I completely agree that Stephanie Miller should not to be held to the same standard as a journalist or a news program. However, I do think she nonetheless has a responsibility to the public. I'm sure there was no doubt as to Elvira Mistress of the Dark's presence as an entertainment segment; both parties (Elvira & Stephanie both know their purpose). The line is much blurrier as far as the "entertainment" value of Orly's presence; it may have been entertainment to Stephanie, her crew and most of her audience, but it's highly doubtful Orly saw it as such. I am not convinced that Orly's wild declarations and misstatement of facts did not warrant to go unchecked simply under the pretext that the vast majority of listeners took the opportunity to point and laugh. Poster Citizen Like Obama has not yet corrected me as to whether I was mistaken when I understood her post to mean that her husband was confused by Orly's unchallenged statements. Still under the caveat that I am not mistaken, I fail to see how that would qualify as entertainment by any standard.

An imperfect analogy: children who go to school must attend math, science, english, gym and art class. The subjects are more or less rigorous and teachers do their best to make the learning experience as rewarding as possible. However, all teachers - the fun ones, the boring ones, those who teach math and those who teach art have one common expectation (other than teach the materials): to keep discipline in their class and respond appropriately to disruptive students. As far back as I remember, the teachers I had who could not manage disruptive students quickly lost the respect of the whole class no matter how personally nice and fun they were. As Kimba previously said, SM needs to pull it together if she wants to sit at the adult table.

I'm not inferring that entertainment shows have to be a teaching moment, but I think we can agree that The Stephanie Miller Show isn't pure entertainment like America's Got Talent or David Letterman either. Heck, even DL would've slapped Orly silly.

I don't agree. She has an regular audience and she's catering to them. Orly doesn't comprehend the fact that she's being used as a comedic prop on these shows. 99% of her audience is liberal and Mama allowing Orly to screech for a few minutes isn't going to swing any voters or change any minds of her audience. Orly just came across as a nutcase.

We need to face the facts. Orly is a horrible guest to interview; she does not make for good radio or TV. I believe she grates on listeners and viewers and a lot of channel-changing goes on when she's a guest.

I think we hope or expect the interviewers to do more when they have the chance with her, but we should realize that she's just unmanageable in an interview.

Caught part of today's Stephanie Miller show. If the plan was to have Dr. Orly on yesterday to provide material for comedy bits, then it was a success. They're going to be mining that material for days now.

So why, four years into this circus, do these shows invite her or accept her requests for interviews in the first place?

It doesn't matter to Orly, no matter what happens, she attains her objective: if the interview goes well, it legitimizes her paper terrorism in one way; if it goes bad, it legitimizes her paper terrorism in another.

Just like the oft expressed frustration at the CA bar's inaction, a relatively similar case could be made as to the media persistently handing her a microphone.

Oh great, sort of like having the wit to laugh at someone's expense once they leave the room.

I don't mean to sound so invested on the subject. I've made my points. Done now. Thanks for reading.

Actually, I didn't tune in, and don't generally tune in to these things, because it is useless. I would find it infuriating to watch another media outlet allow Orly time to spew lies and hate propaganda uncorrected.

If it is an entertainment program, it should stick to entertaining. Don't allow a poisonous viper on to spew her propaganda unless you intend to counter it. Orly just wants any outlet possible, and giving it to her feeds her, whether or not she is ridiculed before or after.

Orly and birthers in general can now honestly say that when Orly went on this show, the hosts had no answer to her accusations. In fact, even a neutral observer, who knew nothing of this "controversy" beforehand, could say the same thing.

I understand that not everyone is as interested in the birfers as we are, but if people aren't even willing to do the minimal research 10 minutes on Google would get you, just ignore her. Don't put her on at all. If you can't do it right, don't do it at all.

This was freaking Orly Taitz. Everyone on the planet knows that Orly is FOS.

If Orly were treated as any kind of serious person on the show, I would agree. However, she was not. She was treated as a circus sideshow Epic Fail. Ya know, a carnival barker.

Stephanie treats serious guests ... seriously and respectfully. She uses humor, but she doesn't make fun of them like she did Orly. Orly was just too stupid to see that she was being mocked. Orly obviously missed a lot of what was said about her before she appeared at the studio.

Along the same lines, wouldn't it be funnier to sandbag Orly with the Social Security stuff? She's basically admitting to stealing them or having someone else steal them. Not one person has confronted her with this. Can you imagine how she would respond if she were on live media and forced to respond to her own admission to illegal activity?

Now, that would be entertainment. I'd pay to see that.

She makes good TV or radio for the non-birther media because she says stupid, outrageous things. President Obama is likely to visit Arizona, do you not think Stephanie is going to do include a segment with Orly Taitz calling for Sherruf Joe to deport the President when that happens? To the media she's a nutcase not worth bothering contradicting every lie. I mean if you were interviewing the people on this segment

where would you start? To me, Orly Taitz spews as much bat guano insane things per second. There's a reason Kreep and Berg and Apuzzo (etc) don't get any (in comparison) air time. Heck Larry Klaymann has WND backing him and he hasn't had a major interview with national media. Orly is chosen because she perfectly represents the notion that birthers are liars and nucking futs. That's the one area actually that she is actually more honest than the Apuzzos, Kreeps and Klaymanns of the world.

