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Monday, October 13, 2003
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 Monday, October 13, 2003
started 10/13/2003; 7:57:24 AM - last post 10/13/2003; 5:54:12 PM
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Doc Searls - Monday, October 13, 2003 
10/13/2003; 11:57:24 AM (reads: 8514, responses: 4)
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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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Van der Leun - Re: O'Reilly
10/13/2003; 4:32:07 PM (reads: 541, responses: 2)
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I know what you mean about the tone of the interview. I listened to the whole thing including Gross's spin and O'Reilly's spin.
But I think you are wrong in the conclusions. O'Reilly is an old, old hand at this and he knew exactly what he was doing to an iota of a tittle of a jot. He was setting Gross up to take a big punch after she played into his hands by popping in a series of jabs.
In short, they both got what they wanted from the interview and they both were going for the gotcha when they went in. Gross is no amateur at this either.
We hear what we want to hear when we listen to these Left/Right Kabuki dramas. That's why we tune in.
If Gross had been smart she would have foreseen this and adjusted her techniques in order not to give him an opening. But she couldn't because then *her* audience would be howling about Gross playing softball when she should have been playing hardball.
If she had softened the slant, I'm willing to bet that you and me and a hundred other blogs would have been left disappointed.
Gross is an act. O'Reilly is an act. The object of the game is to score points with the converted on either side. On points, I give this one to O'Reilly.
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Doc Searls - Re: O'Reilly
10/13/2003; 6:27:27 PM (reads: 649, responses: 1)
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Not sure it makes much difference, but the first sentence of my post was up for an hour before the rest of it. Happens with blogging when you save, write and somehow don't save again even when you think you do.
Before I heard the interview I wouldn't have agreed with you about the Kabuki drama nature of these things. But now I tend to. She did go at the guy. But along the way she also gave him a chance to say some interesting things about himself.
Maybe he "won" this one. Maybe not. I'd just like to see, and hear, less theater and more substance.
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lou josephs - Re: Monday, October 13, 2003
10/13/2003; 9:54:12 PM (reads: 552, responses: 0)
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It appears that the right is tossing Rush to the lions. The most negative stuff has been coming from FOX.
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lou josephs - Re: O'Reilly
10/14/2003; 12:01:29 AM (reads: 733, responses: 0)
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He's always had an ego as big as the outdoors, I worked with him in the day at the old channel 7, and you had to give him a wide berth. (wnac TV an rko general station)
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