PunditFight's blog

Before we get to the art, some thoughts.

It's been two years. It's hard to believe isn't it? There is certainly a sweeping sense of emotion worldwide for this milestone. Part of it is its significance as far as American race relations. Part of it a catharsis from those wanting a change from the Bush years. And part of it is the sentimentality that the campaign effectively tapped into.

My hope for this new president is that people who became engaged in politics for the first time and were rejuvenated by Barack's candidacy remain engaged and take the new administration to task when necessary. Barack has undoubtedly transcended politics. Becoming an icon, a symbolic President. There is a danger that people will be detached and overlook malfeasance etc... the same way some Bush supporters might have dismissed criticism by saying "How could that be? He is a good Christian man". I hope this translates to a deeper understanding of politics and the issues as well as a dialogue on the significance of Government and not just the notion of a having a "cool" President.

It will be interesting to see how this all works out when the honeymoon is over. All signs point to an optimistic future - heck Maron's on board! That's saying something. Sam hmmmm?

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Below is a cross post from my blog.

A collection of PunditFight art encapsulating the entire Presidential campaign season. From the primaries starting in Iowa, the three Presidential debates, the Vice Presidential debate and the General Election.

Some Handy links looking back at the Election Season:
- View all the Art of the Primary PPV Posters
- Relive the struggle Between Hillary Clinton and Obama in the Democratic Primary
- Watch the main event between Barack Obama and John McCain
- Watch the rise and influence of Saturday Night Live
- Watch the entertaining sub plot involving the Vice Presidential candidates Sarah Palin and Joe Biden

It's a little hack, but it's sort of what I do.
Still in progress, will do a write up of some of the conservative defections which i figure will factor into the debate. Obama has some ammunition, ready made counter attacks.
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The 3rd and final Presidential debate between Barack Obama (D) and John McCain (R) will be contested at Hofstra University, New York. It will be held on Wednesday October 15th and moderated by CBS News' Bob Schieffer.

The issue that dominates the news entering into this debate and tipped to remain the frontburner issue for the incoming President remains the economy and the global financial crisis. The other main storyline entering into this final debate is the McCain camps' pressing of Barack Obama's association with 60's domestic terrorist William Ayers. This was a prominent storyline entering into the previous Town Hall debate however McCain supporters were puzzled and frustrated by McCain's failure to inject it into the discussion. Joe Biden and Barack Obama have challenged McCain to be a man and air those grievances "by looking him in the eye and saying it" to Obama's face.

It's the 3rd debate. There are two highly anticipated subjects on the board. The serious implications of Global Financial crisis - "Wall Street and Main Street" and the elephant in the room - "William Ayers".
Without further adieu...

Will John McCain, Barack Obama or Moderator Bob Schieffer inject William Ayers into the debate?

or will it remain focused on the American Economy and the Global financial crisis as with the first 2 debates?

Just wanted to know what you guys thought of Rachel Maddow's new show on MSNBC? What have you guys heard from other people?
The read I'm getting is that people are liking Rachel's new show and it may/will start and continue to surpass Keith Olbermann's show ratings wise and become the premiere MSNBC political show.
KO having lost some stock from his ego stoushes with Matthews during the conventions and the staleness and silliness of the O'Reilly feud.
This is an anecdotal read from a quick look at certain forums. What do you guys think?

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www.punditfight.com

Sam Seder is a liberal talker with a great following on the left blogosphere. He is a pioneer when it comes to integrating and mobilising the online progressive community using the radio medium. He is credited for elevating prominent liberal bloggers like Markos Moulitsas (Founder of The Daily KOs), Atrios, and Digby amongst many others by giving them a regular platform on his show.

During the 2006 midterm elections Sam hosted a weekly segment called 'The Fighting Dems'. Organised with Markos, the segment profiled a range of Military Vets running for office as Democrats. Some candidates ran in Primaries challenging "less liberal" Democratic incumbents. The initiative helped propel military Democrats like Jim Webb into office. Sam was arguably the first national broadcaster to spotlight Senator Webb.

