Mike Pouraryan
SP Week-End Notes (11/2/2009): A Brief Wrap of the US Sunday Talk Shows
On the US Sunday Talk-Show Circuit, it was another busy one. Meet the Press had the Secretary of the Treasury and a discussion with the Key NBC Correspondents. ABC had Valerie Jarret of the Obama Adminstration and a roundtable of the usual establishment luminaries. CBS had David Axelrod and Joe Lieberman. Fox also had, as its' highlight, Rush Limbaugh which I wrote about in SP's sister site, Outsider Views. CNN had the House Republican Leader and then the Governor of Missisipi. The one that I thought was more profound was Fareed Zakaria GPS.
Why are these shows important? They are very, very important on a number of fronts. Adminstrations use them to float ideas and to push the outlook that they think is important. It was during this time that the so-called War on Fox got started. During the same shows, the Adminstration used the platform to push its' views on Healthcare. As I listened to Tim Geitner, I found him to be very, very upbeat. He has to be. But, he seems to be disconnected from the realities on the ground. I also found the key NBC correspodents to be matter-of-fact with their assessments of the realities being faced by the Obama Adminstration in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Of all the programs today, I found Fareed Zakaria's interview with Robert Schiller of Yale and Martin Wolf of the Financial Times to be especially poignant. As the Afghan decision draws near, I also caught to the Web Edition of his program as he talked to Matthew Huh, the courageous Foreign Service Officer who spoke up for what is wrong with Afghanistan:
Please click here: Really Long Link
The simplistic notion of what is going on in Afghanistan has been debunked by Matthew Huh's honest and frank assessment. This is why Lieberman was a real fool when he talked about his views on Afghanistan. Furthermore, the rest of the so-called conservatives really look like fools becasue they seem simply not to understand the reality on the ground of a civil war with no end. As this reality is being laid out by Mathew Hoh, the Adminstration has come out in support of the useless Karzai. When will the Adminstration realize this? It seems as if Holbrooke understands it. Otherwise, Holbrooke would not have offered to have Matthew Hoh joined his staff. As I thought about what Matthew Hoh said, I ran across this talk by Tariq Ali:
Not withstanding his political arguments, some of the very truths about Karzai and the fallacy of the policy. The need to listen is crucial.
Why are these shows important? They are very, very important on a number of fronts. Adminstrations use them to float ideas and to push the outlook that they think is important. It was during this time that the so-called War on Fox got started. During the same shows, the Adminstration used the platform to push its' views on Healthcare. As I listened to Tim Geitner, I found him to be very, very upbeat. He has to be. But, he seems to be disconnected from the realities on the ground. I also found the key NBC correspodents to be matter-of-fact with their assessments of the realities being faced by the Obama Adminstration in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Of all the programs today, I found Fareed Zakaria's interview with Robert Schiller of Yale and Martin Wolf of the Financial Times to be especially poignant. As the Afghan decision draws near, I also caught to the Web Edition of his program as he talked to Matthew Huh, the courageous Foreign Service Officer who spoke up for what is wrong with Afghanistan:
Please click here: Really Long Link
The simplistic notion of what is going on in Afghanistan has been debunked by Matthew Huh's honest and frank assessment. This is why Lieberman was a real fool when he talked about his views on Afghanistan. Furthermore, the rest of the so-called conservatives really look like fools becasue they seem simply not to understand the reality on the ground of a civil war with no end. As this reality is being laid out by Mathew Hoh, the Adminstration has come out in support of the useless Karzai. When will the Adminstration realize this? It seems as if Holbrooke understands it. Otherwise, Holbrooke would not have offered to have Matthew Hoh joined his staff. As I thought about what Matthew Hoh said, I ran across this talk by Tariq Ali:
Not withstanding his political arguments, some of the very truths about Karzai and the fallacy of the policy. The need to listen is crucial.
