Rosie and Elisabeth

Good grief.
Most American entertainment reporters and media pundants don't seem to be able to understand what they see or hear when it comes to the heated exchange between Rosie O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasslebeck on the US TV program The View.

It's as if they haven't heard an honest emotion uttered on TV; they seemed rattled. And of course there were those who degraded the exchange by calling it a "cat fight." ABC-TV early morning News even used the squaling of cats in the background.

I've seen almost all of those would-be journalists "report" that Rosie (whose name familiarity is joining the ranks of Oprah, Cher and Madonna; Elisabeth, however, will continue to be known as Elisabeth Who the moment Rosie is off The View) called US soldiers "terrorists," and she absolutely did not.

She inferred that the US government may be experienced as terrorists by Iraqis whose nation is being decimated by the US invasion-turned-all-out-war against (in their minds) Iraqis. Iraqis are not sitting around watching these faux analysts, they are trying to survive bombs, guns, and other artillery going off all around them, all the time.

To the pundants, the US-Iraq war is a notion; to the Iraqis it's a matter of life and death.

In order to understand what Rosie actually said, one must understand nuance. One must be able to think for themselves. Analyze.

Unfortunately, instead of a worthy opponent, Rosie saw someone across the table whom she thought actually knew her well enough to know that Rosie would never diss our kids in uniform. She saw a would-be friend deny her the benefit of the doubt, even enough to attempt to understand her genuine intention.

A would-be friend who instead attributed to Rosie thoughts and words she neither said nor intended. So she got emotional and delved into name-calling.

Elisabeth fought back, which her fans were happy to see. But she fought back with words intended only to push and diss Rosie with name-calling as well instead of participating in an educated argument.

No matter how you feel about Rosie's arguments? She reads, she researches, she wants to know more than what she is told by people who have every reason to mislead us.

Elisabeth doesn't appear to know how to participate in genuine spirited, knowledgeable argument about the US-Iraq war . An informed public exchanging honestly held points of view is at the core of a democracy. But! She does seem to know how to practice "truthiness."

Regurgitating what she's been told by those in power, believing everything she is told because it feels like it should be true.
Watch the exchange for yourself here.

We link, you decide. When you watch - I hope you'll pay attention to what is actually said on both sides, rather than indulging in the truthiness of your already steadfast beliefs.

Elisabeth's retorts remind me of the lyrics from a song in The King and I: "Very quickly will he fight/He'll fight to prove what he does. Not. Know. Is. So."

No matter whose corner you're in, the fact is that this daytime show - thanks to the irascible Rosie - is one of the few places where we can see real political ... chatter; I'm not sure it rises to the definition of debate.

Oh, most of those would-be pundants declared one of the two a winner the other a loser. But the only real losers are the American public because this is about as classy as public discussion gets about the subject here.

I hope you're checking out news from other nations to understand the extraordinary bias in American media coverage. The internet is rife with news from every corner of the world, most feature English versions of coverage in other languages.

It also helps if you speak more than one language in any occupation these days because of the international nature of the world economy.

Back home? I wish more of those would-be US analysts and pundants were investigating, reporting and debating the real issues concerning this horrific US-Iraq war - a war that has virtually destabilized the world - so we can know the genuine truth about the people who got us into it and explain honestly why our troops have not come home long ago.

Imus canned by MSNBC

Despite a long record of letting his mouth be a foot receptor for sexist and racist remarks, MSNBC kept him on the air.

Why did this particular verbal offense make such a difference to so many - creating a landslide of reverberation loud enough to get him tossed out of his TV gig?

Before, his words slighted, insulted and demeaned adults who put themselves out for public appraisal - professional athletes (he once actually swore that he would stop referring to black athletes' simian qualities), politicians, entertainers, journalists.

This time, he degraded kids.

Daughters.

Innocent kids on a school team who had no intention of becoming individual public figures who are in a position to fight back; who have the opportunity to have individual media exposure to respond.

Kids who had sacrificed a lot and worked very hard to improve themselves and their game - some of whom are good enough to earn scholarships just to play.

Teen-age girls, mostly, who were just trying their best - and succeeding - to play championship college basketball.

Thus far, CBS radio says it will continue to carry his program after his two week suspension.

Radio has a history of being more apt to carry programs with outlandish shock jocks like Rush Limbaugh (who didn't last long at all on television when he gave it a crack) and Howard Stern.