FNC's Brian Kilmeade Takes on Janeane Garofalo

Media Research Center ^ | 2-26-2003 | Brent Baker

[Paul Atreides]

A technical knockout for Brian Kilmeade against actress/comedienne/ anti-liberation of Iraq activist Janeane Garofalo on Tuesday's Fox & Friends on FNC. The tri-host of the FNC morning show was not deferential to Garofalo as are most who interview her as he took her on for about eight straight very heated minutes, which ended just before 9am EST on February 25 with her complaining about how FNC is “a mouthpiece for the White House.”

MRC analyst Patrick Gregory painstakingly took down what each said, though that was quite difficult because of how each talked over the other. Space does not permit a full transcript, that alone runs to more than six pages, but here are some highlights:

-- Garofalo: “...Madeleine Albright was very, unfortunately very vocal about 'compliance is irrelevant and sanctions don't get lifted until he's gone.' Okay, now, why you gonna disarm in the face of that? I think he is very well aware also that the hawks in this administration have no, they don't care at all whether he complies to arms inspections. In fact this administration is adamant that they don't want more inspections. And also, there's a myth that he kicked the inspectors out, UNSCOM inspectors out, who were very successful by the way. He kicked them out for spying, they were indeed spying, and then they went back in, and then Butler pulled them out before [drowned out]" Kilmeade: "Okay, so you're -- Saddam must love you, and I'm sure he must-" Garofalo: "Don't even, don't even try and do that inflammatory, I'm not a Saddam Hussein apologist." Kilmeade: "No, I'm just, how do you feel that Saddam Hussein held up the protest last weekend and said 'Isn't that great news for us guys?'" Garofalo: "No I don't think he said 'Isn't that great news.'" Kilmeade: "He was saying it in Arabic."

-- Kilmeade: "They're still missing a hundred tons of anthrax and VX gas, where is it?" Garofalo: "As far, okay. That's what you say. There is no proof or evidence that we're missing a hundred thousand tons of VX gas." Kilmeade: "It's never been declared, and even Hans Blix himself says that Arab country kept better records than any Arab country that has ever seen, let alone Iraq itself." Garofalo: "I actually, I disagree with you, I disagree with you." Kilmeade: "You disagree with Hans Blix?" Garofalo: "Yeah, first of all Hans Blix like I said has been much more positive about Iraq-" Kilmeade: "Did you read Time magazine this week?" Garofalo: "No I didn't. Did you read Foreign Affairs magazine this week? Did you read The Economist this week?"

-- Kilmeade: "So you just distrust this government inherently, you distrust Colin Powell when he sat there and said 'Here is intercepts of Iraqis trying to cover up nerve gas, you distrust that?" Garofalo: "Yes I, first of all the British dossier, the British dossier was bogus and you know it."

-- Kilmeade: "Okay can I just quote you Thomas Friedman, January 22? He says 'What liberals fail to realize about war with Iraq is that it's not some distraction from the war on al-Qaeda. That is a bogus argument. Just because oil is at stake does not mean it's illegitimate. Though disarming is legitimate, the real prize is regime change. Faltering Arab states are churning out these terrorists, and that's the only way to stop them.'" Garofalo: "Well if we want get Arab states that are churning out terrorists, there are certainly a whole lot of places we should be -- Saudi Arabia and Pakistan-" Kilmeade: "So don't, unless we can do the whole Arab region, don't start it?"

-- Kilmeade: "You don't think those people deserve a shot at freedom?" Garofalo: "Of course I do. And stop framing it that way. I absolutely believe-" Kilmeade: "Then, what [inaudible] frame it? These people are going to be liberated, why don't they have a shot at being liberated? Why don't those people have a shot at liberation?" Garofalo: "They do have a shot at being liberated. First of all, negotiating with Turkey sure isn't going to accomplish that. Turkey with one of the worst human rights records in the world by the way-"

-- Kilmeade: "Let me just, you know 60 Minutes, that right-wing organization, 60 minutes, here it is. He says, this is Mr. Sharistani [sp?]. This is the [drowned out] 60 Minutes." Garofalo: "Why did you just say 60 Minutes, why did you just say '60 Minutes, that right-wing organization'?" Kilmeade: "Because you've accused, you've accused this network of being a mouthpiece for the White House. So I don't want you to use this network-" Garofalo: "Because it is. Because it is. Everybody that watches Fox News-" Kilmeade: "How do you figure that? Did Dick Cheney leave talking points on my voice mail this morning?" Garofalo: "Probably." Kilmeade: "Yeah? I'm willing to play that back here." Garofalo: "And I would say, and everybody knows that Roger Ailes, that everybody knows that Roger Ailes is in touch with the White House all the time." Kilmeade: "And what has Geraldo Rivera been in the past, and what has Alan Colmes been in the past? And do you ever watch any of these shows?” Garofalo: "Yes I do." Kilmeade: "And who is actually an independent. Is it Bill O'Reilly?" Garofalo: "I would say that Fox News is one of the most conservative networks, and that's-" Kilmeade: "What does that say about the country when they made us number one?" Garofalo: "I would say -- cable news? It's still less, it's still-" Kilmeade: "Is cable news not that nice? Garofalo: "Yes, it, cable's-" Kilmeade: "Is that not good? Is that beneath you?" Garofalo: "It's guys like you that are Fox. You. You're combative, you are combative-" Kilmeade: "Is that beneath you? No because I'm not going to let you sit in there and get off because you're a celebrity." Garofalo: "What? Why am I, what the hell does me being a celebrity have to do with anything?” Kilmeade: "Well that's the only reason you're-" Garofalo: "What does my occupation have to do with anything?" Kilmeade: "That's the only reason you're here." Garofalo: "Exactly, so why don't you book somebody you have more respect for in the anti-war movement?"

