I spoke the news today, oh boy

Hi everyone. Paul is having internet connectivity problems and he asked me to do a guest blogging stint until he has a reliable net connection again. My name is Leo Lincourt and I run the freethinkers' and skeptics' group blogsite Neural Gourmet where I post under the pseudonym tng. I also ride herd over the blogosphere's only liberal blog carnival Carnival of the Liberals. For long time Brainshrub readers I'm probably not at all what you're used to, but hopefully I won't totally scare off Paul's readership.

The medium, or rather the network in this case, was the message Wednesday when Air America Radio summarily fired firebrand talk show host Mike Malloy without explanation. Liberal and progressive sites went wild when the following terse message appeared on Malloy's site:

The decision was a curious one. Malloy was only one of two radio professionals (WJNO Florida powerhouse Randi Rhodes was the other) hired by the fledgling Air America Radio in its' first year of operation, and in my humble opinion, the most entertaining of AAR's assortment of hosts. Indeed, Malloy's ability to accurately reflect the anger of liberals and progressives at the Bush misadministration often gave the listener the impression that they were not so much listening to a political talk show as participating in group therapy. And for this Malloy's fans were both legion and rabid.

So it was no surprise that within minutes after learning of Malloy's dismissal his fans had flooded AAR phonelines with calls of outrage, organized petitions, threatened boycots, and spawned countless threads on liberal discussion forum Democratic Underground among others. To say that hyperbole was involved would be an understatement. Reading through some of the comments at DU, and Malloy's own forum puts one in mind of the hysteria accompanying the breakup of the Beatles. So why would AAR let one of their most popular hosts go?

You know, and this is where I part company with a broad swath of my fellow liberals and progressives, I don't think it matters. AAR is after all a radio network, and a business. In businesses all decisions are ultimately financial ones, even in a business like Air America that is famous for mishandling its' finances. The radio business is also a notoriously gossipy one and ultimately the truth will out.

In the meantime what does concern me are some of the reactions to Malloy's dismissal, which are as fraught with conspiracy theories as Malloy's shows were. While details vary the concensus narrative is that AAR was brought under pressure by the government to fire Malloy who had inconveniently gotten too close to the truth. Much of the controversy has centered around other popular, but low-ratings producing, hosts that AAR has let go with speculation that the Republicans are trying to kill AAR one host at a time.

Others have called for a campaign to raise money to help Malloy, and his producer/wife Kathy Bay, feed their young child until Malloy finds work elsewhere in the industry. This would be a noble sentiment if not for the fact that Malloy was hardly working for minimum wage, and could have been getting much more than that if one commenter on Air America Radio founder Sheldon Drobny's blog can be trusted.

And much of the anger has focused on Air America Radio itself where conspiracists theorize that it has been taken over by the pro-business, centrist Democratic Leadership Council which seeks to tame AAR so as to avoid embarrassment from far left talk show hosts heading into election season.

But above all else lefties are mourning what they see as the final nail being driven into the coffin of their beloved radio broadcasting network.

Amidst all of this I find myself disgusted. Disgusted at not just the vile and twisted conspiracy theories and their torturous logic but also at the defeatism being flaunted and paraded, nurtured even.

Might I suggest, and on this you may vehemently disagree, that while AAR's missteps are unfortunate it's just a business for crying out loud and not the freaking holy liberal saviour. Mike Malloy's firing doesn't trumpet liberal media armageddon. Likely it doesn't even sound the death knell of Mike Malloy's broadcasting career. Further still, left or center, love it or hate it, Air America Radio serves an important function as the most mature, and most recognized of all the alternative broadcast sources. To channel this much anger AAR's way while hoping for its' demise is to cut your progressive noses off.

You don't like AAR and the way it runs its' business? Fine! Good! Frankly, neither do I. Now stop your yammerin' and go do something about it -- and I don't mean sign another online petition. Be the media!

At no point in history have people had so much power to create and disseminate their own message. There's no need to just sit passively by when there are so many ways you can contribute your talents. Start a blog, or podcast. Get involved with local cable access, community run radio, or even your nearby college radio and television stations. Now, you can argue that you're never going to have the reach of the mass media giants. So what? You're never going to reach the yokels who prefer to be spoonfed their information from Fox News anyway. You're not missing anything.

There are millions of people out there you can reach though. They're the ones who are actively seeking out information and with the tools the web puts at both your and their disposal it's easier than ever for you to find each other. Still, you don't need to affect millions of people. All it takes is to change the mind of just one or two people who might in turn change the mind of one or two people more each. And if those one or two people happen to live in your community and that results in the simplest of changes that improves life in your community, even if that simple change is something as mundane as getting a stoplight at a busy, dangerous interesection where there was never one before then you've achieved something. If enough people take the media into their own hands it won't be long before the mainstream media is no longer the mainstream.

Finally, if you don't think you have the talent, time or energy it takes to do it yourself then financially support someone who does. A couple of dollars a month multiplied by just 1,000 readers, listeners or viewers can make a big difference in affording your favorite liberal/progressive independent media creator the ability to continue to do the work that the mainstream media isn't doing.

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