Freedom of Speech?

It may have been the set of the "Twilight Zone," but at the opening gala of the Talkers Magazine New Media Seminar, the Freedom of Speech Award was given to Al Franken of Air America. The strange part wasn't that Al Franken got the Freedom of Speech Award at a Talk Radio Convention after only a year on the air, or that Michael Harrison said that it was a unanimous pick. It has long been whispered at this meeting that tries to balance a media source (talk radio) that has 4000+ shows where conservative shows outnumber liberal shows by about 8 to 1 that they lean to the left. The strange thing is Michael Harrison, the host of the event asked Al Franken to finish his remarks and get off the stage. This prompted someone to yell, "is this the Freedom of Speech Award or the shut the $%^# up award?"

Al Franken had gone a bit long and was getting a bit mean and was losing the crowd. Jokes about Bill O'Reilly started out funny and then there were too many of them. Jokes about Rush Limbaugh's drug problem were just in bad taste. Then he started to bash one of the talk hosts from another city, reading a column he wrote about going to Iraq. He just violated the cardinal rule of radio, if you have to read, keep it "pithy." He was losing the crowd. Then he and Michael Harrison had what could only be described as a fight in front of the crowd. Then Al Franken closed with a very moving story about visiting Walter Reed Hospital and all of us were wondering what had just happened.

Honestly, Al has the right to say anything he wants. The problem is that he takes the position that he is the only one that is right and if he makes a mistake or goes over the top, he should be forgiven and everyone else should be perfect and open to scrutiny by him.

In defense of Al, he does correct his errors on the air in a deliberate way. He has regularly gone on USO tours that put himself in harms way and he visits soldiers in many venues. I can deal with Al Franken. Even though I disagree with the conclusions he draws and I believe his vision of America is wrong, I respect that he does what he can for the soldiers and understands that without their sacrifice, he couldn't be a rich, famous guy that lives on the Upper West Side of New York.

So today, we'll see what he's made of. In September, while on Larry King Live with Al Franken he accused me of lying (he said I wasn't telling the truth, which is the same thing-he even said so to me himself on Friday night) about John Kerry's Form 180. We now know that I was telling the truth and he was defending a lie. Today on the Al Franken Show he will be correcting that mistake. Let's see how he handles it.

After the speech on Friday, I went up to him and said, "I don't agree with a single thing you said or what you stand for but I appreciate that you went to Iraq and you should have been able to speak." Heck, we all have sat through speeches that were a little long, Al Franken wasn't the first and won't be the last to do that.

Martha Zoller is WDUN Newstalk 550's premier talk host. In November, her first book, "Indivisible" will be available in book stores everywhere.