The Seduction of Television

Real Time with Bill Maher was on last night. Maher knows how to seduce an audience and make some really good television. Last nights panelists were Michael Moore, Former Canadian Prime Minister Kim Campbell, and Republican Representative David Drier from California. Real Time also included special guests Ralph Nader and Governor Bill Owen (Republican from Colorado).

I am really starting to detest Moore. He has this snide humor that he presents with almost no facts, and is much more op-ed based. While I think that people should see Fahrenheit 9/11 just to see what the hell the movie is, I don't think Moore should be any sort of spokesman or representative for the liberal side of politics nor the Democratic Party. (I should readily admit here that I haven't watched a single minute of the DNC, thinking that it really would be like having sunshine pumped up my ass with its optimism. Maybe I'm just cynical, but I got that line from Real Time, so its not just me)

Call me anti-American, but the only person who was tolerable in their views was Prime Minister Campbell. Drier and Moore seemed intent on ripping each other to shreds. Maher put fuel on the fire. Nader was Nader (one of the best parts of the show was Maher and Moore [heh, M&M] on their knees begging Nader to pull out and support Kerry). Owen was surprisingly unfair, but what does one expect from a Republican, but so was everybody else.

While I generally enjoy the rabble-rousing nature of this type of program, this one, especially with Moore's inanities, didn't have any progression of ideas from their base elemental core to some sort of release of information. It was just elemental fighting elemental, which makes for some great entertainment, but it is hardly stimulating. Drier kept attacking Fahrenheit 9/11, and made some inane comment that Bush never once fabricated or distorted anything in his political run for office, either time. The Republicans keep harping on the war vote. The Republicans are getting desperate. The Democrats are still saying how urgent everything is. They keep saying that Bush is the most hated President in history (I wonder how Nixon stands up in that comparison...oh, wait, Bush is Nixon reincarnate).

Another hilarious thing Drier said was that Bush was a scientific president, and that he supported space exploration and research of a bunch of diseases. Um hrm, like AIDS and Stem Cell Research? One being an urgent global cause, the other being a very developmental experiment needed to forward or at least dispell the mystery of its nature.

They also kicked off by harping Bush on the Seven Minutes of Goat (which Drier insisted was 5-7 minutes, as if that makes a difference [though, there is video footage of this, why did the report insist on not using the exact time?]). Which, while funny, isn't exactly the most pressing issue at hand. You're saying he's a scared chicken and that's why he's madly attacking everybody and their nation [Afghanistan, Iraq, soon to be Iran]? Perhaps its a plausible idea, but its not exactly the best one.

I am really curious on next week's episode.