Live on Fox: Well, at least I held my ownPosted on 04/28/2004 5:43:35 AM PDT by mhking
Live on Fox: Well, at least I held my own
Last night, I appeared on Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes in a "debate" (and I use the term loosely, it was more like an ambush than anything else) with New York City Councilman Charles "I Wanna Slap The Nearest White Person For My Mental Health" Barron.
Project 21 put out a press release Monday, which strongly criticized a Jesse Jackson's earlier this month in Boston. In the speech, Jackson accused the US Military of "murder," called for the impeachment of the President, and called for both UN sanctions and military action by the United Nations against the United States.
Last I checked, openly supporting military action against the US is grounds for treason, isn't it? Am I missing something?
Well, in any event, Project 21's release was very critical of Jackson, and I was quoted prominently in the release.
"Jesse Jackson's motives have never been as transparent as they were with these statements. If anyone needs to apologize, it's him. He indulges his fantasies and delusions of grandeur by calling for Bush's impeachment and calling for United Nations action against us. But blacks are beginning to see the truth -- that Jackson's bluster is exactly that: all smoke and no substance."FNC's Atlanta studio is in a new facility in Midtown, where Georgia Public Broadcasting has it's headquarters.
The bureau is fairly small, but the facilities modern.
The producer (I'm sorry, I can't remember his name -- I so bad with names; I generally don't forget a face, but I'm horrible with names) ushered me into the studio. The room was comfortable, nowhere near as tiny as the veritable closet that NBC uses for it's Atlanta studio. A chair and low table sat in front of a "Fox Atlanta" backdrop.
The producer explained that the camera was controlled from New York. It was a fancy robotic affair, not overly large at all. A small monitor sat nearby.
They set me up, and I waited a short while, making small talk with the producer, and with the people in New York. The producer turned the monitor away from me -- "So I wouldn't be tempted to look at it," he claimed.
Bottom of the hour, and they came up live. NYC Councilman Charles Barron, along with Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes. I have spoken to Sean a couple of times in the past -- he and I were on competing talk radio stations in the same time slot when I first came to Atlanta nearly 10 years ago. I'm not sure if he remembers me though.
Sean did the intro, then tossed out a question. Barron immediately jumped on it, trying to marginalize me. "Nobody knows who you people are. Yet you are trying to speak for black people."
"No, I'm not trying to speak for everyone. However, I never stopped to elect Jesse Jackson to speak for me," I retorted.
Barron was on a roll. He had the advantage of being in the studio with Sean and Alan -- he could read body language and facial expressions, where I couldn't see a thing (save the unblinking eye of the camera).
He began yelling, and when I didn't shut up right off, he began screeching.
Alan jumped in, grabbed the conversation, and yanked it -- hard -- into the deep water of Iraq, where I was not prepared to go.
Barron was in his element. I thought he sensed my unease, but everyone I've spoken to said that I was pretty cool throughout the whole thing. They said that if anything, Barron was unhinged by my not getting upset and flying off the handle.
I have a strong commanding voice and presence. I am certainly aware of that, and use it pretty much unconsciously.
I spoke over Barron, in an attempt to get my point across. I'm not sure if I did -- the segment was over so quickly.
I kicked myself on the drive home, for allowing Alan to grab the subject from me and head off in another direction.
My wife (She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed) insisted that I did just fine, and reminded me that Alan was one of the hosts -- he had the right and perogative to shift gears if he wanted to.
Oh, well. Come to find out that Mitchell (my 10 year old) yelled at Barron to shut up and let me talk; Lynese just wandered up to the TV, pointed, and said, "There's Daddy."
Then she waved. "Hi, Daddy!"
After I got home, I talked to my folks. I could hear my mom beaming through the phone. My dad? Well, my very liberal dad finally surprised me. "Well, boy, I don't agree with your politics, but you did good. You were polished and authoritative. I'm proud of you."
I guess the "idiot son" has finally come home and shed the "idiot" label.
Care to provide some examples?
Just damn! I hated that! I kicked myself all the way home over that one
LOL! I know how that goes :) But really, it wasn't a big deal, because Barron wasn't sharp enough to capitalize on it. Instead his counter criticized you for bringing up Nagasaki (or Hiroshima--now I forget which it was myself, LOL!), so the focus didn't stay on your "blanking" for very long. It probably felt longer than it was :)
My younger brother is a political fence-sitter who was truly impressed by me last night. He's probably the best Constitutional scholar that I know (rivaling many doctoral candidates, IMO); and volunteered to help coach me on some of those points.
Very cool. Is he in Constitutional law or history or something like that?
He was truly impressed with the Japanese infrastructure concept, and said it made Barron look like a total lunatic.
Barron got very defensive when you brought it up--it looked like it caught him off-guard. I found myself wishing you had a chance to elaborate on it. I've always looked at Iraq reconstruction on analogy with Japan, too, and I wish there was a way to bring that point across to a wider audience. Maybe if you can get on a show where they give you more chance to talk--Dennis Miller does a pretty good job of keeping his panel discussions civil, maybe that's a possible forum where you might get a little more opportunity to express your views.
Colmes was able to drive the conversation and take the wheel from me -- and had to, lest his buddy Barron get beaten completely into submision. By going to Iraq, where I was unprepared to go, he rattled my cage (and I WAS rattled, even if it didn't show).
I noticed it a little when he ambushed you by calling you an "apologist" for the administration; but you rolled with the punch and stayed on your feet. Of course Colmes gets to practice sparring with Hannity every day so you'd expect he's going to get a few shots in the first time you appear on his show. But the fact that on your first time out you scored a point back on him showed your potential to compete in that type of arena. I think if you made some more appearances like that and perhaps wrote some articles you could have a real future in that type of thing if it's something that interests you.
My brother said he saw my shoulders tense -- my dad and grandfather tend to react the same way when rattled. And with both of 'em it's basically get out of the way. They both would mop the floor verbally with whoever got on 'em.
I'm definitely interested in heading down that path - I'm sure I could do well with it, given some more work on my part.
Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate it!
I noticed it in that, and also in the way you kind of scoffed and said, "Oh, please!" :) I said to myself, "Uh-oh, Colmes is about to bring out Michael's inner 'Just Damn!'" :) "Mr. McGee, don't make me angry. . ." :)
Glad to hear you're interested in pursuing more stuff like that. Hope the feedback is helpful. Thanks for going out there and making FR's voice heard!--made me feel like I had someone out there speaking for me, which was a nice change from yelling at the liberals on my TV all the time! :)
You DO have a great presense on TV and you're going to be a natural leader.
Good job!!
After I got home, I talked to my folks. I could hear my mom beaming through the phone. My dad? Well, my very liberal dad finally surprised me. "Well, boy, I don't agree with your politics, but you did good. You were polished and authoritative. I'm proud of you."Yay ! Way to go ! Sounds like you did great ! I'm proud of you, too !!
I felt your frustration in trying to be heard over all three, but what little you did say was right on.
Michael, I missed it. But it certainly sounds like I should have tuned it in!I told McGavin999 long ago that I so consistently agree with what she posts that she might almost as well sign my name to her posts.
So I take her word for it that you were terrific.
I didn't realize that was you. I caught your segment, thought "Finally a decent guest is holding his own" and then flipped the channel when some liberals tried to talk over you (as is their typical behavior). Nice job. I like the example that you are setting.
You sounded/looked great ... you remained polite to the cretin under difficult circumstances, which I couldn't have done.
Send congratulations and thanks to your parents for doing such a good job. They should be very proud.
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