Air America: The Playbook: What a Bunch of Left Wing Media Types have to Teach you about a World Gone Right

by David Bender, Chuck D., C. Welton Gaddy

What the Loudest Voices on Liberal Talk Radio Have to Say About How Our Country Really Works--And How to Take It Back

Incisive political commentary delivered with a healthy dose of humor--and a decidedly left-of-center twist--captures the essence of Air America Radio

For frustrated voters who like their politicians left of center, the era of George W. Bush has been a time of exasperation, eye-rolling, hand-wringing, and even despair. Since Bush's "election" in 2000, millions of blue-tinted Americans have fled in droves from their TVs and radios, no longer able to bear the "Swiftboat-ization" of the mainstream media or the haranguing voices of such "villains" as Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, and Rush Limbaugh. Where can these displaced persons go for political asylum?

Enter, in 2004, Air America Radio, a talk radio network exclusively devoted to liberal, progressive talk. With stars like Al Franken, Janeane Garafalo, Chuck D, Robert Kennedy Jr., Randi Rhodes, Rachel Maddow, and many more, Air America has become an oasis in a time of complete domination by a conservative Republican majority. With close to four million listeners on 89 stations around the country, Air America gives all of those voters who still feel Al Gore and John Kerry should have and perhaps even did win the last two presidential elections a place to vent their opinions and talking heads who share their righteous indignation.

However, for readers who don't know what to do when their favorite radio show is over and they're still wide awake, for those who loved Jon Stewart's America, Bill Maher's New Rules, Thomas Frank's The Trouble With Kansas, and books by Al Franken, a new balm in book form awaits.

 

Air America offers a roadmap to the landmine that is American politics today, through an array of eyes and voices unabashedly left of center. Combining new original material with radio transcripts, useful sidebars and statistics, and interviews, all offered in an irresistibly unexpected mix of humor, outrage, sarcasm, and thoughtfulness, this essential guide to how our government works, who are the best hopes and the biggest offenders, and most importantly how liberals can take back their country from the ruling right wing is a must-read.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published September 19, 2006

Reviews

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was painfully, excruciatingly humorous. Like in the someone's grabbing your hair and one little piece pulls against the skin humorous. The book is a series of interviews/cartoons/commentary, and it is biting and pathetic. One section is a timeline of the Iraq war from the first mention of "wmd's". It's sad and frustrating, and yet so sarcastic.

[Tim]

It seems somehow sadly fitting that Air America: The Playbook hit the bookshelves less than four weeks before Air America Radio filed for bankruptcy. Just as the radio network's financial problems seem to display some degree of a lack of planning and execution, the playbook also suffers a lack of focus and goals. In that respect, it is also illustrative of the often self-inflicted problems liberals and the liberal media have had in going on the offensive in America.[return][return]The Playbook is a collection of interview transcripts, original writings and humor from the staff of Air America. The problem is that you're never quite sure what niche the book is intended to fill. Does it want to be a humorous like Al Franken's prior works or The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents America (The Book) ? Does it want to be a "Best of Air America"? Does it want to be a vehicle by which Air America's hosts and contributors present their expositions and views of liberal ideas and the errors of the Bush Administration? While there's nothing wrong with trying to blend such approaches, The Playbook tends to weave from one to another like a football back in the midst of a broken play.[return][return]Read rest of review at http://prairieprogressive.com/?p=876