Thursday, March 31, 2005

They should have hired a sound engineer

I missed the first hour of “Left of the Dial” but it was instantly annoying not because of the chattering lefties, but because the soundtrack was a quarter-second off from the visuals. It was an endless distraction – anybody else think so? Or was it my cable?

Anyway, the best part of this HBO documentary on Air America Radio was Election Day 2004. There wasn’t a single person in that echo chamber willing to entertain the slightest notion that Bush might win; then reality came crashing down on them. I haven’t laughed so hard since reading the November 2nd entries on John Kerry’s blog (now erased). I’ll be sure to catch the whole thing this weekend.

Extra: Logical Meme does an excellent review of “Left on the Dial” and the myriad problems at Air America.

2 comments:

dantheman said...

Haven't watched it yet, but it's being taped on my DVR. I'll look for the unsynched audio.

dantheman said...

First of all, I've got to say the piece was quite fair. I was very pleased with the HBO crews when they kept rolling even after being told to stop. They did this twice, and both times were events I'm sure the Air America people (and any liberal HBO producer) would have preferred to cut out. But in they stayed, so I've got to give HBO props for that.

What a bunch of egomaniacs! It was hilarious to watch as Al Franken "joked" about singlehandedly launching the network. Mark Maron (who?) continuously whined about Franken's publicity. And if you thought Mark was bad, all Randi Rhodes did was whine about how Franken got the cover of NYT Mag; that is, when she wasn't shouting down callers -- and Ralph Nader. It's slightly excusable, seeing as she's the only one with any radio experience. I've got to give Mark Riley credit for staying calm and collected during the publicity-grabbing battles, however.

To watch as the self-appointed hero of the masses (Kevin Cohen) lies to his employees and as his attorney lies to the media is priceless. These are the same people shouting "Bush Lied, Kids Died." Yet they're finding ways to stiff the very people carrying out their grand vision. Hilarious!

But that's not nearly as funny to watch as when they come to terms with the disappointment of election night. The look of dejection on Janeane Garofalo's face -- and Randi Rhode's disbelief -- perfection.

There are a few glimmers of hope, however. The female co-host of Morning Sedition (some British woman, can't remember her name -- and it looks like she's not there anymore since she's not on the website) proposes that "Hey -- maybe we should get over the 2000 election," only to draw the ire of Mark Maron (again, who?), who snips, "Who's side are you on?!." Then, on election night, a gem. If you listen closely, you can catch someone (an intern I think) say in disbelief at the returns, "Am I living in a Democrat bubble?!" I doubt she realizes how right she is.

The overall tone is sympathetic, but not to the point of airbrushing over the bad spots (see first paragraph). In the end, I think it was a mostly honest but very revealing look at Air America's launch.

PS -- I too noticed an audio synch problem early on. However, it seemed to be corrected (or I just got used to it and stopped noticing).