Bravo, Brian!

Bravo, Brian!
by Jennifer King, Managing Editor

February 28, 2003

"The Heretical Housewife"

Managing Editor Jennifer King On Tuesday, Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade took on the radical left - in the persona of so-called comedian Janeane Garofalo. It took all of about three minutes of Brian’s spirited grilling to reduce Ms. Garofalo to a typical slogan spouting radical, her dark and fetid conspiratorial side revealed for all to see.

The UNSCOM inspectors, originally kicked out of Iraq under Bill Clinton’s watch, were “effective”, according to Ms. Garofalo, although she didn‘t delineate exactly what she was basing this absurd assertion on. Then, Gasp! According to Ms. Garofalo, it turns out that they were also spies, coincidentally just as Saddam Hussein alleged when he deported them. Huffily denying right afterwards that she was, “A Saddam Hussein apologist“, Ms. Garofalo also denied widely reported accounts that Saddam Hussein had hailed the anti-protesters, and that their presence had strengthened his intransigence. Ms. Garofalo also casually dismissed the current weapons inspectors’ assertion that Saddam has a hundred tons of missing anthrax and VX gas - believing, no doubt that Saddam was telling the truth when he said it was all destroyed.

Mr. Kilmeade kept up the pressure, asking Ms. Garofalo if she believed that the Iraqi people “deserved freedom, deserved liberation?” Ms. Garofalo became incensed, refused to answer the question and resorted to nervously twirling locks of her none-too-tidy hair. Mr. Kilmeade then, cleverly, got Ms. Garofalo to admit that most of her information came from the Al-Jazeera network, which she obtains - deviously (!) - from her satellite TV.

Ms. Garofalo, now in severe meltdown mode, then shrilly accused Fox’s head, Roger Ailes, of being, “…in touch with the White House all the time.” (Nary a word, of course, of the various alphabet soup network heads getting their time to jump on President Lincoln’s Bed for a few campaign bucks during the prior Administration.) Kilmeade then, humorously joked, “Did Dick Cheney leave talking points on my voicemail this morning?” “Yeah”, shot back Garofalo, “I’m willing to play that back here.” Get out the tinfoil hats. Wait, make that a whole Reynolds’ suit.

Ms. Garofalo, by now reduced to a quivering lump of insecurity, started spouting off various inanities about Fox News and it’s participation in the right wing conspiracy. When Mr. Kilmeade, reasonably, pointed out that their morning show was number one in cable, Ms. Garofalo started disparaging cable overall. “Cable News?”, she screeched. “Cable, it’s less, it’s still…” After a brief tirade on how “combative” she felt Mr. Kilmeade was being, Kilmeade interjected with a short reply. “I’m not going to let you sit there and get off because you’re a celebrity.” Ms. Garofalo replied, “What the hell does me being a celebrity have to do with anything?” Mr. Kilmeade, “It’s the only reason you’re here.”

Bravo, bravo, and bravo again!

What this exchange proves is that it is a new media age, yet the old media haven’t caught on. They’re like the old blacksmith, diligently working over his forge, who notices the new Model T rolling down the street and dismisses it with a wave, and a comment like, “that new-fangled thing, it will never catch on.”

For eons, the media elites and the celebrity crowd have been used to proceeding without being challenged by their sycophantic followers. True, dogmatic investigative journalism has diligently avoided them, so they’re not used to it. When they’re questioned, they appear to go through three phases - The Horrified; “I can’t believe they are doubting ME”; The Indignant, “I can’t believe they are questioning MY integrity”; and the Wounded Sulking Phase (familiar to husbands worldwide) , characterized by short, one word answers and aloofness - timed to emit how the very essence of how their souls have been deeply pierced by the journalists’ bombastic insensitivity.

It’s all too delicious to watch.

Brian Kilmeade’s interview was followed by another Fox star. Sean Hannity, on his radio show and later on TV, interviewed another icon of the Left, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Hannity, likewise, refused to be intimidated by his interviewee’s star status, and he grilled RFK, Jr. as to his personal hypocrisy. Whilst flying private jets and driving in his Caravan; RFK, Jr. nevertheless lectures his fellow Americans that they should be taking Greyhound or driving Yugos, all the while tending to their organic gardens and the solar panels on their roofs. Hannity, hilariously, kept after RFK, Jr. as to how many estates he was heating, and how many limos he was transported in. In this, he built successfully upon his earlier argument with ex-conservative Arianna Huffington - who similarly lectures the “common volk” while air conditioning a 9,000 square foot home.

Good for them. It is past time that our fellow Americans be further educated in the mantra that Rush Limbaugh has long touted. The elites have one standard for them, and one for us, for we are mere hoi polloi, the hated bourgeoise. We should be grateful to them for telling us how we should behave because, after all, they know so much more than we. Burka (which I’ve decided should become a new web phrase denoting hypocrisy, outmoded concepts and bogusness).

The blacksmith’s days are over. The buggy whip maker is about to go out of business. Fox News succeeds because they give us both sides, not the same-old-tired sycophantic “Dan Rather worshipfully interviewing “Mr. President” Saddam Hussein.” Burka to that, too.

Give me Brian Kilmeade, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh anyday. They’re the muscular new motorists passing by the old horse-driven buckboards on the road. They’re the fearless new voices taking over where the old fear to tread. Hasta la Vista; Dan, Peter and Tom. Hope you enjoy your retirement with your old heroes; Fidel, Saddam and Kim Il Jong. Sing a chorus of “The Internationale” for all of us. We won’t miss you much, I’m sorry to say. ***

Photo of Jennifer King courtesy of staff files