NY Daily News: What cut Janeane's (Garofalo) Air supply (AAR)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/449008p-378008c.html

Was it a disagreement over covering the 9/11 anniversary that cost Janeane Garofalo her perch on Air America?

She went from being a daily co-host to "guest host" status in July, for reasons that were not clear at the time.

Now a source says she's telling friends it was a Sept. 11 bustup that lead to the move.

"She said she quit because she asked to do a segment where she intended to interview some FDNY 9/11 heroes, and the radio brass killed the idea," says a snitch.

Garofolo's manager wouldn't comment beyond saying, "That may very well be true."

[Eric J in MN]

1. Two things Ben Widdicombe leaves out.

1) Janeane Garofalo repeatedly said on the air that she doesn't like having the obligation of doing a radio show every day. She likes radio, but not the obligation.

2) The controversy over the firemen is that they claim to have been sucessfully treated for lung problems with a Scientology method which Sam Seder and many others consider unscientific. AAR isn't against interviews with firemen per se.

[Stephanie]

19. I know a WTC fireman personally who this techinque worked for

He swears by it, and he is in no way a Scientologist. The process involved cleansing and supplements, basically the same thing a holstic health care provider would do. It didn't sound far-out to me in the least. And his lung improved a lot, he only has 17% loss, must better than most of the firemen who worked the pile from day one.

*edit* I will add that he turned to the Scientologists because they were offering this treatment for free and nobody else was offering the firemen ANYTHING, so he tried it, and it helped.

[StrictlyRockers]

2. I have often wondered about her departure. TMR is not as good w/o her.

I like Sam. But I like Janeane more. Thanks for this update. I wonder what she is doing now?

I just read about what happened when she got canned from SNL. Not much to say about that.

[Eric J in MN]

3. What is the Saturday Night Live story?

NT

[StrictlyRockers]

22. The Saturday Night Live Story is...

Well, I read about it in this book, "Live from New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live".
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0316781460?vi=culturevulturene

Apparently she was too much for Lorne Michaels to handle. She challenged him. And she was a bit resentful of guys like Adam Sandler and Chris Farley, who always got their skits on the show, even though she thought their style of humor was "childish". (Damn right, but it's still funny as hell.)

This is Janeane from the book, "I learned that I made the experience even worse than it should have been. I was defeated. I was weak. I drank too much. I will go with the Eleanor Roosevelt quote, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." I have my consent freely. And every time I waited for Lorne for five hours - luckily, I didn't do it more than once or twice - but once I did it the first time, I gave my consent to feel inferior. I gave my consent to Marci Klein to feel inferior because I was intimidated by her. I gave my consent to the other writers and my coworkers that I was just weak, you know? I was a loser. And so I definitely learned from that experience. Other that that, I don't know what I took away form it. But I guess that's pretty significant."

A few people in the book say she wasn't good on the show, and that she raised too many issues and fought too many battles. For instance, she argued with Michaels over a skit where Adam Sandler makes fun of Chris Farley for "screaming like a girl." She thought it was disrespectful to women.

My take: I still love her. I say good for her for being so candid about her problems with the show back in the 90's. And good on her for sticking up for women's rights in a boy's club where many would overlook jokes with somewhat off-color, sexist language. I'm a big fan.

:yourock:

[kstewart33]

5. Seems like she gets fired alot. Hmmm.... nt

[w4rma]

4. The AAR "brass" are really screwing up.

Angry at Garofalo for wanting to interview fire dept. heros from 911. Firing Malloy, the lowest paid most hard hitting voice on AAR for "financial reasons".

Has the DLC taken over AAR? Are they trying to force their hosts to be more shallow and less hard hitting?

[NYCGirl]

6. Janeane was on Franken's show on Friday. Guess she's not too upset.

And the problem, as stated above, wasn't that she wanted to talk to fire dept. heroes, she wanted to talk about Scientology "curing" them.

[w4rma]

8. Well, I stand corrected.

The NY Daily News left out that aspect in their attack on Air America Radio.

[Eric J in MN]

9. Darn those unpatriotic AAR managers, who don't...

...believe in honoring heroes!

That is the impresssion Ben Widdicombe gives.

I don't know if he's ignorant of the full story, or intentionally misleading.

If you want to give him the benefit of the doubt that he just doesn't know about the Scientology aspect, then you can email him at:
gatecrasher@ nydailynews.com

[Eric J in MN]

12. Do you know which hour (1st 2nd or 3rd)?

I have AAR Premium and I'd lke to listen to her appearance.

[NYCGirl]

16. I think she shows up in the first hour (with Lawrence O'Donnell subbing).

She stays on for quite a while.

The blog says on Thursday...now I'm confused. I heard the show both days.

Thursday, August 31
by Eric Hananoki on August 31, 2006 - 7:05am.

On Thursday and Friday, former ‘West Wing’ executive producer and Franken Show Tuesday regular Lawrence O’Donnell handles hosting duties for the vacationing Al Franken. The guests on his first show:

Sam Harris, the author of the New York Times bestseller, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason and Letter to a Christian Nation.

and Senator Christopher Dodd, a Democratic Senator from the state of Connecticut.

UPDATE: Thanks to Janeane Garofalo, our surprise guest on the show.

[Eric J in MN]

18. Ok, thanks I'll try that. NT

NT

[NYCGirl]

20. It's on Thursday, and Janeann shows up 32:20 into the podcast. NT

[Eric J in MN]

21. OK, I'll try that. NT

NT

[Eric J in MN]

7. Firstly, I believe she left because she didn't

...like doing a radio show every day. Not because of management.

Secondly, the issue with the firemen interviews is that they claimed to have been successfully treated for lung problems with a Scientology method which people such as Sam Seder considers scientifically unproven.

[w4rma]

10. Gotcha. See post 8. (nt)

[Eric J in MN]

11. OK. NT

NT

[Dhalgren]

13. Regardless of why she left,

AAR will be lessened with her gone. She isn't only funny, she's smart and motivated. She will be gravely missed...

[wryter2000]

14. Ummmm...daily host?

Yes, her name was on the show, but she was almost never there. Not faulting her. She's great, but she had other things to do.

If you remember Left of the Dial, she said plainly that if she didn't work out as a host, she wanted to leave for the good of the station. As lovely and passionate a person as she is, Sam was clearly the better host. I think she did the best thing for the network and for herself. This sounds like a bunch of rubbish.

[Eric J in MN]

17. Good point. Once she left to do "The West Wng" she

...was never really a daily host, again.

[latebloomer]

15. Seems she wasn't there more than half the time

If you have a job, you need to be committed to it-- not running off and doing a million other projects.

[PennyK]

23. She was on jury duty!

I remember when she returned...but it seemed as though Sam and Janeane always had issues. Even though I like her very much, I'd have to take Sam as a great solo host...he's funny and hard hitting too...sometimes I think he's more efective than the Goddess of Radio...she can be repetitive.

[latebloomer]

25. Jury duty?

Well, that may have accounted for one brief absence-- but what about the endless period of time when she was shooting "The West Wing" and other endeavors-- honestly, she seemed to be on air about one quarter of the time, if that.

[peekaloo]

24. DailyNews trying to stir up a story. The Andy Roddick story that follows

is amusing.