Pop Cuture and Politics

As a long time listener to right-wing AM hate radio, I was delighted to learn that the Twin Cities has a new station of malevolence to prod me into harassing women, grinding my Pradas into the outstretched palms of the poor and promoting my golf buddies to jobs over more qualified minorities (and next time I'm wearing a silk suit and I hurry by a homeless, just for fun I'll say "Get a job").

The new station is AM1280, The Patriot, and should give the somewhat complacent AM1500 a run for it's money. Rush's 11-2 afternoon slot is probably safe on 1500, but I'm afraid Soucheray's 2-5 slot is going to be drained somewhat by the trenchant and lucid Michael Medved.

I've been a long-time fan of The Sooch, ever since he started with Reusse back in the early '80s, but he don't hold a menorah to Medved.

One of Medved's strengths is how he accepts calls from whacked-out leftists. Today, he had the talented Laura Ingraham on for some cross-promotional plugging of her show (on the Patriot nightly from 11-2) and her new book The Hillary Trap. "Ed" from Walla Walla was the first caller and he immediately attacked both Medved and Ingraham, even dissing her considerable looks. Laura pulled no punches in demolishing this Angry White Man with a rhetorical flourish.

Medved calls his show "America's top show on pop culture and politics". By stressing the pop culture, he can bring his vast knowledge of movies to the conservative base along with the politics--thus differentiating himself from all the All Politics All The Time hosts who can get quite arrid (especially if you listen to 10 plus hours of this stuff a day).

Soucheray, while entertaining, is lazy. How many times have you tuned in to hear him and the Rookie reading an internet mass-emailing list of Top Ten Reasons Bill Clinton Should...(fill in the blank)? And after just reading and immediately deleting the same email an ex-co worker sent you (then thinking to yourself "Why did I ever even TALK to these people")?

Soucheray's ratings are ripe to be plucked by the intellectual powerhouse that is Michael Medved. I've only been back in the TCs for about a month now, but it will be interesting to see if Medved can take some of Joe's audience.