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Posted on 01/05/2006 9:09:48 PM PST by Choose Ye This Day
The Letterman Meltdown
CBS's Late Show host David Letterman is supposed to be funny. He makes more than $20 million a year because he is funny. His Top Ten List is a brand unto itself. He was endearing when he did bits like his old Stupid Pet Tricks. I laughed when he ribbed Oprah and Uma. But on Tuesday night's show, he acquitted himself as just another unhinged member of the liberal entertainment mafia when he interviewed Fox New Channel's Bill O'Reilly.
Even before O'Reilly walked on stage, Letterman acted like a spoiled brat when he used a pencil to stir O'Reilly's mug of water. (So the audience and Letterman were snickering as O'Reilly was oblivious when he went to drink.)
The most revealing exchange occurred toward the end of the segment.
Letterman: I'm not smart enough to debate you point to point on this, but I have the feeling, I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap. [audience laughter] But I don't know that for a fact.
O'Reilly: Listen, I respect your opinion. You should respect mine.
Letterman: Yeah, but I think there's something, this fair and balanced [Fox branding]. I'm not sure that it's--I don't think that you represent an objective viewpoint.
O'Reilly: Well, you're going to have to give me an example if you're going to make those claims.
Letterman: Well I don't watch your show so that would be impossible.
O'Reilly: Then why would you come to that conclusion if you don't watch the program?
Letterman: Because of things that I've read, things that I know.
Novel concept for a comedian/talk show host: invite a guest on your show, then insult him based on second-hand accounts of his work.
O'Reilly: You weren't aware of the big giant controversy over Christmas?
Letterman: Well, I ignore stuff like that, it doesn't really affect me. I go ahead and do what I wanna do. Let it go. It will take care of itself.
I'll bet Letterman liked all those stories about President Bush living in a bubble, detached from the real world. But what about the blue-state-mentality bubble that Letterman lives in?
Other Letterman knee-slappers:
On Cindy Sheehan: "I am very concerned about people like yourself who don't have nothing (sic) but endless sympathy for people like Cindy Sheehan. Have you lost family members in armed conflict? [O'Reilly answers no.] Then you can hardly speak for her."
On the war in Iraq: "Why the hell are we there to begin with?"
Letterman deserves credit for having traveled both to Iraq and Afghanistan to entertain the troops. But does he stop to wonder how his pro-Sheehan, anti-Bush lines would go over there?
When Al Gore or Howard Dean or Al Franken sit down with Dave it's light and funny and cozy and friendly. With O'Reilly, Letterman was dismissive, condescending, and just plain nasty. He was more Carville than Carson. Actually, even James Carville is funnier than Dave these days. And nicer, too.
Why does this matter? Be cause for better or worse, many younger Americans get the bulk of their cultural and even political news from hosts like Letterman and Comedy Central's Jon Stewart, who want us to believe that their humor is non-partisan. After all, they are quick to point out, let's not forget all the Monica jokes they told when Bill Clinton was president.
But Letterman's sit-down with O'Reilly, much like Stewart's petulant attack against Tucker Carlson on CNN (calling Carlson a male-private part), was notable for what it revealed. Underneath it all, Letterman is just another liberal frustrated at the very existence of guys like O'Reilly, and of men like President Bush. You look at his facial expressions when he's talking to O'Reilly and hear his tone and you know he's thinking -- how can Americans be so ignorant? How could they elect the buffoon in the White House and how could they watch this buffoon sitting across from me?
It is painfully obvious that many of the entertainment giants are making the same mistake the "mainstream" media giants made decades ago when they began staking out biased and "edgy" political positions that offended and alienated millions of potential viewers. Eventually, this drove people to seek out alternative media outlets -- such as the Fox News Channel. If the Letterman and his ilk don't drop the persistent disdain for red state America, we can expect to see the same thing happen to their industry.
Then we'll see who has the last laugh.
Please let me know if you would like to be on or off the Laura Ingraham PING list.
"Novel concept for a comedian/talk show host: invite a guest on your show, then insult him..."
Or her, this is Letterman's stock in trade and always has been. Only a fool would go on his show. He disgusts me, and has disgusted me for twenty odd years.
RIP Johnny Carson, you are sorely missed.
I love this woman and would like her to have my children.
Well, don't just stand there, man! Post some pictures!
Nope. He did what all libs do: He relied on "stuff I heard" or "things I read" (translation: My friends told me, and I read a paragraph of Maureen Dowd's column a couple weeks ago) and had an emotion-propelled hissy fit.
The man is a fool. If I knew I was going to have Howard Dean or Hillary or Kerry on television, with me asking the questions, I'd be reading, writing down quotes and citations, and simply destroy the person I "just knew" I was so intellectually superior to. But Letterman goes on thinking he Just Knows Better, and looks like a blabbering idiot.
Laura Ingraham pwnz liberals.
If you really loved her, you would have her children.
"How many years running have we heard this threat now?"
About zero.
Under Investigation
Since Jan 6, 2006
I liked Carson too, but he also was a liberal Dem who took his shots at Reagan and Nixon.
The Monica jokes were lighthearted
Everynight Letterman is ripping Bush
I saw O'Reilly on his show the other night and it was
ugly and one snide remark after the other. Nothing light
hearted in this one.
I think it will be revolutions in technology, more than simply disgust with the elite mainstream attitude, that will be the demise of the Lettermans and the Jon Stewarts.
The NY Times was hated by conservatives for decades, but until talk radio came along and allowed people to speak out and express their disgust with the MSM, and express different points of view, the Old Grey Wh*re was safe. Rush put a huge dent in her, but then the internet, especially blogs and content-rich sites like FR, gave people alternatives.
I don't think it's outrageous to think in five or ten years we'll have a vast amount of talented, conservative entertainers, comedians, etc. that will be podcasting and videocasting direct to the public, and bypass CBS, NBC, Comedy Central, etc.
Ooh, good noob catch.
That's because you have a BRAIN.....Dems only have body parts.
Welcome to FR.
*sniff sniff*
Hmm.
This ain't new. A long time ago -- when Reagan or HW were president, George Will went on Letterman. Letterman acted similarly to Will. He eventually took Will's book and hurled it across the set to the ground to show Will what he thought of the book.
Marvelous tagline.
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