In the past few days, there has been outcry and protest over SIRIUS Radio and Patriot as the name for its right wing talk channel. As a host of a program on SIRIUS Left, allow me to put this in perspective:

 

About two years ago, SIRIUS decided to re-image its talk channels; the programmers were thinking of changing the names of the political stations to SIRIUS Liberty (Left) and SIRIUS Patriot (Right). At the last minute, at my urging and that of others, we kept the name SIRIUS Left, since it was a better name than any other to describe what we were doing. Patriot made it through. At that point, I complained that the Patriot name was offensive. I even went as far as to argue against it on the air, but the change had already happened and since no one followed me into the breach, the name stuck.
 
My question is simple: where were all of you when it mattered? The chances are that those pillorying SIRIUS didn"t subscribe to the service then and probably don't have it now. Rather, this was brought to light by a blogger by the name of Rick Perlstein, who says that this whole matter came to him while he was a guest of SIRIUS on the Mike Feder Show. One has to assume that Mr. Perlstein doesn't have SIRIUS either, otherwise he would have known about all of this long ago.

 

To me, this is at best a tempest in a tea pot. SIRIUS listeners are a community, a family if you will, and they have barely mentioned the question. In fact, when this whole thing was brought up to the listeners of program, they thought it to be trivial at best. I suppose the big question is, aren't there more important things to send letters about? This is why I've come to hate liberals and their cowardly little persona, "The Progressive" – sitting down for five minutes to send a letter makes you actually believe you are an activist. To those offended: Have guts, proudly call yourselves Leftists; start living it rather than chasing after causes that are trivial and banal.

 
I have worked for SIRIUS for 3 1/2 years now. They hired me at a time when no one else would because I was a Leftist. Sure, I was offered jobs if I would change my political stripe, but I couldn't do that and still look at myself in the mirror. SIRIUS has never told me what to say or what to think. They have encouraged me to speak my piece and have never interfered in the content of the program. They were doing this channel before Air America ever existed and they were – and are – doing it better. No one told them to do it, they just felt the channel had to exist somewhere and if not in this new method of distribution, then where? SIRIUS also proudly airs "OutQ," a GLBT channel which is the only radio station of its kind in the country. This is the freest I have ever been, and going back to any other type of corporate radio would be impossible for me to consider.

You are attacking the good guys when you should be savaging the bad. That is what makes me mad. That is what prompted me to write this. One blogger wrote something, and then without questioning if he even knew what he was talking about, thousands took to protesting this trivial matter. The world is melting, people are dying, whole populations are being displaced, the United States has become the bad guy, people starve, 50 million people go without healthcare, genocide runs rampant – and all people do is complain about the name of a radio station on a service they don't even listen to? George Bush would be proud

Alex Bennett