The above unflattering description, of course, is how the deposed Don Imus used to refer to the duo of Mike Francesca and Chris Russo. Forced into double duty with Imus’ firing, The FranDog took to the airwaves Monday with an impassioned defense of their terminated colleague writes Newsday’s Jim Baumbach.
“The last thing in the world we want to be is sitting here,” Francesca said. “It’s wrong that we are sitting here. Don should still be here. We all know that. We all know how unfair this whole thing was. I pray and hope we’ll be here for two weeks just to stabilize the company and stabilize The Fan here. This is not the Mike and the Mad Dog program. We’re going back to afternoons where we belong. We would hope someone would come to their senses and Don comes back in a few weeks.”
“One thing we know, Don had the phoniest group of guests in the history of radio,” Francesca continued. “They have run for the hills all over America.”
Russo added, “I have never seen a bigger group of clowns in all my life and number 1 is Tim Russert ¦ What a disgrace he was.”
Francesa and Russo also attacked “60 Minutes” for weighing in on the Imus controversy a week late, in their eyes, and Russo pointed his finger directly at esteemed journalist Mike Wallace. “Hey Mike, time to go play golf at the Bob Hope Desert Classic, play nine holes, have your early-bird special and hit the sack,” he said. “It’s time for Mike Wallace to say goodnight. I remember Mike Wallace from Biography and he was old then.”
It wasn’t even 10 minutes after 6 — the sun was barely beginning to rise “ and these guys were already raring. They spared no one, taking on presidential hopefuls Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, politicians Harold Ford and Christopher Dodd, columnist Mike Lupica and MSNBC commentator Keith Olbermann (“Richard Neer has better ratings!” Russo said).
“The biggest phony of all has to be Christopher Dodd, in my eyes,” Russo said. “If you ever voted for Christopher Dodd for anything, you’re nuts. He uses his Imus pulpit “ how do you pronounce it, pulpit? “ he uses this pulpit for your presidential candidacy for 20 minutes, then as soon as he gets a little flak, you wipe your hands and knock him out and say, ‘Enough of Imus. I’m never going to go on again.’ A big phony.”
Though I’m not sure who should be more insulted by the Richard Neer comment — Neer or Olbermann, it should be noted that Non-Metallic K.O. is returning to sports TV this autumn as part of NBC’s “Football Night In Canada America”
The few times I’ve tuned to WFAN post-Imus, the callers have been genuflecting at the Fatso/Fruit Loop pulpit for standing by their man. If there’s anything that’d inspire me to flip my dial back to the comforting embrace of ESPN Radio’s slapheaded discourse (cf. Mike & Mike discussing the ins & outs of classic sitcoms), it’d be Doris from Rego Park coughing up a lung while giving those two asshats props for their convictions.
Though listening to them talk about how they’re not anti-Met while slamming Met fans & announcing that the Braves are back where they belong is a close 2nd.
What, Russo couldn’t fit in a reference to “Snoopy Dogg?”
The endurance of Mike and the Mad Dog on New York airwaves is nearly as incomprehensible as the endurance of Imus.
It’s actually kind of impressive how well Francesa is able to keep his inner Ragin’ Republican in check. He and Sean Salisbury seem to be in some sort of secret race to see who can pop off last about the liberal media destroying men of good faith and our war for freedom in Iraq. Salisbury almost lost during one particularly red-faced segment around Super Bowl time about “staying the course” with Rex Grossman; Francesa, if he keeps talking about Hillary, is going to lose. I do wonder, though, how much more Diet Coke Francesa drinks now that his day starts before 6.
To David R.
Doris has been dead for almost four years now.
The fact that they won’t let Doris rest is just another notch in the CON column.