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| Monday, October 13, 2003 |
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The most wrong guy on the Right 
| | O'Reilly and others say he was "ambushed." I don't think he was. Terry Gross came on strong, but no stronger than O'Reilly usually does. She didn't just push the Al Franken stuff, but probed O'Reilly about who he is and where he's coming from — useful stuff for an audience (myself included) that may not watch Fox news, or know much about the guy, beyond what they've picked up from the likes of Al Franken. And for the most part O'Reilly obliged. |
| | But in the end he clearly knew far less about Gross and her show than she did about him and his. (He implied she knew little.) |
| | The real conflict here isn't between left and right, but between two kinds of righteousness. One looks for "middle ground," as Gross put it. The other fights a "cultural war," as O'Reilly put it. By that metaphor, what Gross did could only have been an "ambush." |
| | But it wasn't. It was tough, but hardly hostile, questioning. |
| | O'Reilly split a gut and walked out because he couldn't take tough questions or control the interview. Also because he considered Gross an enemy agent. If he'd held his temper and answered the rest of her questions as well as he'd answered her previous ones, he would have left the listeners with a lot more to respect. |
| | He's an angry guy. That's the one thing the interview made clear. |
| | I know his show is hugely popular (as he'll tell you, over and over). But it makes me miss Bill Buckley terribly. I learned stuff from Buckley. He challenged me intellectually, not just emotionally. He also made me laugh. (Still does all of that, in fact. Just not on PBS.) |
| | Maybe the Right doesn't need any more friends. Or listeners. But I have a feeling that O'Reilly's and Limbaugh's amen corners are smaller than they appear. |
| | For all the mileage O'Reilly's getting out of his snit, I think he's doing his side more harm than good. |
| | Bonus link: Jay Rosen's No Man's Land in Journalism Today. Nails a whole buncha shit in one long post. Much better reading than what I just wrote (which I'm not happy with and makes me tired, frankly... even though I just discovered now, down in the comments, that Jay found one useful nugget in it). |
Stagings
| | Blake Stone of Borland, who is on stage now. He's wrapping with some good one-liners: |
| | Simplicity is a compromise. Because Everybody wants simplicity and nobody wants a compromise. |
| | Also, If it's quick, it's not a fix. And True fixes eliminate problems instead of hiding them. |
What part of everything don't you understand?
| | If I could draw, that would the caption for a cartoon. Came to mind when I heard two people arguing a couple days ago. |
Rush from Judgement
| | "I don't know what the hell I was on for the past few years, but it must have been some really serious dope," said Limbaugh. "I mean, I must have been drinking some serious bongwater." |
eGov reboot, cont'd
| | OK, now we have a new governor. The next year or two of California politics ought to be much more interesting. |
| | I liked the recall. Why? It was more entertaining than Survivor - and it was a clear case of democracy - as weird and as plutocratic as it gets, but democracy... What I liked best was how simple it is to force an election: All it takes is a single disgruntled millionaire and a ton of signatures to force an election which is thrown open to all. In this last case, 135 people ran - and people turned out in record numbers to vote. Maybe... just maybe... some will bother voting in the primaries, where the real electoral process takes place. |
Recamp
Remedial Mechanics
| | Nice to catch up with Ming the Mechanic, who moved his family from Los Angeles (The Valley) to France (Toulouse). Equipped with fresh perspective (among other things, I'm sure), he writes You can't change something you are BEING. |
| | Right now I'm being late for a conference. See ya there. |
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