Randi Rhodes May Be No Better Than Ann Coulter, But Ann Coulter Works For No One (And Is Honest About It)

Randi Rhodes quit Air America last week rather than apologize for calling Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro "fucking whores" in an appearance on behalf of the network in San Francisco (seen here). Immediately thereafter, she took to Larry King to blame Air America's new owners for attempting to change her contract over what she called a "stand-up comedy routine that I did on a Saturday night."

Watch:

The stand-up comedy defense would be a good one — if only Rhodes were a stand-up comic. But on that Saturday night in San Francisco, Rhodes appeared as a representative of Air America Radio: the station paid for her travel, the station advertised her appearance on their website, and she was billed as "Air America's Randi Rhodes." To suggest that she was anything other than a representative of Air America in the controversial appearance is misleading, to say the least.

Rhodes certainly has the right to free speech — but paid speech is a privilege, a privilege she gave up when calling two prominent American women "fucking whores" at an appearance on behalf of her employer.

Perhaps more disturbing than Rhodes' attempt to spin her departure as a matter of contract rather than one of principle is the hypocrisy underlying her comments. On March 5, 2007, Rhodes blasted Ann Coulter for calling John Edwards a "faggot," calling the comment "stunning," "disgusting," and "unbelievable," and saying, "I have never seen a bunch of Neanderthals like this, gathered in one place, applauding. Sick people." The way Rhodes frames Coulter's comment — "calling a presidential candidate a faggot" — is especially telling in light of her refusal to apologize for calling a presidential candidate a "fucking whore."

Listen:

Rhodes is one of the most popular, most talented progressive radio hosts in the country. By refusing to apologize for her comments, by refusing to see the parallels between the Coulter comments she found so stunning and her own comments, she lets down the legions of devoted progressive listeners who looked to her for an honest take on the news. And in doing so, she only further strengthens the conservatives she railed against so well — in her job as a radio host, not a stand-up comic — day in and day out.

You might say that Randi Rhodes is no different from Ann Coulter — and in their unapologetic tendency towards controversial hate speech, they are quite similar. But at least Ann Coulter is honest about who and what she works for — book sales, the bottom line — whereas Randi Rhodes attempts to backtrack from her employer-sponsored comments by referring to them as "stand-up comedy."

Comments

[Jeany]

Air America screwed the pooch. I have no idea who Danny Shea is, but this is a slightly less hysterical version of this week's installment of Left Jab, an XM program hosted by a couple of ex-AAR suits, Mark Walsh and David Goodfriend. Normally I enjoy the show, but the handwringing blame coming from the two hosts today just made me laugh. Nice try, guys.

Keriker and Green tried a standard management shakedown of their business's premier talent. Stupid, and the latest in a string of utterly stupid, boneheaded management decisions. They have one name talent left, Rachel Maddow, and she is genuinely ascendent and will eventually leave Air America far behind. They still have Sam Seder in the closet, a talented young man with a young family who's easy to jerk around. We're all out here holding our breath waiting to hear whether they give him a contract for the 3-6 daypart. I predict they'll fuck that up, too.

I'll post one last prediction. I'll predict that come Monday April 21st, when 3 PM rolls around, Randi Rhodes will be back on XM Channel 167. I have invested in Air America, time, two sat radio systems, and money for "premium" podcasts; I've flogged their line-up to friends, burned CDs and edited clips for on-line posting.

I do not think they'll exist in ANY form in another year.

[MichaelBoh]

Who wrote this horrible piece/commentary? Rhandi is passionate and funny, whereas Coulter is passionate and mean. It is a ridiculous and absurd comparison. Rhandi is positive while Coulter is NEGATIVE. Rhandi was trying to be funny in San Francisco while Coulter makes her remarks to sell books full of lies. Rhandi is progressive while Coulter is sub-human. There is no truth to the piece. Air America got what they deserve. They had no right trying to censor Rhandi. We love you Rhandi. Good luck on Nova M!

[bitabingbitabangbitaboom]

Randi is better in the sack than Anne...........................I did them both

[raker]

Randi Rhodes is brash and coarse so people say she's no different from Ann Coulter. Facile, lazy, ignorant people.

[picodegallo54]

apparently the "progressive" talk radio station in my town (albuquerque) decided to continue broadcasting this idiot from her new station. i thank them for helping me make the decision to turn then off, permanently. if this is the best they can do, then they are no better than FOX. there are better ways to stay abreast of the current political news. if randi coulter is the answer, that's one stupid question.

[geobushono]

Randi is the goddess..............the attacks are from those who are afraid of uppity women and are more comfortable with:
Bill Press.
Lionel.
Ed...the fat guy.
Belzer....whos' guest today was extolling george schultz & henry kissinger....nuff said.

