Just a quick thought...

I've been listening to a little bit of Air America, and you know what? I'm really, really glad that it's out there and I really like Franken et al, but I don't think I like the tone and temper of talk radio at all.

Yesterday's O'Franken Factor dealt with, amongst other things, a comedy sketch involving locking Ann Coulter (played by Bebe Newirth) in a closet and letting her go crazy. Kind of funny, but maybe a bit too vitriolic for my tastes. And then we had today's, when someone asked a question Franken didn't like and he refused to even answer it or consider it. After this he went on for a long long time taunting Rush about his drug addiction.

This is all well and good, it's the milieu of talk radio but my question is, is this the level we really want to stoop to? How is this any different from the Right Wing's Talk Radio, just with the names switched around to the other ends of the sentences? I think Franken is a really funny, really intersting comedian, but honestly, this kind of almost completely devoid of real content framing of the issues in increasingly dogmatic ways might help the Democratic Party win elections, but on some level, is bad for democracy, liberalism, discourse and apple pie.