Tuesday, 18 September 2001 : "late shows"Leno tonight: John McCain (!) and Crosby, Stills and Nash.Letterman: Bryant Gumbel, Denis Leary, Tori Amos. I'm not trying to become or usurp Laurel's TV Picks (and never could, anyway)... I just find it fascinating to watch the process of timely, commercial fluff shows having to deal with actual serious stuff. I guess I think of it as the nation's recovery process in miniature, through a glass darkly. Letterman was raw and honest last night, and it was cathartic to watch. Dan Rather, on the other hand, did the entire viewing audience a disservice by repeatedly asserting that the people who did it were just crazy with hate because we're such winners and they're the "world's losers." Many links from numerous different news sources (I'll dig up a few when I get some time) have established pretty well that if this was bin Laden & co., they did it because they declared war on the US years ago. Why did they do that? Well, they did say why: essentially, because we intervene in the Middle East in ways that they don't like. If we would stop it, they wouldn't do things like this or the USS Cole, etc. (Not that withdrawing is what we should do, but it's what they say would satisfy them.) But no, Rather (who surely knows all this) just perpetuated the "we're up against craaaazy people who hate us for no apparent reason" meme when he had an opportunity to say much more specific and informative things. I was very disappointed. |  | Links, exploration and synthesis from Steve Bogart  photo by my wife If you want to be e-mailed when there's new stuff here, say "add me." Archives by week
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