Letterman: Punting For the Left
David Letterman talked with guest Bill O'Reilly last night. Apparently, some of the usual suspects declared this a debate and that Letterman kicked O'Reilly's ass.
Debate? Letterman is (and always has been) an utter smartass on television. That was his charm when I was a high school kid. (I have long since become a fan of Conan O'Brien.) However, when you snark without actually having much to say you better make sure your snark is razor sharp.
Letterman merely snarks... and from what I remember, this wasn't even gold standard Letterman snarking. A few bloggers remarked that he didn't even have any facts nor reasonable comments... mere jackassary. (Links below.) Dave actually said, "I'm not smart enough to debate you point to point," and "I have a feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap." That last line is pure Dave-snark, but anyone who has ever seen Letterman's shows knows he's also giving his opinion.
Not only that, but Paul and the band played "Won't Get Fooled Again" by the Who to bring O'Reilly out... great song, but d'ya think they did that for any reason?
(Badda-Blogger correction: Upon viewing it again, the song is clearly "Baba O'Reilly"... so that's a double-dumbass on me.)
O'Reilly isn't really my guy. I read one of his books some years back and got the distinct impression that this guy was fairly middle of the road on more than a couple of subjects. The way some folks talk these days I would have thought he'd be much more of a Right-Leaner. Since that time I've seen The Factor maybe a half dozen times. He's okay on television but just not something I'm going to watch with any regularity.
O'Reilly came off fairly well... unless you watched with Lefty-lenses. Even so, Dave just wanted to act like a dick and change the subject when he couldn't respond.
Watch the video excerpt at Political Teen. (It runs about six minutes... but the full clip runs more than eleven minutes.) Read the transcript at Iowa Voice. Both have several links to other folks jawing about the segment. (I hesitate to call it an interview.)
Johnny Carson would never conduct his show in such a way. In fact, I suspect that the old David Letterman (on NBC) would never have conducted his show that way either.
Potential Update Later Tonight:
The Dutiful and Beautiful Mrs. Badda-Blogger has never watched much of Letterman or O'Reilly and she mad a few comments to me after viewing the segment. Either she will scrawl them down and I'll copy them here or we'll have them in the comments section... or there's the ever-present possibility that we'll just blow it off.
;)
Debate? Letterman is (and always has been) an utter smartass on television. That was his charm when I was a high school kid. (I have long since become a fan of Conan O'Brien.) However, when you snark without actually having much to say you better make sure your snark is razor sharp.
Letterman merely snarks... and from what I remember, this wasn't even gold standard Letterman snarking. A few bloggers remarked that he didn't even have any facts nor reasonable comments... mere jackassary. (Links below.) Dave actually said, "I'm not smart enough to debate you point to point," and "I have a feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap." That last line is pure Dave-snark, but anyone who has ever seen Letterman's shows knows he's also giving his opinion.
Not only that, but Paul and the band played "Won't Get Fooled Again" by the Who to bring O'Reilly out... great song, but d'ya think they did that for any reason?
(Badda-Blogger correction: Upon viewing it again, the song is clearly "Baba O'Reilly"... so that's a double-dumbass on me.)
O'Reilly isn't really my guy. I read one of his books some years back and got the distinct impression that this guy was fairly middle of the road on more than a couple of subjects. The way some folks talk these days I would have thought he'd be much more of a Right-Leaner. Since that time I've seen The Factor maybe a half dozen times. He's okay on television but just not something I'm going to watch with any regularity.
O'Reilly came off fairly well... unless you watched with Lefty-lenses. Even so, Dave just wanted to act like a dick and change the subject when he couldn't respond.
Watch the video excerpt at Political Teen. (It runs about six minutes... but the full clip runs more than eleven minutes.) Read the transcript at Iowa Voice. Both have several links to other folks jawing about the segment. (I hesitate to call it an interview.)
Johnny Carson would never conduct his show in such a way. In fact, I suspect that the old David Letterman (on NBC) would never have conducted his show that way either.
Potential Update Later Tonight:
The Dutiful and Beautiful Mrs. Badda-Blogger has never watched much of Letterman or O'Reilly and she mad a few comments to me after viewing the segment. Either she will scrawl them down and I'll copy them here or we'll have them in the comments section... or there's the ever-present possibility that we'll just blow it off.
;)
posted by Badda at
3:20:00 PM
