam Cedar is on!!

YES!

Thanks - I'll tune in for a few days while he's subbing.

Andrew

I usually can't stand R Rhodes, but her rant is quite entertaining. Besides there is only one R Rhodes that matters and he played guitar for Ozzy.....

Lol. Thats the same thing I used to think when I listened.

It was a big mistake demoting Ceder to Sundays only. He does a great show. It's gonna be a nice suspension!

Randi’s comments were indeed inappropriate. But I haven’t listened to her in a long time, so I don’t really have a dog in this fight.

With regard to Air America suspending her, I have to disagree. But then again, the standards for suspending a radio talk show host seem all over the board. If Rush Limbaugh were removed from radio for making insulting, racist or degrading remarks about his opponents, he’d be left with plenty of idle time on his hands. And too, let us not forget Don Imus. After years of making sexually and racially charged remarks, he was forced off the air by CBS Radio. But he was resurrected by ABC/Citadel Radio with a very lucrative deal. For the record, I am a fan of Don Imus.

In the end, it’s all about money. I doubt Air America is going to lose money because Randi Rhodes was suspended. On the other hand, Premiere Radio Networks would take a bath financially if Rush Limbaugh were pulled off the air. He’s got the liberty to say nearly anything he wishes on radio – without worry from an indignant network.

Yeah, that was poor timing on Randi's part and I'm sure she's chagrined. She got in Ralph Nader's face for dividing the Dems in 2000 and opening the door to W and everything after, and now she's doing the same thing.

She was doing a standup gig in front a mostly appreciative crowd, and she might have a Bill Mahar--as opposed to an Ann Coulter--future. She's smart, given Air America's wobbly finances, to be diversifying her career. But this should have waited and she knows it.

Randi Rhodes has very little social redeeming value. She needs moral and spiritual reformation. I pray for her soul.

Dang, Air America still exists? Those nutwing neocons can't get anything right on both sides of the aisle.

Randi Rhodes is the F'in Devil! Her voice shreds my eardrums....
You say Sam Cedar is subbing???
YES!
He's the ONLY one talking about the torture memo..... Damn Liberal press just ramming all that bad stuff about DUHbya down our throats....
Oh... It's NOT being covered by the mainstream LIBERAL press... NO!
So much for the Liberal press dropping the ball.

Randi Rhodes has very little social redeeming value. She needs moral and spiritual reformation. I pray for her soul.

I say that same thing about Hannity, LimBLAH and O'LIEly.

Ann.

Trixter...come on, by any humanitarian standards Hannity/Limbaugh/O'Rielly have more couth and civility than the subject of this board.

"She needs moral and spiritual reformation. I pray for her soul."

Well-stated, Broadway.

Herb

Broadway writes:
by any humanitarian standards Hannity/Limbaugh/O'Rielly have more couth and civility than the subject of this board.

By any standards in fantasy land, I suppose. I don't see how any halfway-rational person would ever characterize Bill O'Reilly as "civil" - unless you were referring to "Baba O'Riley" the old Who song. Then I'd have to agree: that song is totally awesome and I like it more than I like Randi Rhodes.

Andrew

Try to redefine couth and civility all you want, Andrew.

But that's the problem with the left, including Ms. Rhodes and those who try to 'dumb down' everything to a murky grey by equating passionate political discourse with foul-mouthed invective.

Yeah, everything's grey in your world. Reality is hard, isn't it?

Herb

I guess it was inevitable that a thread about Randi Rhodes would devolve into a political squabble, particularly when Herb inserts himself.

But how about taking that to to other side?

WE SUGGEST THAT vICTORBOC CAN BE THE REPLACEMENT!!!
RIGHT?

I'll go for Victor! Miss ya on the airways Victor!

Hahahahahaha!!!

Rhodes could just look at Vic and he's toast! Like him, but he's totally not even in the same league.

Trixter...come on, by any humanitarian standards Hannity/Limbaugh/O'Rielly have more couth and civility than the subject of this board.

You got to be kidding. Politics aside Broadway COME ON!!!! Ann Coulter fits snug as a bug in a rug with them as well.

Reality is hard, isn't it?


For you yes it is....

Just show me the YouTube video of Ann spouting off dehumanizing vulgarities and I'll rest my case.

It was not dehumanizing.

When somebody sells themselves for money or votes, that's whoring, period. end of story.

Gender has nothing to do with it.

It's pretty ugly speech that communicates a pretty ugly characterization of Clinton's behavior.

Sometimes truth stings. Maybe Clinton can either feel good about it, or reconsider doing it in the future.

