or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
•
"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
December 16, 2004
When Will Dennis Perrin Stop Arguing With His Intellectual Superiors?
Some time ago, Dennis Perrin got into an email dispute about US foreign policy with Jonathan Alter of Newsweek.
Dennis tried to make some sort of silly case that US television systematically excludes certain points of view. Johnny A., a frequent TV guest himself, was too polite to deal with this nonsense... for a while. But finally, he was forced to take Dennis to school:
ALTER: You think you aren't on TV much because your views are too "far out there," or that you are smarter than the rest of the universe. But the real reason is that you never, ever seem to admit error of any kind.
Oooooh, snap! Dennis had no comeback to this obvious truth!
Let's face facts: television is overflowing with people with Dennis' political perspective. You can't escape them! They're everywhere! The only difference is, THEY'RE willing to admit error, and Dennis isn't.
There isn't enough space on the internet to list all of them, but here are just a few you may have heard of:
• Robert Fisk, co-host of Crossfire
• Scott Ritter, ubiquitous guest on Nightline
• Zeynep Toufe, has own long running show, Straight Up With Zeynep, on Fox
• Robert Parry, host of Parry In The Morning, nationally-syndicated radio show simulcast on MSNBC
• Noam Chomsky, anchor, ABC Evening News
I think we all agree: it's time Mr. Perrin stops embarrassing himself in public with his nonsensical, vacuous arguments.
Posted at December 16, 2004 08:42 AM | TrackBackDon't worry Jon -- I'm out of the political racket now. Too low wage. Lookin' to get into some confessional TV gigs, like Dr. Phil. That's where the register never stops ringing, baby!
Posted by: Dennis Perrin at December 16, 2004 12:16 PMI LOVE Straight Up With Zeynep!
Posted by: Hugo at December 16, 2004 01:15 PM"Noam Chomsky, anchor, ABC Evening News" - Hmmm, now that would be an interesting newscast ... Heavy on facts, light on entertainment. It probably wouldn't sell ...
Seriously, if you were Enron, would you advertise on the Klein & Chomsky News Hour?
PS - Did you know that this friday is Bill Moyers last show on PBS?
Posted by: Subversity at December 16, 2004 08:35 PMJonathon, I'm surprised you didn't mention the Cockburn Factor or Doug Henwood's Money Line, you know, on CNN?
Posted by: Harry at December 17, 2004 03:45 AMHugo,
Yes, I love Straight Up With Zeynep too. I never miss it.
Harry,
I wanted to, but as I said, there just isn't enough room on the internet to list all the progressives with their own TV shows.
Posted by: Jonathan Schwarz at December 17, 2004 07:45 PM
