Feedback Forum

"You have an electorate having their time wasted by pop culture stuff like Paula Abdul, the runaway bride, Robert Blake, whatever it is. And it's a way to not have to spend money and actually do good news gathering and investigative journalism. It's a way to keep the electorate misinformed and dumbed down." -- Janeane Garofalo

Submissions for this question are no longer being accepted. Previously submitted comments appear below. Comments may have been edited for content or space.

Poster: Lorna Clark
Comment: Edward R. Murrow said it best: "All I can hope to teach my son is to tell the truth and fear no man" And: "The only thing that counts is the right to know, to speak, to think -- that, and the sanctity of the courts. Otherwise it's not America." And: "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty." And: "We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of the Republic to abdicate his responsibility." I recommend the film "The Power of Nightmares" to everyone who wants to know 'how did this happen?'

Poster: Cynthia Harnist
Comment: I agree completely; why are so many Americans so willing to be distracted and spoon fed; why don't they want to think for themselves; could our broken educational system be part of the reason?

Poster: andrew heermans
Comment: i agree with her, but it is the tip of the iceberg.

Poster: Kenneth Pine
Comment: I agree with that statement. The only other thing I agreed with was her statement, "I'm an idiot". I particularly disagreed with her spreading the misinformation about D&X like it was the truth. She needs to read more from the AMA about what she pretends to be an athourity on; namely, D&X is not done to preserve a woman's life and while there are no absolutely accurate statistics, at least 2200 partial birth abortions are estimated to have been performed in 2000. While this may be less than one percent of the annual abortions performed in this country, I don't believe the majority of Americans would consider this insignificant.

Poster: Louise Radley
Comment: Couldn't of said it better of the mitigating realities put forth on the unwitting masses.

Poster: David Booker
Comment: Unfortunately, a percentage (and some would say a large percentage) of the electorate throughout American history have chosen to be "dumbed down." Look at the presidential race between Adams and Jefferson as described in "Adams vs. Jefferson." Look at the fact that political parties in past offered whiskey to those who voted their way. Or even look at Richard Nixon's Checker's Speech or even the Kennedy vs. Nixon debates, which many people think Nixon won on substance but Kennedy won on style and presentation. Truth be told, a large part of the electorate doesn't want the truth to be told. And unfortunately a large part of the news media has stooped to that level as well, or maybe they never came up above that level. Again, look at the period of newspapers in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Though the movie "Citizen Kane" was fictional, it spoke a great many truths about how Hearst and others pandered to the lowest common denominator to make the biggest denominations of currency. As the Nobel Prize winning physicist Arno Penzias once put it: "Technology will allow us to be who we are, only more so." Sadly, the news technology today bears that out; it is only giving us more so of what was already there, had already been there throughout our history. Or as the cartoonist Walt Kelly so aptly put it in Pogo: "We have met the enemy and he is us."

Poster: Pat Malone
Comment: The networks and purvevors of popular culture are very happy to oblige us with nonsense and irrelevancy served up as news and entertainment. Absorption in celebrity gossip and the behaviors of dysfunctional people served up as the news du jour, provide safe topics that can be discussed at the office or with acquaintances. It is bad form to discuss religion or politics, especially in a nation as polarized as ours, but one can always talk about the "news". We can feel superior to the dysfunctional and focusing on the reported glamour or troubles of celebrities, provides an escape from our own lives, that have become infinitely more difficult. A century dominated by a war for every generation has created a population longing for mythical halcyon days of old. A halcyon period that never existed has become the fodder for the guiding myth exploited by the conservative leadership and the evangelical movement. A Zeitgeist of vulnerability to unknown and undefined threats leaves our citizenery yearning for a leadership that claims to have solutions to problems or a formula that promises salvation for devotion to the "correct" set of eternal verities. There is no shortage of self-appointed prophets or persons "chosen by God to lead". All are at the ready to exploit the vulnearabilities of the populace. This leads me to wonder, are these prophets and chosen leaders assuaging their own doubts and fears by convincing the masses that they possess the power to keep terrors at bay, and have they increased their efforts to still their own demons?

Poster: Margaret Ames
Comment: I could not agree with you more. Please keep up the good work. I listen to you on Air America, and I appreciate the fact that someone is finally telling it like it is about the media.

Poster: Margaret Ames
Comment: I could not agree with you more. Please keep up the good work. I listen to you on Air America, and I appreciate the fact that someone is finally telling it like it is about the media.

