Andrei Codrescu Realpolitik

Andrei Codrescu is a very unlikely radio man. He as been a commentator on All Things Considered since 1983 under producer Art Silverman. He is a poet and a writer whose work have been insidiously pervasive to us all since he first debuted in broadcasting.

He is on the air typically for only a few minutes . But it's a short stack of seconds heard by around 12 million people. As a satirist and surrealist he is all too often under rated in his veracity. But it's that underestimation that lets him through the net. In those seconds he can manage to cause a real stir. In 1995 he managed to irk the Christian Coalition. He explained the incident thusly:

"I did offend people on the radio... At some particular point about five or six years ago when Ralph Reed was the head of the Christian Coalition, he promoted a real campaign, so there were 40,000 letters sent to affiliate NPR stations complaining about my insult to the faith. Which was not an insult. I thought it was satirical, but somebody took offense."

He was chiding them about the Rapture. They said he was anti-christian, insensitive, crude.. etc. He said they were being silly. he's a satirist. that's what they do. regardless Congress even got involved briefly peaking with a bit of partisan huffing and puffing. NPR apologized for his remarks. He was warned to "stay away from eschatology."