A former "Saturday Night Live" writer and performer -- he was on staff
in 1977 when the show came to New Orleans for its live Mardi Gras
broadcast -- Franken has in recent decades branched off into political
commentary.
His books -- "Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot" and "Lies and the
Lying Liars Who Tell Them" -- have been bestsellers.
This December, he intends to visit Iraq with the USO, his sixth such
tour.
"I find myself in articles compared to Rush Limbaugh," said Franken,
during a telephone interview last week.
"They say (I'm) just a mirror image of Rush. I can tell they have not
listened to the show.
"A few months ago, one of our researchers came to me with something
that Rush had said, that 75 percent of all Americans on minimum wage
are teenagers in their first job.
"So my researcher goes to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and finds out
that 60 percent of Americans on the minimum wage are age 20 or above.
"So where did Rush get his statistic that 75 percent of most people on
the minimum wage are teenagers?
"He got it directly from his butt, and it goes out of his butt and
into his mouth and over the airwaves and into the brains of
'dittoheads' who believe it.
"We get our labor statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He
gets his labor statistics from his butt. That's a huge difference."
But Al Franken isn't the anti-Rush, and Al Franken's radio show does
more than mere fact-checking counterpoint to the competition (or, in
Entercom's case in New Orleans, corporate cousin).
"I don't want to be a guy who debunks things," Franken said.
"We do a lot of other stuff, too."
Such as?
Talking with guests, lots of them and from all political persuasions,
which is something that Limbaugh has never done much of.
"We have a little bit of trouble getting some Republicans (to
appear)," said Franken.
"But we'll have your occasional very-right-wing crazy on."
From The Times-Picayune, 8/12/05:
http://www.nola.com/living/t-p/index.ssf?/base/living-5/1123826853235670.xml
Two news-talk radio stations, two ideologies -- and one owner
Franken vs. Limbaugh
Dave Walker
It seems like one hand washing the other -- in an acid bath.
At midday weekdays on WWL 870 AM, it's Rush Limbaugh -- the mouth of
conservative America.
At midday on WSMB 1350 AM, it's Al Franken -- sworn enemy of Rush
Limbaugh.
Both New Orleans news-talk stations belong to the same company, the
Pennsylvania-based station group Entercom Communications, and this
seeming clash of ideologies is way more about the bottom line than
party lines.
"I'm a businessperson," said Phil Hoover, New Orleans market manager
for Entercom.
"I have two strong brands right now. I want them to scream and yell at
each other."
Late last month, Hoover threw out most of WSMB's weekday programming
-- only Tom Fitzmorris' afternoon-drive "Dining Around" survived, with
Bill O'Reilly shifting to WWL late night -- and replaced it with
politically left-of-center talkers.
Several, including Franken, come from the upstart Air America network,
founded in March 2004 to provide an alternative to the
rightward-leaning talk-radio roar.
WSMB's old schedule was more or less a ratings dud, with no
ideological cohesion, or "brand," in Hoover's parlance.
The overthrow of credit-card-debt-despiser Clark Howard, professional
scold "Dr. Laura" Schlessinger and zany Phil Hendrie for the likes of
"The Morning Sedition" with Mark Riley and Marc Maron (5-8 a.m.),
Jerry Springer (8-11 a.m.), Franken (11 a.m.-2 p.m.), Ed Schultz (2-4
p.m.), Randi Rhodes (7-9 p.m.) and others gives WSMB a marketable,
unified image for the first time in recent memory, Hoover said.
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Harry
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