Stephanie-Randi-Thom-Mike......The POWER in Left Radio has shifted.

HI there Nova M

http://www.novamradio.com/live/stream.php

[LiarLiarIraqsOnFire]

When I cancelled my XM subscription I let them know it was because of the decline of AA. Though I will mis Ed Schultz and Rachael Maddow.

They might as well rename the place RadioDLC. They jettisoned talent like Janene Garafalo, Mike Malloy, Lara Flanders and the union sponsered shows, I gave up on Ring of Fire because I couldn't listen to Bobby Kennedy shilling for Hillary, and Clout is a waste of sattelite useage.

I'm off to sign up for Nova M

[NickFuryII]

Well, there are some similarities:

Ann Coulter exposes the intellectually inferior, morally bankrupt, and mentally deranged aspects of liberal progressive thinking.

Randi Rhodes proves them.

[situationcritical]

Randi Rhodes - Ann Coulter: Same DVD, two different layers.

[hopeless277]

I want all you Randi fans to go to work, walk in to your bosses office, and say 'Hillary Clinton is a fucking whore'. You won't? Why not? 1st amendment and all that. Uh huh, I thought so.

[HOTLIPS]

hopeless277 ( the handle says it all)
I did ( walk into my bosses office and say Hillary Clinton is a fucking whore & Ann Coulter too)
My boss laughed, smiled then told me to go back to work, I breathed a sigh of relief, won a $100 bet.

I value my 1rst amendment right to freedom of speech.
It's not like most people can "walk into you bosses office" and say anything whatever they want. Randi Rhodes is in showbusiness. Creating contoversy is part of that business and her boss normally would have loved it to create more listeners. For the rest of us not in show business, not so much.
What you "hopeless" people forget is in what CONTEXT was it said.
I believe in the Constitution and so does Randi. Do you? Uh huh, I thought so.

[sssteverrr]

You know, I wish you would watch your language. This is a public forum and it is inappropriate. Randy was at a private event, appearing before people who PAID to see her, your example is either ignorant or ill-informed and your languagwe should have been rejected by the moderator.

If you are a true proggresive you should be listening to Randi. Find your local affiliate below:
http://www.novamradio.com/live/affiliate_list.php

[shinybear]

This piece is nothing more than Air America spin.

Enough with the passive agressive victim nonsense.

They just lost their only hit show and now Nova M is overnight the place to hear Randi, Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartman, Rachel Maddow and Mike Malloy on one channel!!!!

And we all know the real story now in great detail!

They accidently played a clip of poor Richard Belzer yesterday interviewing Martin Short- it was like a poor man's version of the Mike Douglas show from the 1970's and everyone there sounded like they wanted to commit suicide.

Everybody is listening to Randi- she's the top liberal radio show in the country!

And now she is better than ever.

OMG You should have heard what she was saying about Hillary yesterday!!!!!

[RGKahn]

As Lionel keeps saying "the First Amendment is a bitch" it was not written to protect speech that everybody agrees on, it is there to protect speech that many would find offensive, to say the least. I find Anne Coulter to be vulgar, a shrew, uninformed and generally repulsive. However, she has that right to be all those things. I have the right to protest her and to ignore her. I understand that the event was sponsored by Clear Channel, who carried her show on a number of stations long before Air America Radio did.. Anyway Randi is rejoining a station she was with earlier, I believe. Remember the First amendment is not just to protect popular speech, which need no protection, but speech that is unpopular and NOT politically correct.

[WandaBooneshaft]

The way I see it, if Bush can stand in front of the American people and lie like the devil about WMD, yellow cake from Africa, and AQI ...

... anybody should be able to stand ANYWHERE and speak the truth.

[ProFromOre]

Since when did journalism become analyzing press releases and statements out of context. Did you interview Ms Rhoades? Did you interview Air America executives? Did you interview anyone from the appearance, which was billed as 'stand-up political comedy'?

No, you didn't. You are simply dredging up old news, with no new original viewpoint and re-stating it. The only purpose appears to be an attempt to harm Ms Rhoades or Air America. That's NOT your purpose - that is the purpose of a PR rep.

You shame the profession.

[gjoh]

Randi Rhodes is nothing like Ann Colter. Nuff said.

[JeffinIllinois]

You are right. Randi is worse. I've been listening to AAR since their start. She was my favorite program. She had always said she wouldn't get involved in party politics during a primary. She encouraged listeners to do research for themselves and not believe her. It was great to have a place for progressives to enjoy discussions on issues that we care about. About the middle of January 2008 she started with the Hillary hatred big time. She has regularly said on the show that she is not a stand up comic and doesn't feel comfortable in those situations. She and AAR have gone off the deep end for Obama love which means they sliced off half the Democratic party. Ann Coulter is one of "theirs", Randi was one of us. We are just fortunate that most voters have never listened to AAR or one word of their dribble.

