T.A. Lighten Up! Peter is always grumpy. Get over it. Kulingoski is not the most unpopular Governor, not even one of the most unpopular Governors. A 47% appoval rating is not what we would like, but let's give him Democratic controll of the State House and then see what happens. I suggest you vent your displeasure toward Karen Miinus and Keven Manix.

Well, we know Peter, but the rest of the country doesn't. That's the point. We like him and know what he does. Recent years have been hard on him, but I think he needs to recognize that he needs not to embarrass Oregon when he speaks for progressives

at least Peter isn't fake. maybe he acted that way, so that Al wouldn't call him again. maybe that was his idea.

as a moderate republican i turn on Air America occasionally, and frankly its just Rush Limbaugh for the Left. Boring and unoriginal.

Congratulations Dems. You now have your own version of Sean Hannity and Lars Larson.

As an Al Franken listener, I have heard the audience yell at him when he mispronounced a local name. Is a local guest never allowed to talk back to the great Al Franken?

As someone who has followed Courtney's career for decades, I am glad he is the genuine article. Like it or not, that sounded like genuine Peter Courtney to me and I wonder who else in this state has accomplishments like SB 1 and finally taking a serious look at the State Hospital.

How many people reading this blog have appeared on radio shows and done a great job at it? Who would TA approve to be the Oregon Democratic spokesman on national broadcast media?

As a resident of Marion County, and as someone who has substituted in local schools including Woodburn and Gervais, I take exception to "When Al pronounced "Gervais" wrong (and who doesn't pronounce "jer-vus" wrong the first time?), instead of joking about it, he sounded like it was a personal affront against his sainted mother."

I think that is personally insulting. But then maybe others reading this never flinch at the pronunciation of Willmet (river or university), ORE E GONE, or other mispronunciations.

I have know Peter for eons. For your information, he is one of the funniest guys around in politics. He also happens to be the only speaker I can remember invited back by the Associated Press Broadcasters to be the keynote speaker, TWICE because he was so entertaining. He was also a commentator for years with KPTV and with KSLM Radio. I didn't hear the interview, but anyone who has heard Peter knows he comes across with a unique personality. I, for one, was sickened when Lars attacked him on the air a few months ago. Before you knock Peter spend some time with him and get to know what he's really like. You couldn't find a more caring individual in politics today.

T.A.

Is this your weak attempt at humor?

What the hell is wrong with Peter Courtney?

Your little post shows two things:

First: You have never seen Peter Courtney speak before. In defying all political conventional thinking Courtney consistently manages to insult his audience and in return they love him for it. He is reactionary, ornery, and come across as a curmudgeon and people will laugh at his jokes and walk out of the room saying things like, "Oh that Peter, he's such a charter" or "he is such a genuine guy." I'm not sure how but people find him truly endearing.

Second: If Courtney not sucking up to Al Franken (who's show really isn't funny...Yes I said it!) causes you to go a two page tirade, then you obviously have something against him. If you have problems with Courtney’s politics be a man of your convictions and say what you really think. Don’t sit on the sidelines handing out thoughtless criticisms like lightly bearded Joan Rivers. I will say this though, if the only thing you have to bitch about is the way he comes across on the radio then I think he is a pretty good job.

So in conclusions, before you attack someone, you should probably know what you are talking about first.

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I witnessed the interview. It was Oregon's turn, in the seventh installment of '50 States in 50 Days.' And a good-radio democratic treatment it is, albeit hodge-podge ... like the states.

T.A., I so share your firey antagonism blasting at the events in the media day. And with others it appears I share a mild-to-moderate disgust for Air America Radio's content, but because -- surprise! -- it is not stoutly radical enough, to my way of thinking, and it beholds commercial sponsors while I encourage standing for mass media socialism which, in radio, means what the KBOO promo says: "Listener supported, volunteer powered, community centered, people loving, true news active-radio." (Or something like that. KBOO 90.7 FM -- always time for your donation.)

Air America Radio should banish commercial sponsors and let continuous audience contributions carry it. The freedom given in that is invigorating.

T.A., I so do not share your impressions of Courtney's minutes. The inspiration in it was his sounds of independence. (Al: "What advice would you give other states?" Peter C.: "I wouldn't give them any advice." 'They have to develop their own understanding of their responsibilities to people.') The frustration in it was the pre-scripted structure that had no allowance for late-breaking news, especially the burning of Ft. Clatsop and that in relationship to the Lewis and Clark bicentennial commemorations.

