July 18, 2002
I've been watching the new
I've been watching the new Donahue show off and on this week. It really is pretty cool. There's an article over at Salon where the author is practically giggling about it, but it still is pretty cool. A couple of highlights:Day One - Phil shows a clip of congressmen on the capitol steps reciting the pledge of allegiance and shouting "UNDER GOD!!!!!" when they got to that point. Just about everyone I know thinks that gesture was pretty firmly on the ridiculous side of the spectrum. But over on the hill, everyone Staunchly Defends it. Dictate your version of reality loudly enough and maybe others will believe it, I guess. Anyway, Phil had Pat Robertson on. After the clip was finished playing, Phil said, "Now Patrick... I mean, come on. I mean, COME ON!!!" He was blustering a bit but it was almost like he was trying to will himself through all the haze of the manufactured puffed-up-edness - he just basically leaped out there. Pat could easily have immediately started railing on Phil about his lack of Patriotism et cetera... and he certainly did pause... but then... he caved! He agreed that it was grandstanding. That was a breath of fresh air to me - not that it was so-called "liberal" thought being aired on national television, but that it was actually acknowledged and that Donahue was able to make it acknowledged.
Donahue also showed a demonstration put on by a group of Israelis and Palestinians together arranging a bunch of coffins on the streets in washington dc, draped by the israeli and palestinian flags. They weren't sectioned off, they were all mixed together. Phil made the point that it wasn't covered anywhere in the new york times.
And finally, he had a big feature devoted to The Patriot Act. The next day, tricky Phil brought a guy on the show who had been in jail for 30 years when the FBI knew he was innocent. He brought on a republican senator to apologize for it and agree that he deserved restitution from the state of MA. and that it was a travesty. And then Phil started to subtly refer to the dangers of not having a working system of due process, and the risk of it happened again, and the senator said, "Phil, I saw your show yesterday, so I know where you're going with this..." and in my mind instantly gave Phil's show even more credibility. In the context of this man's case he was forced to say that the patriot act DOES mean we are giving up some civil liberties (it's more often I've heard them just flat-out deny that), and he also defended the act by mentioning the fact that it had a sunset clause in it five years out - each time someone says that it makes it more difficult for them to support doing away with the sunset clause.
In other words, it's good that the show is airing. Maybe it'll help center things more over time.
Posted by Curt at July 18, 2002 02:06 PM