Poster: linda rodal
Comment: Janeane Garofalo is one of few who have the courage to speak out honestly. I can't say enough about how much she means to those of us who treasure facts, not the doublespeak that has so sadly influenced the easily swayed populace of this country. This country needs her and more like her. More strength to her for as long as she chooses to expose the flagrant and sometimes deadly lies of our "leaders" and their followers who are either gullible or who also stand to gain from those lies.

Poster: David Bray
Comment: I agree with Janeane's quote. We've lost the art of debate...many people see things as black or white, right or wrong. It's nice to see someone like Janeane stand up for what she believes in. We need more thought provoking television and journalism. We've also lost the sense that opinions are opinions, not fact...too many "news" talk shows are just so many folks expressing opinions, but trying to sell them as facts...debate was once an artform and the audience understood that the facts presented were used to support a pro or con opinion, not that the pro or con opinion was the fact.

Poster: Reynold Finnegan
Comment: Janeane Garofalo hit the nail on the head. All media is guilty of accepting the misinformation and lies put out by the Administration and it's supporters as fact without any questioning of it's truthfulness. It's a sad state of affairs and its left to the general public to set things right by writting letters to the Editors of their newspapers and magazines and going to public meetings and countering the lies by speaking out at said meetings. Please keep speaking out Janeane.

Poster: Reynold Finnegan
Comment: Janeane Garofalo hit the nail on the head. All media is guilty of accepting the misinformation and lies put out by the Administration and it's supporters as fact without any questioning of it's truthfulness. It's a sad state of affairs and its left to the general public to set things right by writting letters to the Editors of their newspapers and magazines and going to public meetings and countering the lies by speaking out at said meetings. Please keep speaking out Janeane.

Poster: Travis Freed
Comment: I agree 100% with this statement.

Poster: Ford Stone
Comment: Does anyone really believe that the latinate abstraction "dilation & curettage" is a more "truthful" description of pulling a baby halfway out from its mother's womb and crushing its skull with forceps than "partial birth abortion"? I resisted the War in Vietnam for just such linguistic distortions of the truth that killers employ to obfuscate the reality of their actions. I voted for no one in the last election (I DID vote!) because I will support NO party that makes me choose between the value of human life and the value of social/economic justice. God values both! Till now, I've been a lifelong Democrat. I've been driven from the party, along with a jillion other natural Democrats (the Hispanic Vote and Catholics like myself) over this headlong rush over the precipice of Abortion, embryonic stem cell research, euthanasia, and the other elements of the Culture of Death championed by Democrats. Do you think we are blind to the fact that the Republicans have cynically used these values as a fig leaf for their crony capitalism, their assault on the American worker, the aged and the young, and their shameless environmental depredations? Certainly not! Faced with having to choose between the value of life and the value of economic creature comforts, what choice could we make? We will choose life, whatever the cost to our bottom line! Or, as in my case, no choice of either party.

Poster: Patrick
Comment: Janeane is right! America spends too much time with all this non news thats happening in Fox! It's a shame that our country has gone down to the toilet!

Poster: Ellie Eccles
Comment: I enjoy your program very much. I am used to media interviewers proving how astute or acute they are by raising red-herring issues with a guest thus diluting the guest�s point of view. Today in your interview with Janeane Garofalo, one of your questions got me up and moving to my computer because it seems to me that is what you did. It went something like this: when does kveching stop and some action begin? The guest could have had a better answer for you, but she had already told you she does not like to appear as a guest on such shows because she is not good at it. Here is one position she could have taken: kvetching is apparently what you are calling it when people point out the faults of the opposition. What I call it is educating people so that they become aware of the issues and make better choices next time they go to the ballot box. If no one is standing up and presenting the facts very large numbers of voters will just listen to the distortions presented by those in power now. Very few go to the sources to find the truth.

Poster: Elizabeth
Comment: Thanks for airing this grievance that so many people must want to express.

Poster: Darek Stock
Comment: Hi! I agree with Janeane Garofalo 200%. I admire her intelligence, honesty and straightfarwordness in speaking how things really are. Darek Stock

Poster: George Love
Comment: I'm actually taking a doctoral class on the legal environment of business right now and Ms. Garofalo's comment just seems so amazingly pertinent. The underlying question should be whether a media organization should put their ethical framework and purpose or making a profit first. Probably the easiest fix for all of this, force the media conglomerates to break up and go local again so that they focus on their ethical purpose, educating the people on what is going on in the world so they can make informed decisions in the voting booth.

Poster: D. Brown
Comment: Amen. I did hear a journalist say that it is difficult getting news these days, so maybe the White House and Congress should be more cooperative. Obviously the dumbing down paid off last November.