But scripts make for good radio production and AAR keeps to a professional standard. I love/hate it. Sorry, though, that it failed you today, T.A. I would have done it differently, but I wasn't doing it.

However, that was my Boring Correction that Al F. aired today, correcting his yesterday error in saying "New York State covers 54 million square miles." When I send it in and then hear Al F. read it, I get, and offer for sharing here, the feeling they ('the voices') are responsive. (As my son's T-shirt has it: You're just jealous 'cause the voices talk to me.)

Here's two to try for tomorrow. At The Al Franken Show open, he said they would "be talking with Oregon senator Peter DeFazio," (instead of Courtney. Bzzzzt. Boring Correction.) At Oregon segment summary, he said 'today's feature was Or-re-gone,' (phonetic spelling). Bzzzzt. Boring bullwhip lashing. Swsst-snap.

In my version of the gestalt, Courtney gave better radio, for being better prepared, than Al F. gave. He seemed way frazzled today -- it's Rosh Hashana; it's Katharine's last week; there was the preznit's disturbed-mind morning theatrics; and there is popular-rising heat of some burning passion for revolt that seemed to flare into flame yesterday at the insulting Justice nomination under the dark shadow of the solar eclipse. (An aside in that, as preznit stumble-bummed harder and harder on an answer that was going stupid and stupider, today, there came some vocal quaver and gasp-labored breaths that sounded like coronary-failure onset, AND, the morning paper's photo clearly shows the flaccid droop at the left corner of his lip, which is a vestige symptom of heart attack and which first appeared in photos after his hushed-up medical crisis that was falsely reported as choking on a pretzel. Nope, it wasn't. It was coronary infarc -- and persisting to be observed in his immobile lip and struggled breaths in fear.)

T.A., if your sense of the mounting neo-con oppression-by-terror is as hot as mine, it makes us both see red at slights and imperfections. I saw the same points you make about Courtney's segment, and I made allowance for constraints operating on both ends of the phone interview, and I just didn't take it as far off as you did.

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clear

Here's a link ot the audio of the show: http://www.airamericaplace.com/upload/aaof100405.mp3

peter had his voice. and his voice made it sound like the most heinous thing he could be doing was an interview on air america with al franken. in the battle over ideas, presentation is more than half the battle, and sometimes it's the whole battle. courtney blew it, and given that he had such a major stage to work from, that's a terrible shame.

First of all, the guest today was House Speaker from Colorado and he started out with a joke. But he sounded a lot younger. My experience is that people who are themselves make a better presentation than those who try to be someone they are not.

Believe it or not, there are those who listen differently to the same broadcast. There is no such thing as "people heard Peter as..." or anyone else. Believe it or not, some people admire the genuine article whether it be Peter Courtney or a national figure. The post made it sound like anyone who wanted to win the battle of ideas was not allowed to listen to that interview and say "Yup! That's Peter!". Does having homogenized spokespeople always win the battle of ideas? I wonder how many listened to Jesse Ventura when he was running for governor and said "He'll never win because of the way he comes across in the media".

Talking about someone else, a friend sent this in an email this morning, "People who are comfortable in their skin don't need to put other people down to feel adequate--enough said. Sadly, there are few left in the legislature who have real class, and that's on both sides of the aisle."

That doesn't sound to me like the only way to win is to have homogenized "media savvy" people speaking in public only following a certain set of rules and never being themselves.

I can think of 2 instances where people went over like lead balloons when given their chance at a major media interview. Both were in election years, and both went on to lose that election. It was in the 1980s but I still remember it--given major media exposure they spent more time talking about their opponents than themselves, thereby giving free publicity to the opponents. Both went on to lose those elections--and some of the people I knew thought the failure to talk about themselves and their own beliefs in the major interview had something to do with that loss.

I am glad TA liked the parity bill. Can't please everyone in any form of media, but I think TA would have come across better in the original post if he had said "While I admire Peter for SB 1 I think he blew it on Al Franken".

Putting "and he begins by being snotty to Al?" in the first paragraph sets off alarm bells as if nothing else matters.

Pat,

You want our spokesmen and women to cater to "the Masses" now?