[shinybear]

Randi did not come out against Hillary until after the Texas/Ohio primaries- you are lying my dear.

Imagine a political opion maker actually having an opinion!

You were never in Randi's camp.

Now go tune in to Fox with your girl Geraldine.

[KingofAccuracy]

Danny Shea"s tendency to assume different choices and interpretations are mutually exclusive, is puzzling. For example, he claims "Randi Rhodes quit Air America last week rather than apologize..." But he doesn"t say why he believes her only two options were to quit or apologize. Similarly, he argues that Rhodes was not doing stand-up because she was appearing as "a representative of Air America." But he doesn"t explain why she couldn"t have been doing stand-up while "representing" Air America.

Danny also criticizes "Rhodes' attempt to spin her departure as a matter of contract rather than one of principle..." Again, it"s not revealed why the two perspectives are mutually exclusive, and the reader is left wondering why Randi"s account should be dismissed as spin.

Air America, like any company, has a limited "right" to impose certain restrictions on its employees. But out of a sense of basic fairness, doesn"t it have the obligation to provide its employees with advance notice as to what the restrictions are? All Randi did is use harsher language in a nightclub to make essentially the same point she had been making regularly on her radio show. Whether or not Danny is willing to acknowledge it, it"s a fact that Randi dabbles in stand-up, and it"s a fact that the language she used is perfectly acceptable on the club circuit. I invite Danny to explain why Randi should have known what she said in San Francisco is punishable. -- Jeff Norman

[RealityBaseCamp]

I've been wondering about Danny Shea. Part of the reason for that is that there isn't any link to other posts on his articles - I had to Google to find a link to a few posts. They were a few news pieces, no opinion stuff. I know from what I see here, however, that he posts articles that are short on facts, and rich on half-truths. I know that he's able to update articles, but hasn't updated this one as more information came out, and as people posted links that contradicted him. Unless someone reads these responses, it's hard to tell that her "attempts to backtrack from her employer-sponsored comments by referring to them as "stand-up comedy." " are actually attempts to point out that a 20 minute comedy routine delivered on stage in front of a paying audience IS STAND-UP COMEDY! Reading Danny's article, one would never know AAR wanted to change her contract for their own reasons, and exposed the excerpt from her standup as leverage. I don't know what motivated this, but it doesn't show a tendency toward getting the facts before publishing.

[liberalissima]

Beg pardon, did you say Ann Coulter works for no one? She defends the conservative agenda and insults everything Liberal and you say she works for no one? She damned well works for the 'patricians'; the bloody rich of the country that's who. The ones that guarantee that she as well as they continue to live off the fat of the land whether others grovel for crumbs or not. If she worked for herself she would necessarily be impartial wouldn't she? She would criticize both sides and see what good there might be in both sides wouldn't she? You miss by a mile on this one!

[KingofAccuracy]

Danny Shea"s tendency to assume different choices and interpretations are mutually exclusive, is puzzling. For example, he claims "Randi Rhodes quit Air America last week rather than apologize..." But he doesn"t say why he believes her only two options were to quit or apologize. Similarly, he argues that Rhodes was not doing stand-up because she was appearing as "a representative of Air America." But he doesn"t explain why she couldn"t have been doing stand-up while representing Air America. Why must it be only one or the other?

In general, the concept of "representing" Air America isn"t clear. There seems to be some implication that a company has the "right" to impose certain restrictions on its employees. But out of a sense of basic fairness, doesn"t a company have the obligation to provide its employees with advance notice as to what the restrictions are? All Randi did is use harsher language in a nightclub to make essentially the same point she had been making regularly on her radio show. Danny should explain why Randi should have known what she said in San Francisco is punishable. Whether or not Danny is willing to acknowledge it, it"s a fact that Randi dabbles in stand-up, and it"s a fact that the language she used is perfectly acceptable on the club circuit. -- Jeff Norman

[protagonia]

Jeff Norman

Well said. This is just a move to shut down satire, the great spotlight on the wrongs of power.

[BlueHorde]

It isn't Randi Rhodes you should be comparing to Ann Coulter, it is Charlie Kireker, the man who deliberately made an issue of the demeaning statements about Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro in a deliberate attempt to damage his own company.

The controversy was created 2 weeks after the stand up routine by Air America management itself. They released the video themselves in order to pressure Randi into renegotiating her contract. She didn't damage Air America's reputation, the event had passed and no one cared. Air America did the damage to itself by trying to damage Randi.