Penguin, did you listen to much of the show before Orly was interviewed? Stephanie and her cohosts were merciless towards Orly. This interview was never intended to be what you hoped it to be. It is as if you went to the movie theater and expected to see a drama but then had to sit through a comedy. Your imperfect analogy is simply doesn't fit the situation at all. Stephanie's show isn't an educational or informational source like CNN.

I just don't get the outrage by some. YMMV.

Stephanie didn't invite an adult to the adult table. I think some keep missing this. The more seriously someone takes Orly, the more likely audience members are to think that Orly should be taken seriously.

There is no evidence that people are converting to birfism anymore. When I read CLO, I interpreted her husband thinking "WTF" as in "where did that crazy shit come from", not "WTF, might Orly have just pointed out something serious that I need to research".

Some of ya are wringing your hands all worried that Americans were converted to birfism because Orly appeared as comic relief on a current events entertainment show. No one was. Not one single listener. What did happen? Many listeners heard of Orly Taitz for the very first time and laughed their asses off because of her ridiculousness and then rolled their eyes at the entire GOP for putting up with such BS.

They invite her to make fun of her. She just ran for Senate. Romney is letting Trump go full birfer. Stephanie picked the most ridiculous birfer guest she could get to highlight just how ridiculous the birfers are. Orly hasn't received many invites for interviews in the past year. Not for her birfer shit.

Just because Orly thought this went well for her doesn't make that true. Orly's batshit crazy. In no way did Orly legitimize her paper terrorism. In fact, Stephanie pointed out what a complete and utter failure Orly has been in her crusade.

If you haven't listened to the section of the show that occurred before Orly arrived, you would likely benefit from doing so. I luvs ya, Penguin. I do think you underestimate the intelligence of the average listener.

Yup!

http://www.stephaniemiller.com/podcast/2012_0627.mp3#

I believe I did mention in a previous post that most listeners knew better and would not be swayed, but in reference to the two snippets of your post that I quote above, and considering that according to latest polls show Obama leading Romney by only 5-6 points, recent pandering to birther craziness shouldn't be taken for granted as the nonsense that it is... and validating Orly and like-minded mouthbreathers, even by means of satire that goes right over their heads unfortunately makes her part of the equation.

There are plenty of such people. Some of them are amusing.

Orly, however, is more on the lines of someone peddling quack cures for cancer, or some other form of insanity people may act on to their detriment or, in the case of those Orly seeks to influence, with violence, like the birther who shot up the Holocaust Museum.

Allowing her to spread her poison is actually destructive, not benign.

Listening to Stephanie Miller's show today, it's clear that the interview went exactly as Miller had planned. I'm only 36 min. in, and they've spent fully half of the show ripping Orly a new one. Worth a listen!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^This! I'm with Loh and Penguin on this. Obviously she does not come across as nuts to everyone. It is hard to tell how many take her seriously but smears are powerful. Just rolling eyes and snark is not enough to counteract their pernicious effects.

Unfortunately, they failed to do any of that ripping of a new one once Orly was in the chair, that's why I was disappointed.

Colleen Thomas. "Alien Contactee" is a scam artist in California who operates Nude Alien Bus Tours along the Pacific Coast. And I don't mean the kind of aliens Arizona wants to deport. She's a bustier Orly Taitz, using sex and UFO sightings to seperate suckers from their money. The difference is, some "Nude Alien Bus Tour" participants seem in on the joke, none of Orly's supporters do

" Colleen Thomas alien contactee ’nude tour bus guide’...points to and exclaims, “See, over there! That’s the extraterrestrial alien “Mothership!”. The nude tour is...designed to loosen-up more customer monies from gullible gawkers looking for cheap nude thrills. Well? They get what they pay for, taken for a ride, the Colleen Thomas way"

Stephanie over promised and under performed. The snarking on the show today was fun but doesn't change my opinion.

^^^^^^
This. I imagine there are some scum of the earth people in history that if Steph allowed them to go through an "interview" so lightly to mostly unscathed, some of Steph's defenders might find a bit of dissatisfaction in it. And Orly, despite her inept political persecution of the POTUS, is scum of the earth people.

From ORYR:



Oh snap ORYR! You totally dissed Steph with your "unknown" jab - ouch!

Want to talk "unknown"? That would be the people who run ORYR, ignorant nobodies that are only known to themselves.

Except we know one of them. He is Bob Nelson from NC.

Excuse me, Anonymous is one of ORYR's most thoughtful and prolific posters.

Talkers magazine, the trade industry publication for talk radio, ranks Stephanie Miller as the 11th most important talk radio personality in the USA for 2012. That hardly makes her "unknown."