You don’t have to be Marshall McLuhan to know that the medium is at least to some degree the message. When someone appears on television, he or she is transformed by the camera into something other than they are. Of course this is true of other media, but television and film take it to another level. In a sense they sexualize their subjects while simultaneously adding charisma and denuding them of threat. Everything is reduced to a kind of pre-teen erotic banality in the great Larry Kingness of it all. Just being on is all.
That is why when Mike Wallace – in a monumental act of narcissism – comes out of retirement at 88 to interview Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he is performing a hugely pernicious act by elevating the mad semi-mullah to the “peerage of Sixty Minutes”, practically no matter what Ahmadinjad says or does. And this is no garden variety serial killer the likes of whom appear frequently on such shows and are likely to spend most of their lives in jail. This is the leader of a nation who has or is about to have nuclear weapons while denying the Holocaust and promising to wipe Israel off the map (and who knows what else). The argument that we “learn” from watching Ahmadinejad is of limited importance (and dubious validity) compared to the status awarded him. Thanks to Wallace he becomes yet one more player in the Grand American Media game, right up there with Oprah, Madonna and O’Reilly. Disgusting.
UPDATE: Evidently Wallace, a Jew apparently anxious not to offend his guest, refers to Israel as the “Zionist state.” Of course, we’ve heard this song before.
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17 Comments
1. Terrye:I wonder if Mike will ask Ahmadinejad about his green aura. “Tell me [you crazy son of a bitch] are you glowing right now?”
Aug 10, 2006 - 1:58 am 2. Terrye:And let us not forget about the eradication of the Zionist Entity and the Great Satan.
The thing about Wallace and people like him, is they always think that some condescending patronizing crap on their part will schmooze these people. They are completely oblivious to the fact that they are the ones who are being played.
Aug 10, 2006 - 2:00 am 3. Richard Nieporent:And Mike Wallace is Jewish. Of course this is the same Mike Wallace who once admonished Peter Jennings of all people that as a reporter it would be inappropriate for Mr. Jennings to warn American troops of an ambush. At the risk of violating Godwin’s Law I wonder what nice things Mr. Wallace would have said about Hitler if he had a chance to interview him. As I said before, the MSM is the enemy!
Aug 10, 2006 - 5:21 am 4. Larry BirdFlu:The Big Question from Ned Lamonters on the London arrests saving possibly thousands of lives and billions of dollars is “were illegal phone taps used.”
Aug 10, 2006 - 5:47 am 5. David Thomson:Mike Wallaceís American citizenship is of secondary importance next to his internationalist credentials. He is first, last, and foremost, a man of the world. Around fifty years ago another totalitarian thug, Fidel Castro, played Herbert Matthews for a fool. Wallace is simply another useful idiot.
Aug 10, 2006 - 5:47 am 6. mikeski:I’m sure that we’ll get to see a representative composite of all the negotiations preceding the interview, including what questions Ahmadinejad refused to answer, the “securing” of any of Wallace & crew’s passports, and why those big guys with guns were standing in the corners of the room, off-camera.
Aug 10, 2006 - 6:30 am 7. onecent:I just re-read Dan Rather’s interview with Saddam, which infuriated many, prior to our invasion. His smarmy deference to that thug was breathtaking.
Here’s the transcript:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/26/60II/main542151.shtml
I’m not surprised that another of CBS’s arrogant geriatric all-stars is stepping up to the plate to humanize another madman again. I would have relished CBS assigning this interview to the ridiculously vacuous Katie Couric.
CBS can’t disappear fast enough.
Aug 10, 2006 - 6:59 am 8. Charlie (Colorado):Thanks to Wallace he becomes yet one more player in the Grand American Media game, right up there with Oprah, Madonna and O’Reilly.
becomes?
Aug 10, 2006 - 7:42 am 9. Sissy Willis:“Oprah, Madonna and O’Reilly. Disgusting.”
You’ve said it all.
Aug 10, 2006 - 7:51 am 10. cubanbob:There is no fool like an old fool.
Aug 10, 2006 - 7:57 am 11. mikem:I’m not justifying Wallace’s remarks or his lack of journalistic instincts. (I guess we should wait for the broadcast to see if he confronts Ahmadinejad like he would Bush or Blair.)
Aug 10, 2006 - 9:40 am 12. syn:But I think you nailed it down with “in a monumental act of narcissism”.
I don’t think Wallace is anti-Semitic, but he was clearly willing to kowtow to his anti-Semitic audience with “the Zionist state” remark. It is accurate, but who else but anti-Semitics(?) refer to Israel that way.
Back to Roger’s remark, this is all about Wallce’s ego. Ahmadinejad stroked it and Wallace responded like a dog having its stomach rubbed. What a sad, pathetic performance, both for CBS and Wallace.
Send Wallace a copy of the film “Obsession” cause everyone knows the Hollywood Gatekeepers make sure it can never be shown.
Aug 10, 2006 - 10:27 am 13. Jeffrey -- New York:Green Helmet Directs!
Hezbollywood’s Finest!
*
Aug 10, 2006 - 10:48 am 14. Ripper:During his decades on 60 Minutes, one could always count on Mike Wallace to at least once a year have an Israel bashing segment. Morley Safer, liberal though he was, usually was sympathetic to Israel.
Aug 10, 2006 - 11:12 am 15. Ripper:I am not a fan of O’reilly’s but at least he has guests on who disagree with him. A better example would be Keith Olbermann who never, ever has a guest on whom he disagrees with.
Aug 10, 2006 - 11:14 am 16. maria horvath:Want to make a bet that this interview will be nominated for an Emmy?
Aug 10, 2006 - 12:00 pm 17. Esbiem:“Thanks to Wallace he becomes yet one more player in the Grand American Media game, right up there with Oprah, Madonna and O’Reilly. Disgusting.”
sweet.
All we need do is replace Gen. ‘Buck’ Turgidson (George C. Scott) with ‘President’ Ahmadinejad acting out in his own war room, swooping down, like the hidden iman, over the zionists and their puppet master, the Great Satin, delivering the believers to pardise and the infidels to eternal torment.
Aug 10, 2006 - 2:37 pm