Wednesday, January 28, 2004
9-11 Changed Dennis Miller, Did It Change You?
I don't know why I do these things. I'm truly a glutton for punishment, I guess. I checked out Dennis Miller's new CNBC show on Monday night...
Let me start by saying that I used to be a HUGE Dennis Miller fan. He could give it to both Democrats and Republicans. In fact, some of his best stuff was busting on former President Clinton. He was a legitimately funny and intelligent guy.
Things started to go downhill after Miller took a job doing Monday Night Footbal commentary. Initially, I was excited. But after a few weeks, the gimmick did indeed get old.
After the September 11th attacks, Miller's mindset took a HARD right. He was spewing anti-Arab sentiment and propping up President Bush so much you would've thought he's changed his name to Jerry Falwell. On an unrelated note, I even heard Miller say he didn't care if the entire Catholic church "burned to the ground".
After being dropped by Monday Night Football and losing his once terrific HBO show, Miller honed his conservative chops by (in a move I actually predicted about two months previous) doing guest spots on Fox News Channel's Hannity and Colmes (Read as: Faux News's Hannity and Slinky-spined "Liberal").
After that, CNBC, sensing a disturbing lack of liberal-bashing gabfests in the primetime television arena (what with Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Joe Scarborough, Lou Dobbs, Paula Zahn already on the air), decided to give newly-minted neo-conservative Miller a shot.
Thank God for the media's hard core liberal bias!
Miller pretty much outed himself before his first show aired when he proclaimed he would "give him (Bush) a pass". He went so far to say:
"I take care of my friends."
It certainly was good to see Miller's unbiased eye for journalism back in full flourish...
Miller opened his first show by stating "9-11 changed me..." More so than anything else he said in the hour that followed, this statement made me think.
So this was what some of my conservative friends referred to as "seeing the light" in a political sense. It's always a religious experience isn't it?
For the record, this has not, and will not happen to me. 9-11 was easily one of the worst days of my life, and I didn't even know any of the dead. That being said, in my heart, I knew this world was a dangerous place on September 10th and before that. Horrible things have been happening around the world for thousands of years, and will surely continue.
Do I think we deserved 9-11? NO.
Do I think it was finally our turn? NO.
Did it piss me off to no end to see my nation attacked like that? YOU BET YOUR ASS...
Do I believe President Bush uses 9-11 as a crutch to fall back on when he has nothing worthwhile to say? Again, YOU BET YOUR ASS...(Crap, there goes my ride on Air Force One)
But, for all my anger and frustration, it led me to the conclusion that if 9-11 can change your beliefs view of the world THAT much, you probably weren't terribly committed to your beliefs in the first place.
I liken it to racism. If an African-American steals my car tomorrow, it would not turn me into a virulent racist overnight. I'm confident in my view of the world and truly believe it will not change under any sort of duress.
The rest of Miller's first show consisted of an interview with the newly-elected Governator of California in which Miller referred to a Democratic lawmaker from California as a "borderline Socialist." Nothing like elevating the dialogue, eh?
He also had a panel discussion with 2 hardcore conservatives (including the always lovable David Horowitz) and one left-leaning woman. Three to one is never good odds in an argument, and they proved it....
I won't watch his show any more, obviously. Especially when there's so much good "fair and balanced" coverage out there for me. Let's see, there's.......well there's.......oh and um.......oh, that other guy.......Oops.......maybe not! That's a story for another time....
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