Politcally Incorrect was taken off the air by Sinclair Broadcasting
September 21, 2001 11:05 AM Subscribe
posted by jbou at 11:33 AM on September 21, 2001
posted by mgoyer at 11:39 AM on September 21, 2001
posted by MrBaliHai at 11:39 AM on September 21, 2001
posted by cell divide at 11:41 AM on September 21, 2001
posted by Instant Enemy at 11:58 AM on September 21, 2001
posted by fleener at 12:09 PM on September 21, 2001
posted by kristin at 12:16 PM on September 21, 2001
posted by jbou at 12:23 PM on September 21, 2001
posted by Instant Enemy at 12:34 PM on September 21, 2001
posted by Doug at 12:37 PM on September 21, 2001
posted by spilon at 12:39 PM on September 21, 2001
posted by websavvy at 12:45 PM on September 21, 2001
Wow. That reads like water running down a staircase.
posted by jragon at 12:46 PM on September 21, 2001
posted by Sapphireblue at 12:49 PM on September 21, 2001
posted by srw12 at 12:53 PM on September 21, 2001
Kronkite was preaching peace. And dave, asked some great questions in the form of the angry but generally peaceloving everyman. Compare that to the more 'traditional' news shows full of saber-rattling 'america strikes back'.
I guess I'm just saying Letterman has definatetly locked up his emmy again for this year. And Thanks Dave.
dP
posted by darkpony at 12:54 PM on September 21, 2001
Love that retro slang.
"commie bastard", heh!
Too bad about Carroll O'Connor dying, eh?
posted by websavvy at 12:56 PM on September 21, 2001
How come no one dropping the 700 club? hmmmmm.
posted by Qambient at 1:08 PM on September 21, 2001
I wish there were a place on-line that had the text of what he said so everyone could read it now.
He wasn't just "preaching peace", he said we should strike back but his additional comments were truly refreshing to hear in this warmongering climate we're in right now.
It was certainly more interesting than watching Dan Rather cry.
As for Maher's show being pulled, that's what I tried to point out in the thread I started on Wed, but all the people wanted to talk about was FedEx and Sears.
posted by BarneyFifesBullet at 1:11 PM on September 21, 2001
...BTW, nobody's dropping the 700 club because nobody watches it anyway
posted by srw12 at 1:19 PM on September 21, 2001
(note, lest this thread turn into another redneck-bashing fest: I am a Southerner and therefore I'm allowed to say that.)
posted by Sapphireblue at 1:21 PM on September 21, 2001
you are right...preaching peace doesn't cover it. If you run across a transcript please let me know.
dp
oh..and I been meaning to mention this for a while...I think that Rather went over the deep end ages ago...'whats the frequency kenneth?' should have tipped us off. The election, what WAS he talkin about?
posted by darkpony at 1:21 PM on September 21, 2001
Actually, yes. The man helped expose racial and sexual bigotry through the character of Archie Bunker - and helped many people see it for what it really is - stupidity on parade. You do realize that he was the recipient of the 1990 and 1991 NAACP Image Award for "contributing positive portrayals of African Americans in a prime time television series?" Yeah, we need less people like him in the world.
posted by RevGreg at 1:32 PM on September 21, 2001
Yeah, I can't think of anything that would represent American values more than forcing TV stations to carry programming they don't want to air.
posted by aaron at 1:56 PM on September 21, 2001
I can--forcing TV stations not to carry programming that they do want to air.
Don't agree with Bill Maher? Don't watch him.
The same goes for Married...With Children, South Park, or any other television shows you see unfit for everyone else's viewing.
posted by dogmatic at 2:06 PM on September 21, 2001
Like him or not, if everyone here who automatically came to the conclusion of 'serves him right, commie bastard' would stand back and let him explain himself, he might be better able to actually make the point he was trying to make.
And maybe he's actually willing to discuss the pros and cons of the issue, and advance the discourse on these things a little bit. That is what his show is allegedly about, after all.
He gets a half-dozen short soundbites a day on the air between the rants of his guests, and they have to be as funny as he can get them. There's not much leeway. I may not agree with him all the time, but I do admit he's got a tough (and, in this atmosphere especially, necessary) gig.
I don't see anyone else filling the niche that he is, and I don't see the treason in his words. What I do see, here and in the programming offices of these stations, is a lot of people taking an opportunity to shut up someone they happen to not agree with.
posted by chicobangs at 2:57 PM on September 21, 2001
get with the ticket, or the Ministry of Love will have to step in.
posted by hotdoughnutsnow at 3:09 PM on September 21, 2001
posted by justkurt at 3:13 PM on September 21, 2001
This pisses me off, not so much because I think it's wrong, but because I wanted to watch the show I'd been meaning to see it, just to see what was going on... with all the Hype going around, but WOI killed it in my area.
I can't belive people could be so fucking sensitive, not to mention the fact that while what he said was pretty course, it wasn't innacurite.
