Too Sensitive for Talk Radio...

It happened again today — I turned Jay Severin off. I’ve been trying to expand my horizons by listening with an open-mind to people whose political views are different from mine and Severin isn’t stupid but I just refuse to descend to the level of personal evisceration that has become his M.O. these days.

I’m not exactly Hilary Clinton’s biggest fan by a long shot and I am desperately praying that some presently unknown candidate is going to show up in the next year and save us from the current candidates that we have to pick from. However, I think there is enough to complain about with that candidate without calling her “Satan” and whining about her backside. I know Severin thinks that is in the finest tradition of political satire but it is the sort of satire that only appeals to the lowest form of listeners. Does he really think behaving that way makes him sound anything other than pathetically petty?

I have talk radio on a lot. It used to be that Michael Graham was the only one I couldn’t stand, not because of his rude comments, though he makes plenty of those, but because he is his own favorite audience. He just thinks he is absolutely hilarious. I figure he has so much fun laughing at his own jokes, he doesn’t need me to laugh at them, too. But lately Severin is approaching Graham in his ability to make me turn the dial. He seems like a smart guy who could make a very logical and intelligent case against anyone he chose to but his pitiful need to stoop to schoolyard taunts loses me. Oh well.

I still listen to Jim Braude and Margery Eagen although lately I’m beginning to wonder about her too. I’ve been trying to figure this out for a long time. Her speech is slurred and seems to get worse over the course of three hours. She dissolves into helpless, uncontrollable fits of giggling. She won’t let people get a word in edgewise (the day Nora Ephron was on I wanted to call and scream, “Shut the bleep UP, Margery!”) Well, I’ve started wondering what exactly it is she is putting in her coffee.

I like Braude even though I sometimes disagree with him because I’ve never heard him say anything gratuitously nasty about anyone. He makes cracks about dumb behavior and he certainly isn’t afraid to take on anyone who is up to arguing with him (which is not a lot of people, actually, he’s a smart guy and most people know that.) And even when Margery is at her giggling, ridiculing, slurring, motor-mouthing worst, he is polite to her. I give him all the credit in the world for that.

Mean is “in” and it is a sad state of affairs in American media. People watch shows like “The Apprentice” and “American Idol” just to laugh at people being ridiculed and rejected. I don’t know when gratuitous nastiness became entertainment but I was sort of hoping so-called news people like Severin were going to rise above that. It’s too bad. Violence is escalating. Hate crimes are on the rise. Severin, Graham & Co. are complaining every day about the crime caused by illegal aliens (and I am certainly not in favor of illegal aliens) but they refuse to look in the mirror and see how they themselves are adding to the culture of mean, nasty hatefulness that is spreading like a plague of locusts in the current media.

Maybe I’m too sensitive for talk radio. Maybe I need to listen to NPR or soothing music or audio books. I don’t know. But I have to say that I’m disgusted by media personalities who are so hungry for ratings that they will resort to insipid bullying instead of intelligent commentary just to keep their ratings up. And I’m more disgusted by the media audience that laps it up. Meanness is popular entertainment. Shame on us.

Thanks for reading.