Whilst Sam has enjoyed great support from his audience, he has had a tumultuous career as a talker. He has had 3 different shows on AirAmerica ('The Majority Report', 'The Sam Seder Show' and 'Seder on Sundays') with talks of a fourth. It's possibly attributed to his outspokeness - he's been suspended for calling out a stablemate and received some grief over an on-air feud with a prominent liberal talker. Perhaps it could be something else entirely, The Boston Globe did see it fit to title it's feature profile of Sam "Failure is an option".

In our conversation we discuss the differences between the Liberal and Conservative infrastructure (ThinkTanks/ Talk radio/ Blogosphere). We Talk about the price of being outspoken and his opinion of conservative talkers Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.

Enjoy!

A list of notable Sam Seder posts
1) Sam dissects Conservative talkers John Gibson and Armstong Williams (updated: broken links resolved)
2) Sam dissects Conservative talkers Michael Medved and Michael Savage (updated: broken links resolved)
3) Funny segment that involves Rush Limbaugh and regular caller 'Dewey'
4) Sam Seder on Maureen Dowd and the mainstream media

--Sam on the turbulence in Progressive talk and his own career--
I started my radio career at Air America, that creates some difficulty in and of itself. That whole Ed Schultz thing was blown way out of proportion. I don't think it's helped me in any way. Across the board progressive talk radio is having some growth problems and part of that is a function of the industry as a whole. They don't recognise it as a distinct format. Frankly the industry as a whole has larger problems than progressive talk.

--Sam on how his experience at Air America has helped him understand party politics--
There have been times in the past at Air America where people's assumptions as to why certain things were done. My losing my morning show for example or Maron losing his show. They project (pause) that dynamic of hearing what the audience thinks is happening behind the scenes. It's given me insight in the way that I as an outsider can see what is going on in the Bush Administration. There's been times where people have sent me emails about conspiracy theories that are taking place in Air America. Sometimes the conjecture isn't necessarily irrational, when people deeply care about an institution, whether it's Air America or the US government, and it's not being responsive to them in some way. They are left to their own devices in terms of creating a narrative to explain it.

--Sam on Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and the conservative audience--
I don't know what their (Rush and Sean's) perception of reality is because I only know them [from what I hear]. I've met Hannity a couple of times off the show but he seems like as much of a nutball as he does on his show. I don't know the way they perceive reality. They espouse, I don't know that I would really call it a philosophy as I don't think it reaches that bar. There mouthpieces to a certain extent. Hannity is just lame, he's literally almost by definition a 'tool'.

Limbaugh I think has created a worldview that sells. If you want to create a strong and loyal audience it's a smart one. It's preying on his audiences' desire not to have such doubt in their life. It's really not that different in terms of dynamic to say Scientology or any other so-called philosophy that gives you answers and makes it easier for you. You listen to Limbaugh and anytime you're having a dilemma. It's resolved for you very simply and always in a way that makes "You" the winner because everybody else by definition is wrong and that is essentially the conservative ideology. That is why they're going to do so well in the role of the opposition...

I think Limbaugh is good at what he does, it's a very easy formula. If you look in the paper and you start with the assumption that anything you see or read that you don't do or experience on a regular basis is wrong. You'll find it's very easy because everything becomes a story...

Read full transcripts of the Sam Seder interview here

Here's another cross-post from my PunditFight blog. I hope it doesn't read too messy as there are a lot of transcribed quotes.
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I'd like to recap one of the more interesting calls between a caller and radio talker. It happened April 10, 2008 between Sam Seder and a caller named Joe. To provide context to the exchange, Sam was filling in Randi Rhodes' timeslot after her sudden resignation from Air America. Sam had also received unfortunate news regarding his broadcasting future in an earlier program break. He learned of it not from his bosses but through internet chatter, much to Sam's frustration.

Sam described it as an "odd but somewhat entertaining call".

The exchange from Conservative Joe started off typically enough. Sam could only give the caller Joe a minute as a break was approaching.
"You don't give Republicans much of a chance on your show do you, only a minute huh.

I've got a lot more to say but I don't think you wanna hear it, you want everyone to pat you on the back, don't you?. To tell you how wonderful your liberalism is. But I wanna debate, are we on? Are you scared?"

