Free Speech and Talk Radio

The pieces in this book were provoked by some of the vulgar, reactionary, and obnoxiously self-assertive hosts of Hate Radio. A mean-spirited conservative talk radio host epitomizes all that is wrong with talk radio today, its appalling degeration into Hate Radio. The author condemns the unmitigated Clinton-bashing and lack of respect for the office of President it implies. The so-called hosts depicted in these pages are the rude, self-important, contentious pipsqueaks whose raucous, tasteless chatter and prodigious conceit render them fit subjects for satire. There are unexceptionable hosts on stations other than New York's WABC -- knowledgeable, kind and deferential -- but they are unfortunately outnumbered by worthless mediocrities. Topical, diverting and well-written, the book also includes the author's views on a variety of other subjects and two of the author's eminently readable travel pieces.