Maybe she does not care if she has to sell her self out to win. I don't mean sexually, I mean values. And that's exactly what Rhodes meant too.

If so, she really only has to be as impacted as she thinks she does.

What's ironic is if anyone is the nasty name Ms. Rhodes used, it's less apt for Mrs. Clinton, than for her husband.

What else do you call it when you sell Marc Rich a pardon for contributions to your presidential library, or declassify missile technology secrets, in order to sell them to an enemy like communist China?

Best as I can tell, Mrs. Clinton did neither.

Herb

Learned the suspension is not "a week", but indefinite.

A specific amount of time, I have little problem with, given it's not excessive. That's essentially saying, "Bad Girl, you can do better."

Running it like this, without a specific time magnifies the issue way beyond a defensible scope. This is a payback kind of thing, IMHO. It just smells bad.

It's leaving Rhodes open to attack without her being able to voice her side of things.

I do not support an indefinite suspension, period.

http://www.green960.com/cc-common/mainheadlines2.html?feed=213008&article=3493425

http://www.green960.com/cc-common/mainheadlines2.html?feed=213008&article=349342 5

This only happened a couple days ago. You can bet both sides are looking at contracts, legal options, and listener/advertiser feedback before deciding (by early next week?) whether it's a short term suspension or a one way ticket to self-syndication.

Based on the actual rant, I still think she might want the freedom to morph into the uber-Liberal Ann Coulter. I suspect there is a lot more money to be had NOT working for AA.

This is true.

For me, it's speech issue though. It's defensible, if ugly.

The constitution gives you the right to go out and make an ass of yourself in public, saying almost anything you want.

Your job, and the (presumed) employment contract with the company you work for do not.

No employer has any obligation to protect your right to free speech.

Agreed.

This comes down to her contract terms. I suspect we will see a court decide this one.

She should know better, for what that is worth.

Ann Coulter's long history of dehumanizing vulgarities includes, recently, calling John Edwards a "faggot" - repeatedly and unapologetically - despite his two-decades-plus marriage and the fact that, unlike a certain Republican House speaker, he is standing by his wife as she undergoes cancer treatment. Is that not dehumanizing and vulgar enough?

I agree Rhodes has veered dangerously toward Coulter territory in this one instance. For this I think she deserves some kind of sanction by the network. Liberals and progressives should not engage in name-calling, period. But it's absurd to compare Rhodes - with her one-off comment before a small live audience - to a woman who has made an entire career (and a lucrative one) out of hateful schoolyard invective before a TV, radio and print audience of millions.

Ann Coulter is a piece of crap!

http://www.thehollywoodliberal.com/2007/06/27/elizabeth-edwards-bitch-slaps-ann- coulter-on-national-tv/

error america!!!!

That's Unpatriotic 62....

I guess Trixter is suspending the First Amendment. What's next? The Second?

Herb

> Liberals and progressives should not engage in
> name-calling, period.

"Should" and "do" seem to be very different things. By the same token, couldn't one say that since many people on the conservative side of the debate, including Coulter, like to make reference to Christian values, these people "should not" engage in name-calling either?

> However, if it were Chris Rock or some other GUY
> who said it, it wouldn't be as much of an issue.
>
> It sounds more vulgar when spoken by a lady, from
> whom we customarily expect a tad more decorum and
> restraint.

If a guy made these types of comments, I would expect that there would be a lot of people eager to call him misogynist or sexist. Personally, I have been struggling with the question of whether or not contemporary society puts different standards of decorum on men and women. It seems that this may be a generational issue: Gen X and Gen Y people tend not to think of women swearing as "unladylike," in my observation. However, to older people who grew up in the 1960s and earlier, there seem to be different decorum expectations for men as opposed to women.

I guess Trixter is suspending the First Amendment. What's next? The Second?

When someone makes fun of DUHbya and how he runs America your the FIRST one down their throat throwing out the UNAmerican phrase.
Second...
From MY cold dead hands. YOU Herb will NEVER take the 2nd away from me. Even though you are a pinko fascist commie.

FYI, calling somebody out on behavior isn't suspending the first amendment.

It's not a shield. 62 and Trixter are completely free to their respective expressions.

Carry on!

Randi Rhodes is just as lame as Rush or Hannity. Same piece of crap, different script.

PLEASE PEOPLE,NOTE:
i AM NOT VICTOR BOC!!!!

4 people went to Walter Winchell's funeral. And two of them were his kids. That is likely the number that will go to Ann Coulter's.

That is likely the number that will go to Ann Coulter's.

NOPE! Just Hannity...

Figure 2 for Coulters.... one to hold the stake and one to drive it in.