Jon Stewart v. Hitchens
If you missed the dust-up between Jon Stewart and Christopher Hitchens on "The Daily Show" last night, you can see the clip here, via the invaluable Crooks & Liars.
Here's a portion of the transcript, from Wonkette (who seems to have enjoyed this exchange almost as much as I did):
"Stewart: The people who say we shouldn't fight in Iraq aren't saying it's our fault. . . That is the conflation that is the most disturbing. . .
Hitch: Don't you hear people saying. . .
Stewart: You hear people saying a lot of stupid [bleep]. . . But there are reasonable disagreements in this country about the way this war has been conducted, that has nothing to do with people believing we should cut and run from the terrorists, or we should show weakness in the face of terrorism, or that we believe that we have in some way brought this upon ourselves. . .
Hitch: [Sputter]
Stewart: They believe that this war is being conducted without transparency, without credibility, and without competence...
Hitch: I'm sorry, sunshine... I just watched you ridicule the president for saying he wouldn't give. . .
Stewart: No, you misunderstood why. . . . That's not why I ridiculed the president. He refuses to answer questions from adults as though we were adults and falls back upon platitudes and phrases and talking points that does a disservice to the goals that he himself shares with the very people [he] needs to convince.
[Audience erupts in applause]
Hitch: You want me to believe you're really secretly on the side of the Bush administration. . .
Stewart: I secretly need to believe he's on my side. He's too important and powerful a man not to be.
Hitch: [Sputter, return to talking about his latest book.]"
Like Wonkette, I don't think I've ever seen Hitchens quite so rattled. It was something to see. More importantly, Stewart makes excellent points.
posted by JBD @ 9:26 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Jon Stewart is doing the country a service by challenging the rhetoric about this war and trying to get answers to very important questions that this Administration avoids answering as if it were the plague. In general the media has failed us all in this war. They haven't the courage, as Jon Stewart showed, to engage this Administration in a series of tough questions they should be asking and the Administration should be answering. The problem is also this Administration can't think of the right questions to even ask the generals and that is very disturbing indeed. I am hoping more bloggers write some tough questions that if answered might lead to the development of a successful stratgey in Iraq. I truly think they are incompetent. I have written a number of questions that I would love to see answered in an adult manner, and sent them to a number of Senators and posted them on my blog. But it is asking a lot of this Administration to answer serious questions. They treat us like children that would be better silent when adults are busy. For now I say, we are lucky we have people like Jon Stewart. If nothing else he makes this Administration look as foolish as they really are, and that is a public service.
Jon Steward needs to be a little nicer to the right (while still asking the tough questions) or else, they'll just stop showing up.
Hitchens wouldn't go on Frankens show in a million years, and he's funny.
Hitchens vs. Hitchens
Brothers square off over God, politics and culture
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Brothers Christopher and Peter Hitchens, both journalists and authors, couldn’t be more different and are bitterly divided. A friend to both said, “one is a conservative, traditionalist, church-going Anglican; the other a liberal, louche, drinking-and-smoking atheist.” The brothers, throughout a long estrangement and recent reconciliation, have clashed in print on many issues.
Christopher, who works in Washington, D.C., has written 20 books including scathing critiques of Henry Kissinger, Bill Clinton and Mother Teresa. Most recently, he wrote a book on atheism, God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Younger brother Peter works in England as a columnist for the Mail on Sunday. He is author of The Abolition of Britain and The Abolition of Liberty.
Grand Valley State University’s Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies will bring the two together on a stage for the first time to debate numerous issues, from religion to Iraq.
“Come watch the intellectual firepower of these two brothers once they start to mix it up,” said Gleaves Whitney, director of the Hauenstein Center for Presidential Studies. “We are bringing them together on the same stage for the first time ever in the U.S. Seeing these two in action should prod us to re-examine our positions on U.S. foreign policy, the Bush administration, and the influence of religious institutions on public life.”
Hitchens vs. Hitchens: On God, War, Politics, and Culture will take Thursday, April 3, at 7:30 p.m. at Fountain Street Church, 24 Fountain St. SE in Grand Rapids. Tickets are $15.
BACKGROUND
Peter Hitchens is a British journalist, author and broadcaster. A reporter for the Daily Express for most of his career, he left the paper in 2001 and currently writes for the Mail on Sunday. He is the younger brother of Christopher Hitchens.
Peter was educated at The Leys School, Oxford College of Further Education, and the University of York. Although raised as an Anglican, Peter learned that his mother, who had committed suicide when he was in his twenties, was of partly Jewish ancestry. Peter is a confirmed and communicant member of the Church of England.
Christopher Hitchens is a British-American author, journalist and literary critic. Currently living in Washington, D.C., he has been a columnist at Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, World Affairs, The Nation, Slate, Free Inquiry and a variety of other media outlets. Christopher is also a political activist, whose best-selling books have made him a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits.
He is known for his ardent admiration of George Orwell, Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, and for his excoriating critiques of Mother Teresa, Henry Kissinger and Bill Clinton.
Christopher is an outspoken atheist and describes himself as a believer in the Enlightenment values of secularism, humanism and reason. God Is Not Great is his recent best-selling book.
For more information, contact the Hauenstein Center at (616) 331-2770
or visit www.allpresidents.org
Post a Comment
<< Home