[Mb-civic] Letterman VS O'Reilly while Miners lose to Greed

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

Letterman VS O'Reilly while Miners lose to Greed
by John Pietaro

Jan. 4, 2006 12:09 PM

This morning as the cold air gave light to the news
that twelve of the thirteen West Virginia miners
trapped in the dark of their workplace had died, I
recalled last night's David Letterman show with a
particular fondness. More than just the usual odd
silliness with a tight-lipped host and a cackling band-
leader, this show stood out far from the rest.
Ironically, this morning's news reports revealed that
the miner's friends and families were in the midst of
celebration at midnight last night, around the time I
tuned into Letterman, a celebration which lasted 2 - 3
hours. Their misguided glee was halted abruptly when
they discovered, in horror, that the reports from the
mine company were wrong---there were not 12 survivors,
but 12 victims. 2006 offered no prosperity to this
mining community. The appearance of the mine companies
CEO on all of cable news, speaking in a morbid tone
that attempted to cross into genuine concern, meant
nothing to the people whom, for generations, had
sacrificed so much. And while this particular mine
company had dozens of health and safety violations
against it, they continued to send men down into harm's
way, again and again and again. For all of the gains
that have occurred since Mother Jones' time, not nearly
enough has changed.

But last night, the generally middle ground David
Letterman lashed out at a right-wing icon---in style.
Its about time, Dave.

Fox News' Bill O'Reilly was Letterman's first guest of
the evening, an odd choice, I thought, even for a non-
political show like Letterman. Coming in on the heels
of usual 'Late Show' fair, such as regular camera shots
of a cat reportedly about to make a phone call,
O'Reilly took to the set unprepared for any
confrontation. Dave asked him about his campaign of the
last couple of months (that which John Stewart has had
so much fun denigrating every night), his rant about
"the attack on Christmas'. Congenial at first,
Letterman told O'Reilly that no one should feel
threatened by the choice to wish others' 'happy
holidays' or 'season's greetings', as opposed to 'merry
Christmas'. O'Reilly, in his usual brutish manner,
attempted to speak over Letterman, citing 2 examples of
how small municipalities have acted in a "politically
correct" way to avoid mixing church and state, etc.
After attempting a bit of reason, Letterman finally
waved O'Reilly off, "Oh, stop, this does not represent
an 'attack on Christmas', what are you even talking
about? You gave me two damned examples..."

O'Reilly, nonplussed, regained ground by attempting to
hyperbolically cite other examples. Letterman did not
fall for it. Instead he brushed off this conservative
windbag, interrupting him more than once. He finally
said, "You know, its people like you who really concern
me...", chastising O'Reilly and exposing him for the
one-sided reporter he is. He even brought up Fox News'
ridiculous claim of giving both sides of every story,
ridiculing it as worthless. The audience erupted into a
loud applause, but Letterman refused to leave it at
that.

As O'Reilly attempted to bait Dave with the right-wing
logic based in Bush's "you're either with us or them",
speaking of the need to support the troops, etc,
Letterman again waved him off. "Oh, stop", he told the
pseudo-pundit, "Of course we need to support all of the
troops, they are the finest in the world and we thank
every one of them for what they are sacrificing, but
the real question, Bill, is---Why Are We There?" Again,
loud eruption from the audience, cheering the host's
bold foray into progressive television. "You know,
you've done a very good job of defending every move of
this president, but how do you explain this? We were
led to believe...".

After hemming and hawing, O'Reilly annoyedly tried to
offer terrorism statistics to his own advantage (why
not, he is just reading from the same White House
script). Letterman sarcastically responded, "Look, I
don't have the intelligence to debate you on every
aspect of this, but 60% per cent of everything you say
is----crap". Screaming audience approval. He again
asserted that point after sidekick Paul Shaffer
laughingly repeated it, causing Letterman to say,
"Yeah--60%: crap". Momentarily at least, David
Letterman shut the offensive mouth of one of the
right's most brazen spokespersons.

This kind of public action is needed so very much at
this time. If all of the celebrities who had any clear
thought on global affairs would make such a move,
things would progress much faster. Bush will fall; its
just a matter of how quickly. The public needs to see
the truth, through all of the lies, soundbites and PR
campaigns of this Bush administration. It is just so
easy for folks to get caught up in the rhetoric of
cable news, Fox in particular. Capital run wild,
corporations out of control, this is at the heart of
the war machine. And, on a local level, this is also at
the heart of the greed that led to the unchecked safety
violations in a West Virginia mine. Our working people
are, in both cases, made to pay.

In Solidarity,

John Pietaro
www.flamesofdiscontent.org

Go to the source:
http://www.cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/dave_tv/ls_dtv_big_show_highlights.s
html

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"A war of aggression is the supreme international crime." -- Robert Jackson,
 former U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice and Nuremberg prosecutor

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