Community Checkup

From Media Matters and Electronic Village:

Fox News Radio host Tom Sullivan took a call from a listener who stated that when listening to Barack Obama speak, “it harkens back to when I was younger and I used to watch those deals with Hitler, how he would excite the crowd and they’d come to their feet and scream and yell.” Sullivan then played a “side-by-side comparison” of a Hitler speech and an Obama speech. Sullivan mimicked the crowd during both speeches, yelling, “Yay! Yay!”

When a later caller complained that Sullivan was “denigrating” Obama with the comparison, Sullivan said he wouldn’t play it again, then begged: “Can I, please, one more time? Just one more time? Then I won’t do it again. … Until the next time.”

Come on, now… Really, come on… The combination of malice and sheer lack of rationality I’ve heard in some of the characterizations and comparisons of Obama is astounding. This one by Sullivan and his caller has to take the cake though. Reminds me a bit of the man who asked John Edwards about how he would prevent Obama from seeking revenge on whites for the past injustices inflicted on blacks. But even that question pales in comparison to Sullivan’s stunt.

Sullivan could have shut the caller down right off the top, or at best acknowledged the man’s point and kept it moving. Instead, he took the comment as an opportunity to grandstand in shock-jock fashion. The sad thing is that the comparison is so absurdly tangential that it makes you question Sullivan’s mental status. It was like cognitive slippage on full display.

The reality though, is that Sullivan knew exactly what he was doing–straight up throwing dirt for the attention. Of course, he denies this, and argued that saying Obama has the same ability to excite the crowd as Hitler did is not really making a comparison between the two men. Weak, weak, weak. And grimy.

Ratings must be low… as low as Sullivan himself.

[Note: Sometimes things like this aren't worth expending much energy on. But if you feel a desire to do something about it, I encourage you to check out the call to action at Electronic Village]