Atheist activist Sam Harris recently proclaimed on National Public Radio that America needed a lot more mockery of religious belief. "I think the criticism of irrationality just has to come from 100 sides all at once," he declared. "In the entertainment community, maybe you'll just have people making jokes that are funny enough and true enough so as to put religious certainty in a bad light." Harris said he's been trying hard to make contacts among the mind-benders in the news and entertainment media to find those God-scorning people who feel "a profound sense of relief that comes with hearing... continue reading
The folks at Fox News brought me in the other night to discuss and denounce Joy Behar, the co-host of ABC's day-time gab show "The View." She'd "joked" that Time's Person of the Year should be a Hitler type - like departing defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld. I attempted to suggest through the crossfire that it was no big deal to have a conservative condemn Ms. Behar for that ad hominem, rather it is the decent men and women of the left who ought to be the most offended and therefore the most prominent in their denunciation. They are the most... continue reading
It's amazing that as the 20th century escapes from our rear view mirror, some hippie liberals are still recycling their Sixties angst. For God's sakes, it's almost 2007. Can't someone graduate from college without a baby boomer commencement speaker pulling out a handkerchief over the sorry state of the world since the idealists shook their last tambourine on the Ed Sullivan Show? The guilt-soaked commencement address was a common theme as 58 judges put on their reading glasses to select the Media Research Center's "Best of Notable Quotables," the annual compendium of very real press inanities. The "Quote of the... continue reading
In this calm, so far mild Washington winter, in the doldrums between the voting out and the swearing in, it's not exactly the season for table-pounding editorials about government officials who need to resign. Don't tell that to Advertising Age magazine, which has just published a tantrum in black and white by a man named Simon Dumenco demanding the resignation of Kevin Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. The rationale for Martin's resignation? He had the audacity to enforce the indecency provisions of the Communications Act that created his agency. If Dumenco wants to play Donald Trump and fire... continue reading
That great American ambassador and lovely lady Jeane Kirkpatrick has left us, but her passing also causes us to remember her strategic sense and moral clarity. She came to national prominence in Reaganite circles in 1979 with her marvelous Commentary magazine essay on "Dictatorship and Double Standards." It argued that traditional authoritarian autocracies were both more susceptible to liberalization and more amenable to American interests than totalitarian dictatorships of the left, which came into power with disturbing frequency in the late 1970s, with America as their stated enemy. She easily explained how the Carter administration and the liberal press romantically... continue reading
By L. Brent Bozell III One of the bold new frontiers in broadcast television's crusade to make the boob tube safe for profanity is the "news" excuse. The Federal Communications Commission recently ruled it was safe to use the barnyard profanity in the manufacturing of news. The test case was a 2004 segment on CBS's "The Early Show," an interview with cast members of CBS's reality show "Survivor" in which one used the word "[B.S.]-er." According to the FCC, this constituted a "news" event, and news events are exempt from fines. But is it really "news" when a network uses... continue reading
The hubbub raised over six Islamic imams being removed from a US Airways flight in Minneapolis for suspicious behavior is the latest in a string of incidents underlining one consistent thread in the war on terror: Muslim terrorists have never given up on the tried and true idea of hijacking airplanes and blowing them up to kill and demoralize the infidels. Police and witness reports suggest a list of suspicious activities and remarks. Some of the imams were discussing in Arabic about "bin Laden" and condemning America for "killing Saddam." Imams asked for seat belt extenders for the extremely obese,... continue reading
Every once in a blue moon, a TV network is forced to acknowledge that there is such a concept as broadcast standards. There are societal lines that should not be crossed and there are limits to the glories of "creative integrity." It's too bad it took an extremely distasteful concept like Fox's book and TV special featuring O.J. Simpson, with the former football star-turned-movie star-turned-murderer talking about how he would have killed his wife had he been the killer. This "If I Did It" book and TV interview monstrosity was deliberately planned for the last week of the November sweeps,... continue reading
If we were to believe liberals, the last several years could be dubbed the Age of Propaganda, what scandalized columnist Frank Rich, who knows quite a lot about this subject, calls the "decline and fall of truth." They complained when government agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services put out "video news releases" that some lax TV stations aired without editing. They complained when the Pentagon hired American P.R. companies like the Lincoln Group to place positive stories about American forces in the Iraqi newspapers. They complained when conservative P.R. man Armstrong Williams struck a deal with the... continue reading
We lead fairly schizophrenic lives during the Christmas season in America. Our popular holiday rituals are bifurcated between the sacred and the secular; between the very worldly commercial extravaganza of Christmas as offered by our department stores - when they have the guts to employ the word "Christmas" - and Christianity celebrating the birth of Our Lord. Hollywood hasn't been so split on this question. It is firmly ensconced, and comfortable, in the secular world. Year after year, it offers commercial Christmas movies this time of year, with Grinches and Rudolphs, good Santas and Bad Santas, the Kranks and the... continue reading