Sam Seder put the caller on hold, resuming the fireworks after the break. Or so you'd think.

Upon return, Joe began with the statement
"I'm a rock-ribbed Republican"
followed by
"When you liberals talk about conservatives and always put us down you have some points...because the administration has trailed off dramatically"

This was the first of many odd strings where Joe would telegraph a punch then veer in the opposite direction.
"You talk as if everything is wrong with the Republicans and you Democrats are squeaky clean...with this primary Hillary Clinton has proven herself a racist along with Bill Clinton"
(here comes the swerve)
"against my man Barack"

I would prefer people listened to the segment as it's better appreciated heard than read. Listen to the 10 minute segment between Sam Seder and Caller Joe here

Partial transcripts below:
As is Sam's MO he encourages listeners to exercise their own judgment and due diligence rather than blind faith.
"Caller Joe: I actually crossed over out of pure disgust and disdain for McCain... That's why I'm listening. I'm trying to indoctrinate myself into your kind of thinking..."
"Seder: Joe you don't want to be indoctrinated. What you want to do is to actually start to flex the muscles."

Sam has never been one for self aggrandizing at the expense of real issues. In this exchange, he defines his difference in priorities with the caller
"Caller Joe: You liberals don't take to talk radio, if you ever listen to my man Michael Savage you'll understand that Talk Radio is all about bashing people. See that's why your ratings are not that great...you guys are trying to learn but some of you guys just don't have the knack for it..."
"Seder: Here's the difference between you and me Joe ...(Sam lists a series of Political issues facing the country)... so the notion as to whether or not Neal Boortz, because there is some type of distribution mechanism that favors him is doing well. I can't tell you. There isn't any part of my body small enough that could be a repository for how much I care about that. But for you it's a game. See this is the problem with the conservative mindset Joe. You just want to win.

But you don't want to win anything of substance. You just need to make yourself feel better..."

True to form Joe ended with another curious headfake
"You screwed Randi Rhodes, God Bless Jeff Farias and Mike Malloy. Go to hell loser!"

Go to Sam Seder's official website
Watch the exchange in Video (Sammy Cam, April 10 2008) - Recommended: Watch Sam candidly during program breaks, including him excoriating his bosses off-air.

To quote Sam "You and I have seen this movie play out before". I originally posted this April 2007 - the last time Sam had uncertainty with his AirAmerica future. What is most interesting about this post is the audio between Marc Maron and Sam, during the discussion most listeners at that time (me included) were not aware that Sam's contract had not be renewed. With the benefit of hindsight you can hear both of them dancing around that fact with Maron being angry at AirAmerica but this time on behalf of Sam.

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Sam Seder demoted, leaving? (originally posted April 8, 2007)
The smarks out there may already be aware of this information. APF pundit Sam Seder as of Friday April 13, will no longer be on Air America weekdays. Sam Seder said as much on Friday's show, live on SammyCam (live video streaming) after a caller brought up the rumor. Sam has told SammyCam viewers that a formal announcement would be made at the start of his final week. He has reportedly been given a Sunday timeslot. More details can be found on Blatherwatch.

It will come as no surprise to regular readers that he was receiving a solid push by the APF (read former Sam Seder posts here). One reason why Sam was popular in the APF was his frequent referencing and cajoling of Bill O'Reilly and Red team pundits from Hannity to Limbaugh. Another reason for Sam's popularity was his willingness to speak up against other personalities in his sphere that he had disagreements with. Though I wouldn't consider him combative, he was not afraid to criticize or comment on people no matter how awkward or damaging professionally doing so might be.
He commented on different pundits from print, TV and Radio. Not afraid to name names and often calling them out directly. It will be interesting to see how this will affect his future prospects in the long run.