The audience and the market passed their judgement by putting Randi back on the air in record time with a new syndicator and nearly all the same stations.

Worse than Coulter? At least Randi is sincere. She behaves appropriately on the air. In night clubs doing stand up, she speaks like many (or most) people doing stand up in night clubs - and this is something she has been doing regularly for several years, nothing new about it. Management knew about it, regular listeners knew about it. It was never an issue before because her employers never tried to blackmail her over contract negotiations before.

[Livvy]

I completely disagree. I really didn't like Rhodes comedy routine and think things like that are better left unsaid.

That said when she is on her radio show she never comes anywhere close to the kind of discourse Coulter engages in. Its absurd to even suggest it.

[Mattie]

they both are hate mongers, and should both be labeled as such. Just because Rhodes is a democrat doesn't excuse her disgusting remarks. If anything it's worse, we should be better than that.

[CharlieQ]

It's about time someone pointed out Randi Rhodes world class hypocrisy.
She always censors comments on her message board, my space page,callers, ect
who don't agree with her, or are not "Randi friendly." But she allows the comments who rant on about free speech defending her.

And why is she lying about starting a radio network in 4 days. (Tuesday 4-15-08)
She just joined NOVA M, Now she is taking the credit for starting a radio network. No, it was Sheldon and Anita Drobny who started NOVA M., not Randi Rhodes.

[sssteverrr]

Lie, Lie, Lie and lie some more. Randi has neve claimed to have started NOVA M. She is proud of the fact that she was able to work with Nova M to retain her affiliates and her audience and put the whole thing together in four days. This is a remarkable testament to her succes in the market place of ideas.

Randi is free to do what ever she wants on her message board. Air America is free to do whatever it wants with its talent without breaching its contracts and Green 960 in San Francisco was free to choose who they wanted to entertain their listeners.

Everybody was free to act, there is no hypocracy. Air America made bad choices and will suffer for them. Randi Rhodes and Nova M and the radio stations who chose to keep her and dump Air America in her time slot made good choices and will prosper. End of story.

[jerthree]

Mattie shut the hell you don't even know Randi to that!

[BannedFromCommenting]

Jerthree "Shut the hell up yourself.." you cannot even make complete sentences. (Reread your comments, and insert missing words to it makes sense.) An intelligent educated person does not use words like "fucking whores". They do not try to cover it by saying it was a comedy routine. You are on the clock you represent the company you work for. Free speech goes out the window. Sure she can say what she wants, but her company reserves the right to sack her for it.
Randi Rhodes Show I have listened to many times.. I USED to like her, until I continually saw a pattern in which her 3 hour show rants over the same topic over and over, no unique insight. I want to LEARN something, not just rehash of what I already know. She gets callers to call in, then talks over them, just like Ed Shultz does. Only Tom Hartman gives his callers the floor , fairly, as did Al Franken but he left to pursue his senate career.

[pmretep]

Incidents like this one are going to make it real easy for me to vote for Nader in November. And, I hope it's my one vote that causes the Democratic nominee, whoever that may be, to lose to McCain.

It's one thing for a radio host to criticize the insensitive and hateful remarks that a person like Ann Coulter makes. It'sa completely different matter when that radio host gets silenced by the corporate media because the "owners" didn't like what was said by that radio host off air in a context when one might have been more free to use colorful language than on air.

We are all racing towards corporate fascism faster than I think we know.

[ProFromOre]

"I hope it's my one vote that causes the Democratic nominee"

If this is truly what you hope for, Why be a coward and vote for Nader? Show some balls, vote for McBush.

[Mattie]

I agree, all the hate here on Huffpo has convinced me I won't be supporting Obama, the hope and change thing is laughable. Have you read the posts here since Iowa. Wow, if this is hope and change, I want no part of it. I also want no part of a candidate that would vote for the Cheney Energy bill, and vote to fund the war in Iraq at ever turn. No thanks to hope and change!

[mooph]

And therefore you're going to vote for Nader?

Are you going to take your toys and all the sand from the sandbox too? Or are you just leasing the use from a corporate vendor?

Great that you've awakened -- now do something constructive.

[northernperspective]

I've enjoyed Randi Rhodes for a few years - started picking her up well before the 2004 election cycle. I trust, even admire, her research and righteous anger - a few tin-foil hat moments aside. I will follow her to Nova - Rachel Maddow, Thom Hartmann, Mike Malloy are already streaming there anyway. But she was wrong.

Attacking female public figures with language derived from mysogynistic bullies may look like political courage but it just comes off as "Meangirls". And characterizes an argument run out of intellectual steam. Not funny. Just disappointing.