You know the masses were in favor of slavery and are currently in favor of pro-wrestling.

Well, I thought Courtney had some interesting points to make, and I agree that his declining to give overgeneralized advice to generic "other states" was soul-satisfying.

But, quite honestly, I thought he sounded like he was reading the sports page while he was doing the interview. The box scores, so he had to focus carefully on that tiny agate type. About the twelfth time Al or Katherine asked a question, waited, asked, "Senator Courtney? Did we lose the connection?" then had to remind him what the question was, my face was crumpled up in a perma-wince.

Thank you Jack Roberts.

Show me a public figure (esp. anyone who has actually held public office) who says they have never been criticized for their appearance on a broadcast and I will show you someone either very lucky or in denial.

And those who say another Oregon public figure could have handled it better (to be fair, Al Franken does have a habit of interrupting guests, and a true comparison [based on the first paragraph of this post] would involve mispronunciation of a geographic name in their district), should name the person they think would have handled the interview better.

I have long thought the biggest political successes are those who don't go outside the parameters of what those who have known them a long time expect. I can remember when Mike Kopetski was in Congress and someone asked "how can you support him when he voted...?". And the response of those who worked long and hard to elect him was on the order of "He never leaves the parameters of "that's our Mike" and that is why we like him--so many others get into office and disappoint".

If someone wants to post that ____ would have done better job in that Franken interview, fine.

T. A., I heard the show live and it was my impression that Al started the interview by botching a joke that went over Peter's head. Peter was confused and it took a little prompting from Al and Katherine to get him on track. I was really pleased that "Gentleman Pete" got to describe one of the most positve accomplishments of the recent legislative session.

TA, As someone whose late friend was a radio reporter, I still think you are missing the point. OK, you didn't like Peter on Al Franken. The question remains--who in Oregon do you think would have done a better job? Or is this all about how you did a better job when you were on the radio than Peter did so we should all say so?

I am a big fan of Mark Hass and he was a great TV reporter. But he is not the one who got SB 1 passed. Which is more important--getting a good bill passed or doing a good job in a radio interview?

The only thing perhaps less funny and less witty than Al Frankin's show are T.A. Barnfart's posts.

T.A., could you remind us one more time how you were on some obscure radio show once for 15 minutes at time when most normal people are asleep?

Besides, you miss a few huge points anyway. First, maybe back in the hayday of SNL, Al Frankin might have been funny, but he's not funny anymore and for the most part just comes off like a bloated uber liberal version of Rush Limbaugh.

Second, hardly anyone listens to his show except a few uber liberal wingnuts and his ratings suck. Frankin isn't helping Liberals or the Democratic Party any more than John Kerry or Al Gore. They're all losers. And bad losers at that.

Third, if you really think that Oregon is such a crappy place and is "in such deep doo-doo in virtually every way" as you write, then why don't you move somewhere else, like San Francisco maybe?

After reading some of the stuff you pollute this forum with, it leads one to think that you'd have a better chance of finding your Own Personal Nirvana in SF's Castro District.

Oh, ...and don't forget to take your meds. (grin)

A. Merkin

The insightful Winston Wolfe writes:

T.A.

Is this your weak attempt at humor?

What the hell is wrong with Peter Courtney?

Your little post shows two things:

First: You have never seen Peter Courtney speak before. In defying all political conventional thinking Courtney consistently manages to insult his audience and in return they love him for it. He is reactionary, ornery, and come across as a curmudgeon and people will laugh at his jokes and walk out of the room saying things like, "Oh that Peter, he's such a charter" or "he is such a genuine guy." I'm not sure how but people find him truly endearing.

Second: If Courtney not sucking up to Al Franken (who's show really isn't funny...Yes I said it!) causes you to go a two page tirade, then you obviously have something against him. If you have problems with Courtney’s politics be a man of your convictions and say what you really think. Don’t sit on the sidelines handing out thoughtless criticisms like lightly bearded Joan Rivers. I will say this though, if the only thing you have to bitch about is the way he comes across on the radio then I think he is a pretty good job.

So in conclusions, before you attack someone, you should probably know what you are talking about first.

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Mr. Wolfe, applause for hitting the nail square on the head. If I ever meet you in person, it would be a pleasure to buy you a beer or several!!!!!

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