He Walked Off The Show !!!

I don't know how many of you ever listen to Air America Radio (recommended, especially Randi Rhodes in the afternoon), but I was listening to "The Majority Report" show with Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder, broadcast here later in the evening, and it was pretty wild tonight! I drop in to this show from time to time, and it seems that, besides the palpable tension that exists between the two hosts most of the time, that there has been a lot of tension lately regarding Janeane's continuing invitation of this 9/11 support group which assists first responders facing medical issues as a result of the events of that day (from the dust, asbestos, PTSD I suppose, and so forth). The problem, for Sam, is that this group is a Scientology based group, which calls into question all kinds of issues (I've read up on them, Scientology that is - bizarre as it comes!). He questions the scientific validity of their work and approach (appropriately, in my view), and calls in to question their real agenda. Janeane it seems, has been taking his, and a producer's, resistance to continued accomodation of this group (they've apparently been on a few times already recently) personally, saying that she was being "censored" from putting forth her support for the work of this group. Garafalo, as an atheist, claims that all religious-type groups are cults, but that if some are doing some good, she supports them, financially, be they Christian, Jewish, Scientologist, or so on.

Well, tonight it got heated. Janeane went on about how she was being censored regarding this issue, and Sam and the producer kept saying that they just felt that the Scientology backround of this organization really brought into question the legitimacy of their efforts, which have no scientific peer-reviewed support as to the efficacy of their work. This, of course, being combined with Scientology's rep as crackpot quackery at best, and a very dangerous cult at worst. Janeane, in a cheap shot (in both my view as well as other listeners, it seems), stated that if it was a Jewish organization doing this work of aiding 9/11 first responders with medical problems, that Sam would be all for it (Sam is Jewish). This put Sam over the edge, although he responded calmly enough; you could tell he felt it was too much. He told her as much, that the comment was essentially over the line. They went back and forth a little, tried to sweep it under the rug it seemed, but by a commercial or so, and a return back to the show, Sam had walked out of the studio!. They had another junior producer come in to finish up the last half hour with Janeane, and this guy reported that the show's producer had already walked out, even prior to Sam.

These two do have a history of walking out on each other during the show, with I believe Janeane doing the majority (or all?) of the walking out (I like her alot, but you can just tell that she is really on the edge, emotionally, so often during the shows- which makes for very interesting shows I'll admit). She finished out the last half hour, basically babbling about something with the junior producer in that way that, you know, when something very embarrasing has happened, or something very controversial, and people try to cover it over by talking in vague generalities, just anything to avoid the fact of what just happened. You could hear it in her voice though, even she was not convinced by the babbling, that something very uncomfortable had just happened. Anyway, it was great radio, not something that you hear or see often in the pre-planned, generically presented, info-tainment world that we live in today. It was real, and real is something that is ever rarer these days. You probably can get it on a podcast if interested; Air America Radio - The Majority Report, Friday June 2 show.

I'm interested now in what's going to happen on, or with, the Monday, June 5th show. We'll have to stay tuned!