I don’t intend to turn this site into a Crooks & Liars style videofest — C&L already exists, and does the job admirably, so there is no reason to reinvent it. But occasionally I’d like to be able to post the odd exchange that I might happen to catch. Case in point: last week, Hannity & Colmes were looking at the case of the former Taliban spokesman who is now attending Yale. More on that here if you’re not familiar with the story. Short H&C version: Yale won’t let Uncle Sam on campus (in the person of military recruiters) but it’s inviting our enemies in. Hannity and Colmes were discussing the matter with a Yale alum and Army vet with the improbably Dickensian name of Flagg Youngblood. This clip begins with Colmes saying (predictably enough) that he’s not defending Yale for letting the former Taliban in. The reason I’m posting the clip comes at the very end.
Hannity: There’s nobody at Guantanamo that’s there for no good reason.
Colmes: That’s not what the Justice Department —
Hannity: Excuse me. (Pause.) Do you mind? (Pause.) Ah, there’s nobody at Guantanamo Bay that’s there for nothing.
(To see the video, click here. It’ll take a few seconds to load, just be patient.)
I could have just posted the transcript, but the thing that really struck me about this exchange gets lost in print. Basically, it’s the power dynamic. This has never been a show of equals, of course — as Al Franken famously pointed out in one of his books, the original working title of the show was Hannity and Liberal To Be Determined. But they used to at least make the pretense of it being an actual debate show, and not just the Harlem Globetrotters playing the Washington Generals night after night. But now, if Colmes brings up an unpleasant fact that goes contrary to the worldview that Hannity and the rest of the Fox news gang are pledged to support, he is simply told to shut up, in the way that the lord of the manor might dismissively deal with an annoying servant who has momentarily forgotten his place.
It just seems like an awfully sad way to make a living.
(Thanks to everyone who helped me figure out the tech side of this.)