Air America Idiot Update

Being on Air Idiot’s mailing list sometimes delivers unintentional comedy gold.
Case in point: This just hit my inbox:

Dear Air America Radio Listener,

When we launched the Air America Radio network one year ago, the country was being talked to death by conservative zealots like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and others. Right Wing radio saturated every media market and every community – a dominance of the airwaves that has been a huge part of what allowed the Right Wing to:

*Drag America into the Iraq war.
*Open up the Arctic National Refuge for oil drilling.

*Take over both houses of Congress.

*And, of course, win the 2004 Presidential election.

Rather than wait for the Right Wing to run out of breath, we launched Air America Radio to give the country back its voice. Thanks to listeners like you, we have a presence on 70 stations covering 60% of U.S. media markets. Air America Radio currently offers 15 shows and runs 24 hours a day of entertaining – at times irreverent – but always enlightening programming.

To continue this great success story and start shaping the national debate the way that Right Wing talk radio does every day, we’ve got to reach into every community in this country. We know we can’t achieve this next stage of growth without significant help from you, our loyal listeners.

We’ve also been asked on many occasions by our listeners how they can help out. Today we are launching a new program called AIR AMERICA ASSOCIATES that gives you the opportunity to do just that.

Be still my heart…. Tell me more!

As an Air America Associate, you are a member of a special group of listeners who support Air America Radio and are dedicated to building the Air America community. When you sign up we will send you a packet of bumper stickers [OOH!] to remind you that your job as an Associate is to spread the word about Air America Radio to other progressives in your workplace, your family, and your neighborhood.

Also, as an Air America Associate, you’ll be kept informed of events in your area and receive a monthly Associates insider newsletter with backstage news from our shows and our headquarters. And in time, when we launch our paid services [cough up the bucks, hippies], as an Associate you will be eligible for special discounts for premium content.

Rush Limbaugh didn’t take over our airwaves by himself – he had an army of “dittoheads” behind him. We will never reach the same critical mass that he has without our listeners helping us as well. So, please become an Air America Associate today by clicking here:…

If you decide to become an “Associate,” meant–according to the pitch by CEO Danny Goldberg–to develop an Air Idiot legion to counter Limbaugh’s multi-million strong army of acolytical listeners; help level the battlefield for Air Idiot’s numbskull field commanders like Franken, Rhodes and Garofalo to wage “progressive” radio’s war on the like of Hannity and Limbaugh, the link offered for the True Believers to muster up takes you to…a product shopping page, where you can buy 3 bumper stickers ($50), 3 bumper stickers “and a stylish tote” for a C-note, or, for 250 smackers, the bumper stickers, tote, and a personalized thank you message on their website.

I think I’m gonna cry if I don’t stop laughing. They’ve stooped to aping NPR/PBS, badly. It’s a fundraising campaign. With cheaper-assed gifts to boot. And you can’t even write it off.

To be fair, if you make a token donation it seems they’ll send you the three stickers, but damn! Just how cash-strapped are these clowns? And who in their right mind would give these grifters a credit card number and trust them not to whack the crap out it?

Well, I guess it’s a step up from scamming a charity.
Check it out.

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