Posted by Morbo
Morbo would like to follow up on the Carpetbagger’s recent post about Armstrong Williams and the revelations that he accepted $241,000 from the U.S. Education Department to promote the No Child Left Behind Act in his newspaper column and in broadcasts.
I believe I have a fresh perspective to add because, unlike many of the bloggers who have addressed this topic, I’ve actually had the misfortune of having seen Williams’ TV show. It’s kind of like “The O’Reilly Factor” with a few important differences:
* Say what you will about O’Reilly, he knows how to stir things up. Williams, by contrast, just knows how to bore people to death.
* Millions of people watch O’Reilly. Sure, most of them are right-wingers, but some moderates and liberals do tune in, just to see what’s up. So, a guest expressing a progressive point of view has at least the potential to reach some new people. No one watches Williams’ show. Not even his close relatives.
* A progressive who does O’Reilly’s show must leave feeling pumped up and energized to continue the battle anew. He or she has engaged the enemy close up and survived! After doing Williams, one could only feel embarrassed for having wasted time. You are aware that you could have put that time to better use by, say, making a model of the Eiffel Tower out of pocket lint.
I also wish to make one other thing clear: Some silly media accounts referred to Williams as a “journalist.” Armstrong Williams is a journalist in the same sense that the guys in Milli Vanilli were singers. I have a journalism degree, and while I’m not always proud of that fact these days, one must be clear some standards do exist in that profession. A journalist does not do flak work for the government for money. Hacks do. Williams has been nothing but a hack all of his life. Even before he took the money, there was no honor in what Williams did.
Last September, I listened in as Williams give a speech to a religious/political group in Washington, D.C. He spoke of values and the importance of anchoring your behavior in religious faith. He sneered at those who choose a secular ethic, making it clear that his path is the superior one. At that time, he had already prostituted himself, his microphone and pen. Maybe his ethic was not so superior after all.
The Germans have a word for taking pleasure in the misfortune of others — schadenfreude. Usually, I try to avoid it. It can lead to the type of mean-spiritedness and arrogance that I often criticize in the Religious Right.
In the case of Armstrong Williams, I am strongly tempted to make an exception, just for an afternoon.