Radio Sweethearts

This week, I really noticed OTM’s theme music for the first time. It’s catchy, but no-nonsense. If Brooke had a big, swanky cocktail party, this is what would probably be playing.

I wonder what kind of music Brooke and Bob are into. I have a feeling that Brooke is into really good jazz, though, maybe sometimes, after she’s had a long day, she listens to the Stiff Little Fingers on the train. Bob seems like the sort of guy who has an iPod filled with stand up comedy. Though, if he’s never heard Jens Lekman, I should make him a tape - I think he’d relate to the sincerity.

Right, so, the recap. This week opens with more election coverage. It’s actually interesting, though, because they’re asking a question I’ve been asking for months now: When will the media stop covering the Democratic attrition like it’s still a big race?

Quoth Bob: “Like the Mid-East peace process and the Kansas City Royals, Senator Clinton still technically has a chance to prevail, but that would take a miracle.”

According to Chris Beam, the Clinton campaign is just waiting to get some kind of good, juicy dirt on Obama that could bring him down fast. Bob then gives an example of such a bomb - ” When you’re talking about a meteor, you’re talking about a video of Barack Obama in a motel room with a den of Cub Scouts setting fire to the American flag.” I can totally picture that, and it’s making me giggle.

Even though the race isn’t over, it kind of is. Though, I’m not entirely convinced. I want to believe Bob. I like Obama, and I voted for him in the primary. But stranger things have happened, and after the NCAA men’s championship game, I’m pretty sure I want to wait until the process is entirely over before I get excited about a candidate.

I mean, it has to end eventually, right?

Moving on. Press freedom is being challenged in Canada. A conservative columnist for Maclean’s magazine wrote a piece about Muslims that could be considered offensive, ill-informed and reactionary. A group of Muslins was (understandably) offended, and their formal complaint against the magazine, citing the Canadian Human Rights Act, which protects Canucks from hatred and contempt.

Bob interviews Naseem Mithoowani, one of the people who filed the complaint. She had this to say about it:

“We felt that it was time for the Muslim population to play a part in the discussion about Islam and Muslims that Maclean’s had started. We therefore went to Maclean’s editors. We asked that a mutually acceptable author – so not us, because we’re not writers, but somebody that we could both agree upon – would be allowed to author a response to the Steyn article.”

Now get ready, kids, because Bob is totally about to lay some journalistic smack on our neighbors to the north. He replies to Mithoowani’s comment thusly:

“Now, I can tell you categorically that if anyone came in who had a complaint with something that we at On the Media had done and the person began to dictate exactly what it is we will do to redress the wrong, we would smile and show them the door, because even more important than the specifics of what we do in any given story, we are impelled to protect the sanctity of our editorial independence. You understand that principle, no?”

Ok, Bob? You’re turning my love-hate relationship with you into one of pure love. This isn’t good, as Matthew and I decided a long time ago that he’s the sincere one, and I’m the snarky one. You’re ruining my street cred, but I don’t care. You’re awesome.

The awesome doesn’t stop there. He continues:

“Before you filed the petition, did you consider that you would be seen as intolerant of other views, and, worse than that, by using the tools of Canada’s liberal democracy to stifle dissent, that you were, in fact, realizing his very predictions, which is that Islam is, you know, going the use the very tools of our society to take control over us all?”

That’s it. Bob Garfield for president. America, fuck yeah.

Also in this week’s episode: A decade after the Rwandan genocide, some Rwandans are still armed, dangerous, and living in the Jungle. Mike India is trying to get them to lay down their weapons and go home to build a better Rwanda. And what better method to convince jungle-bound revolutionaries to give up and go home than with radio? Listen up.
Wikipedia pages are defaced, facts don’t exist, and people feel four percent better about the US this year than they did last year.

This week’s episode was written by Kerry, who finds herself suddenly wanting to make Bob a mixtape. It was edited by Matthew, who is scared for his relationship’s future, and may therefore make Brooke a tape. An awesome tape.