News Roundup - Hour 1
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-08-20/news-roundup-hour-1
Political debate heats up nationally over the proposed Islamic Center in lower Manhattan, the Blagojevich trial ends in a hung jury and GM begins cutting ties to the U.S. government. A panel of journalists joins Diane for analysis of the week's top national news stories.
Guests
Dante Chinni
director of the PBS NewsHour's Patchwork Nation Project; journalist, Christian Science Monitor.
Eleanor Clift
contributing editor for "Newsweek."
Byron York
chief political correspondent, Washington Examiner, and author of "The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy."
News Roundup Video
The panelists discuss the controversy over the proposed building of an Islamic center in Lower Manhattan and explore what may be behind a recent Time Magazine poll finding more Americans incorrectly believe President Obama is a Muslim:
Comments
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I was disappointed to hear a caller state that no Christian religions have "a component that wants to kill off other religions." I hear this sort of statement over and over again, that somehow Islam is evil and Christianity is virtuous because there are no calls to violence against others.
But Christianity *does* in fact share the same problem. Deuteronomy 13:6-11 says that you should kill anyone who tries to disuade you from your religion. That even if they are a close relative you should have no pity or compassion on them but shall stone them to death and the other community members should join you in killing this person.
I happen to be an atheist. But I don't think Christians are bad because this is written in their religious text: I judge Christians by whether or not they choose to follow this particular part of the Bible. And I also judge Muslims by if they choose to follow the equally bad parts of the Quran. People should be treated as individuals because yes, the Christian Bible can be used to justify murdering those of other religions, but most human beings are humane enough to ignore it. That goes for Muslims as well as Christians.
I have listened for many years and count on your show to fill in the blanks in my knowledge of the news on a weekly basis. Is it impossible to find a conservative with a mind of his own? I have been able to predict, as a staunch liberal, exactly the verbiage Byron York will use on any given question. His answers are Fox's answers, Rush's answers, and Hannity's answers. Why not just have them on and fulfill your need for someone on the other side by at least having the source of the talking points spewing them at us, instead of this hack lackey for the right. The conservatives are led by many whom I consider personalities devoid of scholarly knowledge, but as they will soon be in charge of this nation, give the leaders a forum to be intelligently challenged. Your show, along with any serious media, is becoming a quaint anachronism with little or no influence. I am sad watching the media's demise as the third estate. I hope in ten years there will still be a source for truth, but I may be anachronistic myself in asking for that, as the 'truth' I seek seems no longer to exist anywhere. Nonetheless, thanks for all the good years, Diane.
I have to agree with some of the other commenters. Whenever I hear that Mr. York is going to be a guest, I just sigh and know it's going to be one of "those" shows. After listening to your show(s) for many years, I've come to expect partisans from time-to-time. I don't like it - I'd rather listen to smart, unbiased guests, but I accept it. But Mr. York is just too much for even a moderate like myself.
If you're going to continue to have Mr. York on, why don't you pair him up someone like Rachel Maddow? And, while we're on the subject, why don't you invite Ms. Maddow sometime? She's smart, fair and a great debater.
Ted in NC
Sometimes, Mr. York is too clever by half. It was a more than a little bit of a stretch for him to suggest that the controversy surrounding "The Ground Zero Mosque" was caused by President Obama's comments. All he did was affirm one of America's core values. The responsibility belongs squarely to the likes of Ms. Palin and Mr. Gingrich who have been stoking this controversy for all they're worth, and they started several weeks before Obama said a thing.
It was also way over the top for him to suggest that it's Obama's fault that almost 20% of Americans think he's a Muslim, because he talked about his Muslim roots in the Cario speech. It was germane to the situation. Is it also his fault that a like number think he's not a citizen? Truth is they believe what they want to believe in spite of any and all evidence to the contrary.
Regarding Diane's comments about the Christian Crusades of old:
Isn't the point that, yes, there has been terrible specifically religious-motivated violence in Western history. But we finally got over it, between 400 and 500 years ago. We transcended this source of violence.
The whole point about Islam is that its adherents haven't gotten over it,
and show no signs of doing so, certainly not by its practitioners, nor, I would maintain, its "moderates", who either evade condemnation of
Islam-motivated violence, or qualify or caveat their condemnation so
much as to nullify the condemnation.
So your whole point about Christian violence is incorrect if you don't contrast what has happened in the West with the Enlightenment, Individualism, Secularism, and other forces, none of which have occurred to any noticeable extent in the Arab World, nor any Moslem nation, most of which, and all in the Middle East, remain incapable of anything like religious pluralism.
Also, on your show with Akbar Ahmed, a fake moderate I've seen in person, you had a perfect example of his INtolerance. Just go back and look at his response to "Corey", the high school history teacher from
White Plains NY who, after having his question neatly deflected, also got blasted as an Islamophobe (but in a soft voice!). Some moderate. Ron Thompson
I'm disappointed in the knee-jerk condemnation of a commentator with little reference to the substance of what he was saying, and no disputing of the facts he referenced.
Most of this criticism reflects the fact that he doesn't reinforce your own views of the world. You're frustrated because you can't refute him. Personally I value a balance view of the world that challenges my perspective.
Finally, Dante Chinni made reasonable comments about why the US can not recover from the recession due to the lack of jobs and Diane and her female guest admitted that the media hasn't done their job of informing the public regarding this issue. As briefly mentioned by Mr Chinni, this is a 30+ year old problem due to many issues, globalization, deregulation, technological advances, out sourcing jobs, etc. The housing industry propped up this economy for the last ten years as manufacturing and service jobs were sent over seas. Corporate and Wall Street greed, plus American's addiction for "cheap stuff" finally pushed us off the cliff. Why doesn't Diane and the media spend more time discussing what happened to jobs in our country? Do we have research on how many jobs have been out sourced over seas and how has that contributed to corporation profits? Many corporations are now banking huge amounts of capital. We need to press Diane and other media sources to address the job issue with factual information and discussion on a daily basis. Educate the public instead on blaming the Obama administration for not magically fixing this complex problem.