History
Regular guests included bloggers Atrios of Eschaton and Bill Scher of LiberalOasis. Veteran newsman Bill Crowley not only read the hourly news but engaged in a brief discussion at the beginning of each program's third hour, introduced thunderously by Ozzy Osbourne's "Mr. Crowley." The name refers to Al Gore being "first past the post" on the popular vote (beating President Bush) in the 2000 U.S. presidential election (technically a plurality) as well as a play on Minority Report, a popular movie in 2002. The show debuted with the network on March 31, 2004 and aired from 8 to 11 p.m. Eastern time initially, and later in the year the time slot moved up an hour to 7 to 10 p.m.
According to Seder in an interview for Gothamist in late August 2004, the inspiration for the radio program occurred on election night 2000, when Seder witnessed via the television media what he perceived to be a veritable theft of the presidency by George W. Bush. In February 2003, Garofalo (a longtime friend of Seder and a fellow comedian) appeared as a guest with Seder on The Best Show on WFMU with Tom Scharpling, a comedy/talk radio program on the New Jersey station WFMU. In discussing the political atmosphere in America at that time, the chemistry between them as radio talents was evident, and their agreement on many liberal political views made them kindred spirits. In the summer of 2003, Garofalo was approached by representatives of Air America Radio to be a radio personality for their programming. She insisted that they hire Seder and that he share the hosting responsibilities. Less than one year later, The Majority Report was born. In September 2006, the show ended its run. Seder, hosting by himself, then began a new mid-morning program on Air America Radio, The Sam Seder Show, in the time slot previously occupied by Jerry Springer (which was also the lead-in to The Al Franken Show). The show retained many of the elements of The Majority Report.
Comedian Marc Maron filled in for Seder on December 1, 2006 and guest hosted the show for the entire week of December 18–22, 2006.
On April 8, 2007, Sam Seder aired the show's final broadcast on Friday, April 13, 2007. In November 2010, Seder relaunched The Majority Report as a self-produced online podcast, with largely the same format. Seder offers premium subscriptions to listeners (via the show's relaunched website) to help with production expenses (following the business model of Mike Malloy when his program became self-syndicated, and also that of Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks).
Garofalo once said getting on the radio was an early career goal of hers. One early program advertisement read: "The battle to reclaim America from the forces of darkness continues with hosts Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder." The early days of Air America Radio are chronicled in the documentary Left of the Dial, which includes a debate between Janeane and her conservative father Carmine, who was initially a regular guest on The Majority Report. Garofalo came under fire from her listeners for her comments on her April 28, 2006 show supporting Scientology-linked "New York Rescue Worker's Detoxification Program", a questioned treatment for workers now suffering ailments from 9/11 clean-up efforts in New York City.
Read more about this topic: The Majority Report
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