Monday, November 17, 2003

wimping out 

I often have complained about politicians wimping out on national TV so I am somewhat mortified to have wimped out myself recently when I was interviewed by former Republican Congressman Joe Scarborough for his MSNBC Show ìScarborough Country.î

The week before I had moderated a panel discussion at the New School on the occasion of the paperback release of the anthology ìItís A Free Countryî which is about civil liberties in the United States since 9/11. I edited it along with my father Victor Goldberg and film and TV producer/director Robert Greenwald. Anyone familiar with our views will not be surprised to know that the book is a strong critique of Ashcroft justice. The panel consisted of Princeton Professor Cornel West, Newsweek investigative editor Michael Isikoff, ACLU Executive Director and Jeanane Garafalo.

Scarborough has long been obsessed with Garafalo, frequently using ,out of context excerpts from her public remarks as a point of departure for assorted forms of bad-mouthing and condescension. His show has a crew shoot the event , which was accurately described in a recent piece in the Observer by Lizzy Ratner.

Sure enough, during my brief interview, Scarborough played an excerpt of something Jeanane said ñthe excerpt and the dialogue went as follows.


GAROFALO: Neo-know-nothings in the White House now, the neocons, believe they can absolutely operate outside of the law.


SCARBOROUGH: Now, Danny, we've had a lot of fun with Janeane Garofalo, but there is a serious underpinning to it. And that is, there are shrill attacks from the left. There are shrill attacks from the right. Everybody is calling everybody else a liar or saying they're breaking the law.

Do you think that sort of talk, that sort of rhetoric, attracts young voters to the process or repels them?

GOLDBERG: I think robust, passionate debate, people who believe in what they're saying, resonates with younger people. I think people who only talk like lawyers and politicians tends to bore young people and make them anesthetized.


Here what I SHOULD have said is: Joe---Janeane Garofalo is an American hero. She cares enough about whatís happening to our country that she has been willing to take mockery from the likes of you. I only wish that Democrats had as much idealismóand if they do they will surely resonate with young people.

The reason , frankly, that I wimped out is that I suddenly got nervous when I heard the world ìshrill.î And I realize that this is one of the main tactics that Republicans and conservatives are usingÖ.to try to psych out Democrats and progressives and make us nervous about being ìshrillî or ìnegative.î Of course itís absurd for Republicans to be complaining about ìshrillness.î Where was Scarborough when
People on the internet made up a ìtraitorsî list that included both Jeanane and me simply because we questioned Bush administration policies? AndóWHERE was all this call for civility during the Clinton years!!!!!!!!!??????


posted by Danny 1:00 PM [+]
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Imus etc. 

Don Imus has me on again this morning.I just want ot publicly say THANK YOU to him for his increidble support of my book. What a fascinating, unique figure he is in American culture.Many of my friends on the left despait at the mainstream media because,at times, it seems so monolithic in it's support of the a very narrow agneda. But I continiue to find that up close, there are various cracks and crevices in which contrarian ideas can make thier way.Last night I moderated a panel about civil liberties in conjunction with the papaerback release of "It's A Free Country" an anthology I edited along with Robert Greenwald and Victor Goldberg. The panel consisted of ACLU Excecutive Director Anthony Romero, Janeane Garafalo, Cornel West and Newsweek investigative reporter Michael Isikoff. Isikoff was very hard on Clinton. In fact he was the conduit through which Linda Tripp et al got the Monica Lewinsky story into the media. On the other hand, he's been unrelenting in going after the Bush administration on matters of secrecy.

And of course there's the world of books where,as I have previously noted, numerous progressives have been onthe best seller list recently including Al Franken and Michael Moore both at #1.


posted by Danny 6:20 AM [+]
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