It's really dissapointing that 50 oversensitive pricks and a Cowardly or oversensitive corporate manager can suppress someone because someone said something "unamerican". asdfl;jk
posted by delmoi at 3:40 PM on September 21, 2001
posted by roboto at 3:45 PM on September 21, 2001
This IS America, however, and Bill Maher can continue to express his ideas as much as he wants to--he just may not be able to blab his mouth to such a large audience anymore. Maybe he'll get on Metafilter. He'd fit right in.
posted by dr_emory at 3:55 PM on September 21, 2001
I don't look to PI for brilliant and insightful commentary; but I think, much like the Daily Show on Comedy Central, it's role isn't so much to inform as it is to rip the veil from pompous, self-important "serious" news and punditry programs. Truth is, the words of actress Laura Innes last night were more thoughtful and informed and sincere than almost anything you'll hear on CNN, FOX, etc. Truth is, the self-appointed punditry, those clamoring whores of TV and print looking only for that one shallow bon mot or reputation for "witty" and incisive speech- to say nothing of actual, reasoned analysis- that will bring them 5-figure speaking engagement fees and six or seven figure talk show salaries, don't have anything to offer us. Nothing. Ann Coulter? George Will? Michael Moore? Who are these people, and why should we care what they have to say?
Of course, we shouldn't care what they have to say, and PI shows us that- we see about the same spectrum of thoughtfulness and reason and understanding from an amalgam of tv, film, and sports stars that we do from pin-striped yahoos and former gov't knuckleheads.
posted by hincandenza at 4:21 PM on September 21, 2001
But until that time we will live in a world dictated by the crazy people who write letters to their local television affiliates. Nice.
posted by Doug at 4:53 PM on September 21, 2001
posted by justkurt at 5:58 PM on September 21, 2001
posted by bjgeiger at 6:12 PM on September 21, 2001
On the night the following scene takes place, Beale has just ordered his viewers to flood the White House with telegrams protesting a business deal with an Arabic oil entity that was to be very profitable for the Network's parent company, a multinational conglomorate. Beale is called into an ominously lit conference room, where, at the head of a long table, stands the CEO of the multinational, Arthur Jensen (Ned Beatty). He is livid. He begins addressing a terrified Beale.
*******************************
Jensen: You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it, is that clear?! You think you have merely stopped a business deal -- that is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity, it is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations! There are no peoples! There are no Russians. There are no Arabs! There are no third worlds! There is no West! There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars! petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars!, Reichmarks, rubles, rin, pounds and shekels! It is the international system of currency that determines the totality of life on this planet! That is the natural order of things today! That is the atomic, subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and you will atone! Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? (pause) You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen, and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and Dupont, Dow, Union Carbide and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They pull out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories and minimax solutions and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments just like we do.
We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably deter- mined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale! It has been since man crawled out of the slime, and our children, Mr.Beale, will live to see that perfect world in which there is no war and famine, oppression and brutality --one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you to preach this evangel, Mr. Beale.
Howard: (humble whisper) Why me?
Jensen: Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday
Howard: (voice quivering) I have seen the face of God.
Jensen: You may just be right, Mr. Beale.
posted by Optamystic at 6:25 PM on September 21, 2001
posted by jasonspaceman at 6:43 PM on September 21, 2001
Don't agree with Bill Maher? Don't watch him.
Well said.
posted by rushmc at 6:58 PM on September 21, 2001
Oddly, no less an insipid whore than Pat Caddell said on PI a few weeks ago, talking about the stem cells, that it was actually a fluff topic: that stem cells aren't an ethical dilemma or even an important one: they're just a convenient ruse to divert attention from the real dilemmas, such as patenting people's own genetic traits, or of concentrating the knowledge of life and health into the hands of purely private, for-profit businesses. But rather than discuss that, we the people were presented with this silly little stem-cell thing to get us all up in arms, make us feel like we were having a national debate and that democracy was "in action", while more important medical issues were quietly resolved out of sight. Like I said, it was stunning that Caddell of all people would posit this. Go figure- maybe Chris Matthews brings out the worst in him, and we were finally seeing the real Pat Caddell.
Regardless, "Network" is an astonishingly brilliant movie, and every time I re-view it I am stunned at how insightful and prescient it was way back in 1976. No discussion of modern media and business could ever be complete without some reference to that amazing movie...
posted by hincandenza at 9:11 PM on September 21, 2001
I think some mentioned being a party to this earlier in the thread..... (ducking)
posted by nwduffer at 9:56 PM on September 21, 2001
The problem is I can't watch Bill Maher.
I agree. I think that's what the first line I quoted was indicating.
posted by rushmc at 10:26 AM on September 22, 2001
posted by samsara at 1:39 PM on September 22, 2001
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posted by jpoulos at 11:25 AM on September 21, 2001