On the way home from work yesterday evening, I heard ridiculousness on the radio (surprise, surprise). This time it wasn't coming from the actual music or the commercials, but the callers (another surprise).
*Before telling you what I heard, I think it's important to note that I commute to/from work with my mother because she tends to listen to things that I would never want to listen to- which leads me to this morning's blog.
Unfortunately, my mother chose to listen to Michael Baisden, whom she describes as a "pompous ass." He had John Edwards on the show, and listeners were calling in to give their two cents (more like 1/2 cent, at best).
One man called in talking some serious nonsense. He went on and on about how he wasn't sure about Obama, being that his dad is African and that he is a Muslim. "How do I know he has allegiance to the United States? His dad is African."
Umm... Riiiight... Why didn't I think of that?
People like this scare me because I often think there are more of "them" than there are of "us" (us being level-headed, informed individuals). Nonetheless, what worries me more about this man's statements is that Baisden did not say "sir, Barack Obama has already refuted statements that he's a Muslim" or "sir, what the hell are you talking about?" Instead, this man went on and on about Obama's dad being African, and how Africans don't care about black people in America (whoa... dejavu, anybody? Can you say "Kanye West on NBC?"). He basically said that all Africans and Caribbeans were snobs and that, how do we know Obama isn't one of them? "Just look at how he speaks!" I'm sorry. How are you supposed to speak after you graduate from Harvard Law and serve over a decade in politics? And what's up with this anti-African sentiment?
Another ridiculous caller decided to become Hillary Clinton's press secretary. This lady went on and on about how the Clinton's said they were down with the black community, and knew what was best- and a black president was not it. Now, I'm not going to call myself a Clintonista, but I'm pretty sure that Mrs. Clinton never actually said "Did you forget he [Obama] was black?" Fortunately, after this lady went on a tirade saying that Hillary said this, and Hillary said that, Baisden actually asked the question, "did she really say that?" The
Someone else called in posing a valid point: Why aren't we talking about education? I had hope in this caller. Until she said, "and what's up with this No Child Left Behind? Somebody needs to tell me what that is." Come on, people! We're living in the information age! How can it be possible that you know that the candidates are shirking discussion of education, yet you have no idea what NCLB is?
Finally, this last caller I had a gripe with was getting all upset about Universal Health Care. "I pay $127 dollars a month for health insurance, and they're want to make me pay for it? That makes no sense." Blah. You make no sense.
(Can you tell I'm starting to have to do real work in the office now?)
Anyway, I just want to know how everyone feels about the responsibility of the host to point out factual errors made by the callers. It would be lovely if we could assume that listeners would take everything said by average Joe's with a grain of salt, but come on, now. We know this just ain't so. Should Baisden have pointed out factual errors (such as Africans hating Black Americans), or was it okay that he just ignored these statements altogether?
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