June 12, 2005
On Friday, Al Franken of Air America Radio appeared at a Talkers Magazine
event where he received the Freedom of Speech Award. Now, #17 is informing us that the N.Y. Post (O. of P. #4) will be reporting on Monday that Al went a little over his limit.
During his acceptance speech, Franken reportedly spent a half an hour ranting about Rush Limbaugh, the war in Iraq, Hannity and Colmes, and so forth. "Al, enough already" came the warning from Talkers publisher Michael Harrison. "It's freedom of speech," Stuart replied. Apparently the speech was to only be 10 minutes. After receiving the warnings Franken replied, "I'm talking about the war in Iraq and I have two pages left... Everyone who wants to leave can leave". Whereupon people started leaving. This was in front of hundreds of talk show hosts and other radio professionals. "Don't leave!" Smalley's fans shouted. "We honored you, now honor us. Please step down," Harrison said.
Eventually Franken passed out or left or something. I'll link to the NY Post's report when it's available.
Oddly enough, this type of behavior appears to be commonplace for AAR's boringest host:
"Al Franken's Anger" reports an event from four months ago that sounds similar in its component parts to this event.
BREAKING - MUST NOT CREDIT BOREAMERICA
UPDATE: Team VRWC Coverage -- Breaking hard -- Drudge reports
here.
AIR AMERICA's Al Franken became "The Guest Who Wouldn't Leave" after receiving an award at a talk-radio convention in New York over the weekend.
NY POST's John Mainelli reports Monday: The liberal talk-show host was finally forced off the stage -- amidst shouts from supporters and detractors -- after an acceptance speech became a nearly half-hour rant against Bill O'Reilly and the Iraq war...
And, WDUN talk show host Martha Zoller reports on the event
here:
...Al Franken had gone a bit long and was getting a bit mean and was losing the crowd. Jokes about Bill O'Reilly started out funny and then there were too many of them. Jokes about Rush Limbaugh's drug problem were just in bad taste. Then he started to bash one of the talk hosts from another city, reading a column he wrote about going to Iraq. He just violated the cardinal rule of radio, if you have to read, keep it "pithy." He was losing the crowd. Then he and Michael Harrison had what could only be described as a fight in front of the crowd. Then Al Franken closed with a very moving story about visiting Walter Reed Hospital and all of us were wondering what had just happened...
And, O. of P. #7 reports in
"Franken in Talkers Meltdown":
The liberal yakker launched into a 20-minute tirade against his conservative colleagues, taking shots at Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Bill Bennett, according to WWRL host Steve Malzberg, who witnessed the ugly outburst.
"It was the most bizarre thing I've seen in a long time," Malzberg told NewsMax. "Franken was as obnoxious and arrogant as could be."
After blasting the top talent in his industry, Franken took on the war in Iraq - dissecting a report on a visit to the troops by fellow talk host Rusty Humphries...
Posted in StuartSmalley
at June 12, 2005 08:02 PM
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Monitoring Air America Radio [TM] so you don't have to.