Some notable personalities Sam has spoken about:
1) Favorite targets include Tim Russert, Thomas Friedman and Chris Matthews etc..
2) Lobbying for Thom Hartmann (a personal favourite talker of Sam's) to fill Al Franken's vacant timeslot. This raised the ire of popular liberal talker Ed Schultz. Read former post here.
3) While emceeing a stage performance of 'All the President's men'. Sam criticized Bob Woodward who was not in attendance, Carl came to his partner's defense. Read about it here.
4) Marc Maron, a good friend of Sam's and former regular on his show was talking about a possible gig partnering with Ana Marie Cox (founding editor of Wonkette). Sam was not afraid to share his opinion of her possibly making things awkward for Marc. Listen to Marc's final conversation with Sam on Air America. Because of these new developments, its interesting to hear it in this new context.

My posts are usually never this current, they are often essays and references that are not date specific. I just wanted to write this to simply encourage readers to sample Sam if they haven't already done so as time is running out. Find out where to listen here. Go to Sam's blog here.
If you'd like to send an email to Sam, send to samsedershow@gmail.com

I've removed the details for contacting Air America after some advice from a reader. I would encourage all readers to share their thoughts and opinions of Sam.

Update
Sam is unapologetically outspoken, even if it means upsetting his employers. After taking a dig at Armstrong Williams- the morning cohost for Air America's flagship New York affiliate. Sam was punished by being taken off the air in NY the following day. After serving his punishment, Sam was as defiant as ever repeating his taunt and indulging in the support from his listeners. Sam was sarcastically commenting on Armstrong Williams' credibility, tarnished after being paid by the White House to promote a policy he had previously criticized.

Listen to Sam's smackdown of Armstrong Williams here:
Part 1 "Its not my fault that Armstrong Williams has had such a chequered past..."
Part 2 "apparently Armstrong Williams has thin skin..."
Part 3 "Armstrong Williams was mischaracterising the exchange that Jim Webb had with George Bush"

Go to my blog at Punditfight.blogspot.com

I've retired my Primary PPV posters twice before. Once after Super Tuesday, then I returned to make a one-off poster for the Ohio/Texas Primary. Well it's back. Again! I had retired the posters previously because I foolishly thought the democratic race would be over by now or at least dwindling in relevance. I was wrong.

The lead up to the Pennsylvania primaries has brought even more controversy and rancor. Hillary remains defiant and Obama is ambushed and stumbles during the ABC debates. I've taken a different approach design wise, more minimalist with the candidates not even featured.

Read more about the Pennsylvania Primary at the PBS' "Vote 2008" minisite

View all the Primary Posters individually:
Iowa Primary, January 3
New Hampshire Primary, January 8
Michigan Primary, January 15
South Carolina (Rep) & Nevada (Dem) Primary, January 19
South Carolina (Dem) Primary, January 26
Florida Primary, January 29
Super Tuesday, February 5
Ohio and Texas Primary, March 4

For regular listeners of Sam Seder, the possibility of Sam returning to 5 days a week heralds a few things. With more frequent air time, Sam can return to the lighter aspects of his show which include 'prank' guests played by the likes of David Waterman. The mocking of counterpart pundits like O'Reilly and Hannity can be stretched to multiple and recurring segments. But best of all, the return to a regular weekday schedule heralds the return of regular conservative callers like Dewey.
In celebration of Dewey i'll be reposting an old post from my blog
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Aura (part 1 of 2)

One of the key components of wrestling is 'Aura'. A wrestler's value hinges on gaining and preserving Aura. Aura is earned through the caliber of competition the wrestler defeats. One quick way to earn aura is to purposely challenge and vanquish weaker opponents, known as "jobbers".

As wrestlers trade off each other's aura, you will rarely see a wrestler go undefeated. This is especially true once wrestlers of equal and higher caliber start facing off. When a wrestler must stage a loss, the trick is in managing that defeat in a way that allows the wrestler to preserve their aura. There are many ways of doing this:
1) A wrestler who is being soundly beaten can disqualify themselves i.e a teammate running in or use of an illegal foreign object. Whilst the wrestler has been humiliated they have at least robbed their opponent and the audience of an official victory. This disqualifying action will most likely get 'heel heat'.
2) If a wrestler has been officially defeated by their opponent. The vanquished wrestler can win favor with the crowd by congratulating their victorious opponent. They can do this by shaking hands after the match, raising their opponent's hands or personally handing on their surrendered title belt. This gesture should get the wrestler a 'face pop'.

