ABORTION ON THE AIR

Pia de Solenni writes about a horrible moment in talk radio:

Caller number four was Theresa. She was calling to talk about her "son's father's mother" and her abortions. After explaining that the now deceased woman had had ten abortions, one of which she performed upon herself — Elliot volunteered to give her a posthumous award — Theresa asked, "Is there any way that I can get a t-shirt?" Theresa, there are easier ways to get a t-shirt...

Interestingly, of the eight callers during this segment, four were men. One asked, "Hey, um, does me givin' one count?" Naturally, Elliot's interest was perked: "Are you a doctor?" The caller laughed, "No, I'm a dude. Just an average Joe." As he
recounted the story, it had something to do with the girlfriend of a friend. Elliot replied, "Alright. Ok. No, no. There's part of me that wants to know this story but I think, I think, it's probably a bad idea." And they all laughed — a perfect setup for the next caller who identified himself as "K-dog."

K-dog: "I got all these people beat. Between my first wife and my second wife, uh, 16 [abortions]. And I got five kids."
Elliot: "Are you lying just to get on the radio?"
K-dog: "Naw. Swear to God."
Elliot: "Oh. But wait a minute. You. That's very funny. You didn't personally get 16 women pregnant."...
K-dog: "I got two women pregnant 16 times."

That's "very funny?" More and more these days I find myself shutting off the radio. Pop music is just plain awful, classic rock leaves me bored anymore (been there, done that), and talk radio is getting more shrill all the time. Air America is at best boring, and at worst an assault on my values. Other than Mike & Mike in the Morning on ESPN Radio, or at times Rush Limbaugh, that’s about it. Sean Hannity used to be the best, but has degenerated into a shrill parody of himself so that he’s inane if not the most obnoxious self-promoter anywhere. Laura Ingraham and Glenn Beck have moments where I laugh so hard I have to almost pull off to the side of the road, but I rarely get to listen to them as I’m at work. If I had heard the segment aired above, and at 8:30am no less, I would have been pulling off the side of the road to loose my breakfast and to weep.