Al Franken doesn’t know why it took so long for Air America Radio to land in Seattle, but he’s glad it has.
After seven months and rapid growth throughout the nation, the liberal answer to traditionally conservative-dominated political talk radio arrived on 1090-AM on Monday.
“Seattle seems like the perfect place for us to be,” Franken, host of “The Al Franken Show” on Air America, said in a phone interview Friday. “I’ve been to Seattle many, many times. It’s a very liberal community, and it’s a town we felt like we should have been in right away.”
Infinity Radio Seattle launched KPTK, “Seattle’s Progressive Talk Station,” replacing the AM version of country station KMPS, which is still on 94.1 FM.
Air America Radio started March 31 in New York, Los Angeles and Portland and now has affiliates in 37 cities nationwide.
Franken, the 53-year-old longtime “Saturday Night Live” writer and political activist, said the network will have staying power, regardless of Tuesday’s election result.
“We now own a niche of our own creation in liberal talk radio,” he said. “So much of talk radio is conservative, there’s a real necessity for us to be here.
“If we had been around in 1993 (after Bill Clinton became president), maybe every American would have health insurance.”
The aim of Air America, Franken said, is to provide the antidote to what he calls lies that are spread by conservative radio hosts.
“The right has spent a lot of time trying … to create the impression that there’s a left-wing media, and I don’t think that’s true,” Franken said. “The mainstream media has internalized this criticism, and now they’re scared of their own shadow.”
He said the biggest lie that most or many Americans still believe is that “Iraq has something to do with the ‘war on terror’ and that Iraq is somehow connected to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.”
“It’s because they sold it so hard,” Franken said. “And I think there’s cognitive dissonance. Once you’ve gone to war, you don’t want to believe it was for the wrong reason.”
His sharp criticism of the war shouldn’t be confused with a lack of support for American troops or America in general, he said.
“I don’t hate the country,” Franken said. “I’ll be in Iraq in December for my fifth USO tour, and I went before last Christmas. I support our troops. Those of us who don’t support the war effort still support our troops.”
Franken, whose comedic background comes through on his shows and in his books, takes a somber tone when discussing democracy in America and the chance to repair the damage he thinks has been done.
He’s hopeful Tuesday’s election won’t end up being a repeat of courtroom disputes and voter disenfranchisement. The polarization that’s happened in the past three years under President George W. Bush is something Franken says he can’t explain.
“I don’t know how to fix it,” he said. “We could have fixed a lot right after 9/11 if we’d had a real leader. There’s never been an opportunity like that and there never will be again, and this guy blew it. Really, that’s too bad.”
“It was right there in his hands,” Franken said. “He had a totally united country and we would have gotten behind him if he had pursued policies that involved mutual purpose and sacrifice. Instead, he hijacked 9/11 for own right-wing agenda.”
Still, Franken can say one nice thing about Bush.
“I think he values humor,” he said. “I don’t think he has a very good sense of humor, but he likes to laugh on certain occasions.
“He’s like the third-funniest guy in the fraternity.”
Reporter Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
