The day after the majority of the country’s voters celebrated the election of a new, Democratic president, talk hosts Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly took the high road.
Rush Limbaugh and Michael Savage went back to the sewers and, like monkeys in a cage, started throwing the dung.
It’s sad that this is the state of “talk” radio, which really is less about discussion than shallow thought and the kind of name calling you would hear in a grade school playground.
In Hannity’s first show he said he would wait to see what Obama does and instead of continuing his pre-election bashing, he started questioning what the Republican party should do to improve its standing with voters. (No one can make the case that these shows are anything but partisan.)
O”Reilly also stepped back, saying he would analyze anything Obama did with an open mind. On his TV show that night, he broke a story I didn’t know about Sarah Palin: McCain advisors said she didn’t know that Africa was a continent. She thought it was a country and that South Africa was the southern part of that country.
And this was the woman John McCain thought was capable of the presidency?
Also, O’Reilly’s staff reported, Palin was talking to the person she thought was the president of France but was really a radio prankster, without clearance from McCain.
And lastly, that not only did she spend more than the $150,000 she claimed for clothes at Nieman Marcus, but that she shopped for her husband and family at the expensive haberdashers. “Wasila hillbillies” indeed.
(This is the first time I have ever used O’Reilly as a source for breaking news, the first time I saw he was fair and balanced.)
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Brad Kava was a print news reporter and syndicated media critic for the Mercury News for many years and has also had numerous works published in the New York Times, Kansas City Star and Rolling Stone magazine.
Brad has had front page stories about everything ranging from satellite radio, digital music rights and terrorist bombings to features on well known authors and profiles on technology luminaries and CEOs. He was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for covering the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and has done writing projects for the Los Angeles blues and rock record label, Delta Groove.
He has been a guest on “Nightline”, NPR’s “Morning Edition” and Howard Stern’s radio show, and is a regular media commentator for KCBS Radio, KGO radio and Fox TV affiliate KTVU in Oakland. His published interviews translated around the world have included musicians such as Keith Richards, James Cotton, Paul McCartney, Snoop Dogg, and U2.
Brad has won several awards for his writing, including second place for the Best Bay Area Columnist and Best Feature Story, and honorable mention for the Best Serious Feature Story. He was also part of the team that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the Loma Preita earthquake.