Quite the combative session.

For a picture of Garofalo and a full rundown of her roles, see her bio on the Internet Movie Database Web site: http://us.imdb.com/Name?Garofalo,+Janeane

For a photo of Kilmeade: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,1789,00.html

The Fox & Friends Web page: http://www.foxnews.com/foxfriends/index.html

If you go to the “Fox Fan” page and register, then via either RealPlayer or Windows Media Player, you can watch the entire interview. At least it was a featured video last night: http://www.foxnews.com/foxfan/index.html

Last week on MSNBC, when asked by Mike Barnicle about whether she considers Bush or Hussein to be “a bigger threat to world peace?”, Garofalo maintained: “I say at this point, for different reasons, they are both very threatening to world peace and to deny that is to be incredibly naive.” Watch that via RealPlayer: http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/2003/cyb20030221.asp#3

For the Web site of the group for which Garofalo is a spokesperson, Artists United to Win Without War, and to see a TV ad she starred in for them: http://www.artistsunitedwww.org/

[RippleFire]

BUMP

[RobFromGa]

She's an idiot but she thinks she is an intellectual.

Like most typical Liberals, she dodges every question with a non-anwer and changes the topic. When she is challenged on the facts of her new topic, another non-answer and change the topic again. It is laughable.

[BufordP]

I saw the replay on Hannity and Colmes. The only thing that could have topped that exchange would have been an uppercut to her chin...hopefully with her tongue still dangling out.

[Semper Paratus]

OK, she showed up on Fox to a battle of wits unarmed, but unlike others, she showed up.

[UCFRoadWarrior]

Loved the exchange......Kilmeade was rocking

Though, I wonder if it would have really got even more heated had E.D. Hill been there (she is on maternity leave). E.D. is usually the one who isnt afraid to go after some idiot guests and their comments.

If E.D. was there I bet Ms Garofalo would really be dropping a pantload

[VOA]

bump

[I Am Not A Mod]

Free Republic Highlights, 2/28/03

[Hatteras]

Everytime I turn around, this girl is on TV now. FOX is destroying it's own credibility by continuing to allow this Saddamn-loving whore on their channel.

If FOX wants to challenge some pro-Iraq protestors, atleast they could do is find somebody more relevant.

[steve50]

Showing up for a battle of wits at Fox is like showing up in the middle of the Sahara Desert for a World Surfing competition.

Their goals seem to have changed since klintoon is gone.

[exhaustedmomma]

Garofalo: "Well if we want get Arab states that are churning out terrorists, there are certainly a whole lot of places we should be -- Saudi Arabia and Pakistan-" Kilmeade: "So don't, unless we can do the whole Arab region, don't start it?"

I thought this was particularly insightful...

Garofalo bumbling, sputtering idiot bump

[Paul Atreides]

Also, several of these anti-Bush protestors start spluttering when someone calls them pro-Saddam. It's okay for them to call Bush every insult in the book and say that he wants to kill babies for oil, but it is "unfair" to call them pro-Saddam!

[techcor]

I saw it on Hannity and Colmes. And Hannity congratulated Brian for crushing her. Still he could have done a little better. So in case he is lurking here's a few more points:

1. She said she didn't protest Kosovo bombings because it wasn't "hip".
2. She gave Clinton an award for peace during the same week he claimed he had sent warships to take out N. Korea without anyone else's approval.
3. Ask her or any anti-war protester how many civilians died during the Kosovo bombings. I bet not one knows the answer. It shows how little they actually care about civilians. It's all politics with them.

[Paul Atreides]

She is a disaster. She goes on those shows looking as if she just came out of the worst end of a mosh pit, wearing the fake nerdy take-me-seriously glasses, spouting off every stupid cliche out of the anti-Bush handbook, and acting as if she gets daily briefings from the U.N.

I've noticed that she mostly plays obnoxious characters on film. Apparently, she isn't having to stretch her creative muscles very hard.

[pitinkie]

Madeleine Albright is not in the Bush administration..or did I miss something!!

[Paul Atreides]

To the these people, and the media, the Clinton administration set the standard. Billywould finally had someone in the White House who was in the same gutter as themselves.

[KMCC]

She is the poster child for the "I'm a Celebrity and Thus Imbued With a Higher Degree of Insight and Intellectualism Than Any of You" clique.

Where do these people get the idea that they should be listened to simply because they have achived some level of celebrity?

[mwyounce]

bump

[Carbonsteel]

I'd pay good money to have seen that.