Posted on 02/19/2005 4:04:33 PM PST by beaversmom
Sitting in a radio studio towering above New York City in the Empire State Building was the highlight of one of my many trips to New York. But not because of the view. No, it wasn’t what I saw that blew my socks off, it was what I heard.
Michael Medved was hosting his popular radio show (normally done from KTTH in Seattle) from the grand building while attending the same convention I was in town for, and I had tagged along to watch this great master of history, entertainment and the pop culture in action.
He used no notes, was able to weave lessons of history and current events into clever responses to a wide variety of issues by both crazed and sane callers, and spoke with the greatest of ease and delight. To be blunt, Michael Medved is the best radio host on the air. Better than anyone. Period.
Like many other celebrities, he has a personal story that’s quite interesting -- and it involved a dramatic political conversion.
He’s not alone: Ronald Reagan started out as a Democrat and became a union leader in Hollywood. Hillary Clinton was a Goldwater Girl and ran for high-school student council as a Young Republican. So it’s fitting that Michael first gained notoriety as an anti-war activist who doubted God’s existence.
Today, Michael is a well-known conservative -- a famous film critic who refuses to let Hollywood off the hook for pandering to the lowest common denominator, a radio talk-show host who skewers leftist platitudes daily, and a religiously devout father of three. To say that he’s left his liberal days behind him is quite an understatement.
In fact, reading Michael’s new book, “Right Turns: Unconventional Lessons from a Controversial Life,” you see just how much America as a whole has changed. From the casual attitude toward drug use that pervaded college campuses (such as Yale, which Michael attended in the late 1960s) to the general hostility toward all things military, the America of 35 years ago seems light years removed from the America of today.
Take the student protest that Michael led when Yale held a meeting to discuss the prospect of having the university sever ties with the military’s Reserve Officer Training Corps. Amid the back-and-forth of what Michael calls “a raucous debate,” the university’s president, Kingman Brewster, said, “I happen to respect and even honor those who decide to serve their country in the military.” Big deal, right? But a small detail caught my eye: This statement, Michael notes, was greeted with “boos and catcalls.”
It’s hard to imagine that happening today. Over the last 20 years (thank you, President Reagan), military service has reclaimed its rightful place of honor in our civic life. Even the most left-leaning critic of the war in Iraq takes great pains to praise our troops and note that he or she supports our men and women in uniform.
But attitudes can change -- and so can people. Michael certainly did, as we learn throughout “Right Turns.” Consider how his perspective on the police changed. Like many liberals in the early 1970s, he viewed cops as “racist thugs and sadistic bullies, the storm troopers of a repressive, intolerant regime.” But as part of some PR work that he was doing for a police recruitment campaign, he did “ride-alongs” with some officers. He soon came to appreciate them as good, decent people who do the hard, dangerous and vital work of protecting law and order.
In time, Michael also found it hard to share the knee-jerk suspicion, if not blatant hostility, that many of his liberal friends displayed toward the notion of using American force to protect American interests. Many of them insisted that “racist” America was no better, really, than the Soviet Union with which it was then locked into mortal combat. But this made no sense, Michael concluded:
By the end of 1973, such arguments not only struck me as unpersuasive but downright offensive. America’s flaws didn’t mean that our wonderful country, which had so abundantly blessed my family and countless others, deserved no support in its struggle to defend itself against Communist dictatorships committed to our destruction. The suggestion that people of goodwill couldn’t choose between an imperfect United States and the nightmarish brutality of the Soviet Union made as much sense as saying that a patient should express no preference between the prospect of contracting a common cold and developing colon cancer since both conditions involved some form of illness.
But “Right Turns” is more than just a political odyssey filled with thought-provoking moments of self-discovery and family remembrances. It’s also a fun read. Anyone who ever watched Michael appear with Jeffrey Lyons on the film-review show “Sneak Previews” will enjoy the anecdote-laden tour we get behind the scenes. Priceless, too, are Michael’s attempts to deliberately botch a job interview at a Wisconsin college he didn’t want to work for. (The school’s officials had offered to pay his travel costs from California, but only if he accepted the job or they turned him down -- not if he turned it down.)
I’ve got to hand it to Michael: Somehow, this straight shooter who refuses to mince words unfailingly comes across as gracious, reasonable and warm. And he can explain the liberal mindset better than most conservatives, because he was a liberal.
Now, with “Right Turns” (available at his Web site, michaelmedved.com, and at Amazon.com), we have the engaging story behind that metamorphosis. Mazel tov, Michael -- and thanks.
Rebecca Hagelin is a vice president of The Heritage Foundation, a Townhall.com member group.
Michael Medved ping. Anyone want on or off the ping list, please send me an e-mail.
So does that make Medved (and Prseident Reagan, for that matter) a neo-con???
Oops, that's PRESIDENT REAGAN.
I'm not sure, but Medved refers to himself as a Theocon--I thought that was a good term.
Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News."
Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News."
Me too.
I think Rush is still the best by far, but Medved, Hugh Hewitt and Laura Ingraham make for great listening, too.
"...and now, a Shameless Plug."
I'm reading this book now and I'm enjoying it. If you can't afford to buy it, check it out from your library. :)
I got it from Amazon the other day, but haven't had a chance to start reading it yet. It sounds like it's gonna be a good one.
Michael Medved showed his brilliance at an early age. He was admitted to Yale University at age 16. His classmates at Yale included John Kerry. He attended Yale Law School with Hillary Rodham, Bill Clinton and others who were part of the Clinton administration.
Going to pick up this book, I think.
What I respect and would emulate if I was a talk show host myself is that 80% of the callers are of a contrary political angle. I respect most of the conservative talk show host family but I see the difference as being where the host engages with the "choir" vs. the "away team."
"Michael Medved would describe himself as more of a theo-con."
As a paleo-conservative, I like MM. Most of the time. However, I think he is making a dodge here. He is Jewish, so naturally he sides with the neo-cons. Last time I have heard him he took an issue that remotely might be construed as such and turned it into a full blown pro-Israel agenda.
But I don't fault him for his bias. Not for his bias, however, I do fault him for not being up front about his bias. Christian talk show hosts are biased. Naturally viewing things through the prism of the New Testament. As he does through a Jewish prism.
Lest one get the wrong impression, I am not anti-Israel, I am strongly opposed to Islam. In my opinion though, both sides in the middle east conflict are missing the solution, Jesus Christ the prince of peace. The only hope of humanity, Jews and Islamics included. MM needs Christ just like all the rest of us.
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