In punditry, Aura also plays a big part. The pundit must always seem to be in control and more knowledgeable than their audience. That is after all why we listen to them. Callers are quick to challenge pundits if they are being disingenuous or purposely misleading. Pundits can manage this by screening their calls and only allowing those who agree and reinforce their viewpoint. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are known for this. Pundits like Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved and Sam Seder support a format where they specifically invite callers of different viewpoints. Al Franken has a more novel approach, he doesn't accept callers. But sometimes callers will slip through the cracks.

Listen to Rush Limbaugh handle a contrarian caller, as recounted by Sam Seder

Sometimes contrarian callers are allowed on the air for very different reasons. Call screeners may detect that a caller is weak on the issues, or in character (i.e timid, has a lisp etc...). They become unwitting jobbers. It allows the pundit to slap down talking points through this surrogate, to represent the opposing view through a weak spokesperson. These callers often become favorite sparring partners for the pundit and gain cult status with the audience. Inevitably they become show regulars.

Listen to Sam Seder talk to a frequent conservative caller, Dewey.

These unwitting jobbers can also be handled using the bully pulpit. As the pundit controls the microphones he can terminate debates prematurely and have the final word. Mark Levin is a master of this method, it allows him to feed his aura of power and advances his 'take no crap' persona to his supporters.

Listen Mark in action here, here and here. Find more at MarkLevinFan.

continued in Aura part 2

This is a crosspost from my blog at Punditfight.com
I was fortunate enough to speak to Marc Maron, in anticipation of his tour to Australia. Below is only a sampler of our conversation, just the political side of things. There were other things we touched on and they will be online in due time.
Read more Maron posts here.

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Australians will be in for a treat this coming April as APF Pundit Marc Maron will be visiting our shores. Maron will be performing several dates at the Sydney Comedy Store.

Meanwhile as we await his arrival, I had the pleasure of interviewing Marc. He touched on various subjects from politics to Reality TV. Marc also spoke candidly about his previous and only experience in Australia, where he was sent home after bombing disastrously performing in Melbourne 1992.

You can listen and download a sample of the interview here. Marc talks about punditry and where he fits in it. He comments on some of his counterparts and peers from Bill O’Reilly to Al Franken. He also talks about Barack Obama and the idea of the ‘symbolic president’.

I have excerpted some of the interview below:

---Maron on Comics and Punditry---
If art is suppose to be nothing more than disguised self help or some example of leadership in terms of making people feel better about themselves then I don’t know. I don’t have a real problem with Dane Cook, I do have problems with people who are just blindly confident without any real bearing and that’s really the only gift that they give.
Pundits it seems, there's a lot of time to waste on television and there are a lot of people with monied interests who like people to waste that time for them so they can sell other things and it just seems that all it does is give relatively uninspired loudmouths the podium to blather on and on about bullshit that has no bearing on anything and only serves to confuse real issues and distract people from making up their own fucking minds hard enough for them to do anything.

---Maron on being viewed as a Pundit---
No, I’m not a pundit. I was put in a position to educate myself and become more partisan than I probably would be publicly otherwise, more educated than I would be and I’m grateful for that. But on either side of the political spectrum whether its right or left you have bullshit and you’re going to become a distributor of whatever’s side bullshit you tend to align yourself with. So my issue has always been to figure out what my gut instincts were on what’s happening. Where’s the hypocrisy? And what would best serve me and other people.

So the one element of being a pundit I didn’t like, was sort of being in the position to be partisan and righteous in ways I may not have thought through completely or in ways I didn’t find were completely authentic just because I had such resentment towards the other side.

I will be posting more snippets in the future. You will find the complete transcript on the upcoming issue of NerdsGoneWild Magazine (Issue #2). Found in Australia and internationally, check out the site for shop listings or you can buy here. Also expect to find the full Audio in due time on the NerdsGoneWild website.

Marc will be performing at the Comedy Store in Sydney, beginning Tuesday April 15 and ending Saturday April 26. For full details go to the Official Comedy Store Website

Go to the official PunditFight blog to read more Maron related posts.