Liberal Radio and Its Dark Angel: Meet the amazing Sheldon Drobny

National Review, Oct 27, 2003 by Byron York

Nevertheless, Drobny takes the alleged Bush/Nazi connection very seriously. "If Prescott Bush built his family's wealth on the backs of slave labor and the Nazi regime, what responsibility does the Bush family have to own up to that?" Drobny asks. "I don't suggest that I blame him for his grandfather's sins, but I do suggest that if a family has built wealth on the backs of slave labor, what is their responsibility?"

Drobny wants to emphasize that his comparison of George W. Bush to Hitler is quite specific and limited. "I wasn't comparing Bush to Hitler on the racism side," he explains. "I don't believe George Bush is a racist or has or will ever have genocidal beliefs. What I'm talking about is fascism."

Still, since Drobny is the guiding force and the main financial backer of the new liberal talk-radio network, the question arises: Would these ideas be a good subject for the new network? "I'm not suggesting that at all," says Drobny. "As a venture capitalist, I'm not the one who does the programming, nor would I interject my own opinion into programming."

But what would such programming be? Beyond Al Franken, there have been few names mentioned as potential hosts on the new network. One name that has been discussed is that of Mike Malloy, a former talk-show host on WLS radio in Chicago and WSB radio in Atlanta. A May 13 article in Salon entitled "Where's the liberal Rush Limbaugh?" asked the question: "Mike Malloy's left-wing rants have gotten him bounced from major radio markets. Could he draw an audience of millions if he got the chance?"

Having been fired in Chicago and Atlanta-not an unusual fate in the radio business-Malloy now broadcasts on something called the i.e.America Radio Network, which is a full-time, if little-known, liberal talk-show network owned by the United Auto Workers.

Each of Malloy's programs has a topic, and some recent topics include: "Is It Time for the Bastard's Impeachment?" (Malloy liked the topic so much he devoted three programs to it), "What's Your Life Worth to the Bush Crime Family?," "The Scum Who Heads the Justice Department," and "The Bastards Continue To Lie."

Is such fare too rough-edged for a mass audience? "I don't think so," says Malloy. "Just go back to the '90s, with 'The Clinton Chronicles,' Hillary is a lesbian, Bill and Hillary are drug dealers, Bill and Hillary left a trail of bodies. You have a talk radio that has been breastfed on 'Hillary and Bill are murderers' and radicalized by a thug like Rush Limbaugh, with the crumbs swept up by a junior thug like Sean Hannity-and then somebody wants to ask me if I'm being a little bit strong in saying that John Ashcroft and the Patriot Act are totally, totally destroying constitutional government in this country?"

Malloy is highly thought of at AnShell Media. "I love Mike Malloy," says Drobny, who listened to him on the radio in Chicago. "I think he's a great entertainer. You'll love him or you'll hate him." Malloy is also influential in the company; AnShell's new CEO, a veteran radio executive named Jon Sinton, reportedly got his job in part on Malloy's recommendation.