Shallow Nation

Chronicling trends in entertainment, pop culture, politics, the arts, and the uncategorized et cetera.

The video of Randi Rhodes’ performance was posted on YouTube, and as is often the case with YouTube, the rest is uproar.

Randi Rhodes, Air America

Air America Radio, which already has enough problems, suspended afternoon host Randi Rhodes Thursday for remarks she made during an off-the-air public event in San Francisco.

Rhodes called Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton a “f—— whore,” several times, in the course of a standup comedy routine built on political bits.

Her specific problem with Clinton, said Rhodes in the routine, is that she’s disingenuous: “Her deal is, ‘Read the fine print, a——-.’ ”

Rhodes has long been critical of Clinton on her Air America radio show, which is heard 3-6 p.m. daily on WWRL (1600 AM).

This routine, performed for a private audience at a club in San Francisco and sponsored by the local Air America affiliate, also featured politically incorrect, though not quite so graphic, commentary on folks like former Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro and former New Jersey first lady Dina McGreevey.

It drew a number of ongoing laughs from the audience. There was a loud burst after the Clinton comment, with the quality of the recording making it hard to tell which were laughs and which were gasps.

When a video of the routine hit YouTube, new Air America chairman Charlie Kireker issued a statement saying, “Air America has suspended on-air host Randi Rhodes for making inappropriate statements about prominent figures, including Senator Hillary Clinton, at a recent public appearance on behalf of Air America in San Francisco.

“Air America encourages strong opinions about public affairs but does not condone such abusive, ad hominem language by our hosts.”

Kireker, a long-time Democratic party activist, has ties to the Clintons.

Here is the video - the language, very graphic, is NSFW.

As Seton Motley points out, we should not be surprised.

Rhodes was so gracefully serving as an emissary for the liberal radio network for the alleged benefit of one of its affiliates. So appreciative and proud was Air America that they suspended her - an apparently rare (in fact unprecedented — big time h/t to The Radio Equalizer) disciplinary move by the network.

What is decidedly less exceptional are similar invective-laden screeds from the hack broadcaster whose show and network have fewer listeners than the number of people who read their VCR operator’s manuals.

There was the time she aired a fake commercial which stated that Mitt Romney supporters were going to go on a mass-murdererous rampage were John McCain to win the nomination (no signs yet of Mormons taking to the streets).

Or how about when she declared that the Katrina-induced evacuation of New Orleans was “so much like the Holocaust”, accusing the Bush Administration of Nazi-like handling of the people of the Big Easy. “People were taken one place. Their children were taken another place. … And here you have people being loaded onto transportation vehicles, not being told where they’re going, and their children are being taken someplace else….”

Or perhaps litigation is more your speed. In which case, we have the Randi Rhodes defamation lawsuit, filed by government contractor CACI International Inc. who was somehow and inexplicably offended to hear the elegant Ms. Rhodes accuse their employees of raping and murdering Iraqi civilians at Abu Ghraib prison.

There are many more than merely these. (More)

Glenn Beck discusses the now famous Glenn Beck Surgery Video he posted on YouTube.


As reported on ABCNews.com, Glenn Beck advocates the need to “put the ‘care’ back in health care.”

Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck returned to the airwaves Monday night with a stern message for the health-care industry, after a recent routine outpatient procedure turned into a medical nightmare and had a severe impact on his mental state.

Beck went in for hemorrhoid surgery and experienced breathing problems while he was at the outpatient facility. His doctors put him on a drug cocktail to ease his pain.

“I had the best doctors,” Beck said on “Good Morning America” today. “I had problem with medications.”

The doctors warned Beck he only had two options.

“You’ve got a choice: more pain or more drugs,” Beck said his doctors told him. At the time Beck wasn’t aware of all the medications he was ingesting.

“I had a drug in me that was 80 times stronger than morphine,” he said.

The cocktail had an impact on Beck’s mental state.

“I had been convinced that life wasn’t going to change. It was just not worth living. It was scary place,” he said.

The article continues. Shallow Nation commends Glenn Beck’s candor and courage in bringing this story public.

Glenn Beck has posted a video on YouTube in which he discusses his surgery which “went horribly awry.” He has also posted some comments on his Web site. Hopefully, his harrowing experience will raise public awareness of the deplorable state of the health care system in the U.S.