Airhead America Host Mugged by Reality

They say that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged, and if that's true, there's a new conservative on Airhead America radio:

Randi Rhodes was mugged on Sunday night on 39th Street and Park Ave, nearby her Manhattan apartment, while she was walking her dog Simon.

According to Air America Radio late night host Jon Elliott, Rhodes was beaten up pretty badly, losing several teeth and will probably be off the air for at least the rest of the week. At of late Monday night we have not able to locate any press accounts of the attack and nothing has been posted on the AAR website.

Unlike the lefties, conservatives don't wish physical ill to befall our political enemies so I wish her a speedy recovery and hope that some attitudes of hers might have been adjusted in the aftermath.

In keeping with the Airhead America format, it only took about 10 seconds for this random assault to become a right-wing conspiracy intended to silence opposition:

Elliott was extremely agitated when he reported on the incident. He opened his show by saying "it is with sadness that tonight I inform you that my Air America colleague Randi Rhodes was assaulted last night while walking her dog near her New York City home."

Pointing out that Rhodes was wearing a jogging suit and displayed no purse or jewelry, Elliott speculated that "this does not appear to me to be a standard grab the money and run mugging."

"Is this an attempt by the right wing hate machine to silence one of our own," he asked. "Are we threatening them. Are they afraid that we're winning. Are they trying to silence intimidate us."

Winning? The "right wing hate machine" doesn't have to work to silence Airhead America because basically no one listens to them anyway. It wouldn't be worth the effort. However, I'm sure the speculation and nutjob theories will fill their programming for weeks to come. At least it will give them something to talk about.

UPDATE: No mugging at all - the Airhead America host fell down and went boom:

Air America radio host Randi Rhodes is temporarily off the air, but claims she was brutally attacked near her Manhattan apartment are bogus, her lawyer and a police source said today.

Fellow host Jon Elliott claimed on the liberal radio network that Rhodes had been mugged while walking her dog, Simon, on Sunday night. Elliot, who said Rhodes lost several teeth in the attack, waxed about a possible conspiracy.

"Is this an attempt by the right-wing, hate machine to silence one of our own?" he asked on the air, according to Talking Radio, a blog. "Are we threatening them? Are they afraid that we’re winning? Are they trying to silence intimidate us?"

A police source said Rhodes never filed a report and never claimed to be the victim of a mugging. Cops from Manhattan's 17th Precinct called her attorney, who told them Rhodes was not a victim of a crime, the source said.

Rhodes' lawyer told the Daily News she was injured in a fall while walking her dog.

Do you think Jon Elliot will go on the air tonight and admit he's an idiot and made the whole thing up? (UPDATE - See below)

Then there's this description of the incident from Gawker.com:

Randi Rhodes was no more assaulted by a right-wing fanatic on Monday than Dick Cheney was. She, in fact, fell down and injured her teeth outside of a Midtown Irish bar at around 6 o’clock Sunday evening after downing about fourteen Ketel One Bloody Marys. She was abusive to the barstaff and generally gross, crass, loud, and pretentious. I genuinely hope she has a speedy recovery. I never would’ve disclosed this (I believe that anyone should feel free to hang out at Irish pubs at any time and not be concerned about someone publishing their behavior) if Air America hadn’t grossly interpreted a drunken indiscretion and allowed it to be morphed into some bullish rhetoric on air. Whatever journalistic integrity the station may have ever had is now completely compromised. The manipulation of the public diminishes any cause, whether just or fabricated.

According to other reports, no one at Airhead America bothered to call the police to confirm the mugging, and in fact the police called Rhodes after hearing of the "attack" and wondering why no report was filed.

Jon Elliot retracts his statement:

"I shouldn't have speculated based on hearsay that Randi Rhodes had been mugged and that it may have been an attack from a right wing hate machine. I apologize for jumping to conclusions based on an emotional reaction," he said in a written statement.

Hey Jon, don't apologize. You were just acting true to form. We expect emotional reactions based on a lack of facts from you guys.