On Talk Radio, It’s Raw and Uncanned

Your report about the “galvanizing of patriotism” (“Most Callers Back U.S. Conduct of War”) makes it seem as if talk radio and patriotism are simplistic.

Too often, we talk about patriotism in the wrong terms. It’s not a yes/no answer to whether we support the war, nor a game of follow the leader. It’s our democracy bustling and bursting, arguing, shouting, laughing. That’s what happens on talk radio.

In my 15 years hosting talk radio, I’ve never found it to be the land of the bland and boring, but rather the home of the brave and the free.

Much of what has been written about talk radio makes it seem like the person-on-the-street interviews you see on television. But it’s nothing like that. It’s response, it’s reaction, not just a quick cut, someone with a camera shoved in his or her face. What you hear is raw, springing from the caller’s desire to be heard, not exhorted for an on-the-spot opinion.

Southerners, New Yorkers, accents from around the world, from teensomething to eightysomething, the deep-throated and the whisperers, from pay phones to car phones. It’s thrilling to hear and to host. It’s like the town meeting of early America, where people jostled each other and shouted out so they could be heard. And most important, there would be a real response, an honest response--be it angry, funny, agreeable or hostile. Nothing canned about talk radio!

And another thing. Forget the stereotype of lonely people with nothing to do as callers to talk radio. They are active people with a lot to do.

Doctors call worried about the medical facilities in the desert; lawyers wonder about the legality of injecting unapproved vaccines into our troops; teachers seek the way to explain war to little children; coaches worry that the language of football is being used for the language of war; parents proud of their sons on the front lines, others fearful of a possible draft; defense industry workers question the ability of our complicated technology.

Besides, where else can you hear that:

* “Saddam Hussein is a Catholic and the Muslim religion is a division of the Catholic church.”

* “No woman should back any war because war is simply an expression of male values.”

* “I’ve been on hold for 77 minutes to tell you that this war is God’s plan, the final Armageddon, and anyone who questions it is condemned to hell.”

* “After the war, do you think we could convince the Saudi Arabians to let women drive?”

* “I flew an Iraqi flag next to my American flag on my front porch just to see what would happen.” (He said he was seriously threatened.)

* “I told my husband no more sex until he stops lusting for more bombs over Baghdad.”

* “My boss ripped off my John Lennon glasses just before I went on a sales call.”

* “I put a yellow ribbon on my car because I support the troops. I’m against the war and I hate the protesters.”

In our current climate, where can you speak out? At work you can’t spend the day fighting with a co-worker about F-14s and Scuds. How much arguing with the kids can you do? Dinner parties become extremely uncomfortable when the steak--oops, the tofu--is flavored with spicy honesty.

Maybe I’m prejudiced. I just love talk radio. It’s so American. And patriotic.