Poster: Samantha
Comment: I wholeheartedly agree. We, as the America people have better things to concern ourselves with instead useless garbage perpetuated by the right. No wonder 50% of Americans think Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11.

Poster: chris smith
Comment: Having lived abroad for a time, returning to the States I am shocked to witness to what extent US TV programming has become controlled, and censored. For example, there is no live coverage of Iraq! Yes we hear of Iraq indirectly, between the shouting matches of "opinion givers", and "analysts" (aren't these but double talk for good old words like "sloganeers", and "propogandists"?), and the running ticker tape at the bottom of the screen (to which our troops casualties and deaths have been relegated) but where are the live pictures? Where are the interviews with citizens, leaders, diplomats, foreign corrspondants? Why is the US the only country in the world, where BBC World is not aired? Why is CNN international seen only abroad and not in the US? The fact that Michal Jackson and Martha Stewart take up more air time than International and Global news, is frightening. The dumbing down and severe isolationism of US citizens through the media's news blackout is profound and dangerous. The US today makes me think of Orwells "Animal Farm". How lucky that most have not read it, and even if they had, would have no idea what it refers to. This way we in the US can continue to squeal and grunt in our ignorant delight.

Poster: Trish Kile
Comment: I enjoyed this interview on PBS and want to know what I can do as a concerned citizen and journalist who is overwhelmed by the lack of public control in the junk news we are veiwing as news worthy.

Poster: ken saucke
Comment: the Garofalo interveiw was a real let down, air america may have some significance but what you aired was less than significant. Zinn and Chomsky may be old and there must be a next generation on the left but Garofalo is not it. With your limited tiime you should come up with better. thanks Ken

Poster: Eric Stahl
Comment: Where were people like you 5 years ago when Bush was elected, so the Bush War could have been prevented ???

Poster: David Hildebrand
Comment: Janeane , Neil Postman's book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, give a quick and convincing history of technology that helps explains how entertainment became the mode into which everything would have to present itself. It is no doubt true that those in power have used public distraction to their benefit, but whether it is a conspiracy--i.e., planned in advance by the major groups involved--is less clear to me. The deterioration of public education is a strong contributor to the problem that does not involve the media. I don't think it is necessary to find a conspiracy to say that this trend harms democracy, though. What is valuable and what we want to be in our future is at stakes. David Hildebrand, professor of philosophy hilde@yahoo.com

Poster: Mike Schonewolf
Comment: Indeed...... She is absloulty right, we need some serious reform since PBS is about to be attacked by the CPB since they want PBS the only objective media outlet left to become a carbon copy if Fox News

Poster: Dick Griest
Comment: As pathetic a lot as Ms. Garofalo made the press out to be last night, she barely scratched the surface. While we know everthing about the runaway bride, we remain clueless as to why, for nearly a decade, the FBI has been unable to fix its IT problems. Until enough is written about a topic, other members of the press can't read up on it to ask questions of a more probative nature. There has been no resonance on this FBI issue, and thus no one in the main stream media has been able to explain why the FBI still has no terrorism database to Google. Wouldn't we be better off knowing this than why the runaway bride ran away? author "The Role of the Press in Failing to Prevent September 11th"

Poster: Margaret Moore
Comment: Brancaccio accused Janeane Garofalo of "kvetching" which was a strangely hostile thing to say to a guest you've invited on your program precisely because THAT's how they make their living- kvetching. The word means "someone who complains a great deal, finds fault." (Oxford). I felt his reaction was unconsciously directed toward a small feisty WOMAN. I can't imagine him saying that to Al Franken. She was rightly offended, as was I.

Poster: Marshall Pearlman
Comment: Most people want to be entertained not informed. The trick is to inform while entertaining. This is one of the things that makes a successful teacher stand out. And is characteristic of people like Limbaugh, Hanity, Moore and (Mort) Sahl. Remember the guy who said "I'd rather be right than president" . He was dead right. Not president.

Poster: Linda Harmon
Comment: Right on! Turn off the TV. Just turn it off. And try NPR.

Poster: db@53
Comment: Living in this world with a certain sense of awareness....agreeing to disagree and treating each other with dignity no matter what the issue may be...It is easy to get lost in this computer age

Poster: Kathi Forssell
Comment: I wholeheartedly agree. The most informative show on TV is NOW and it being cut to 1/2 hour proves that the government wants to keep the public uninformed and dumbed down. What is happening in this country is horrible and the public would rather watch crap and not take responsibility to be informed. But our corporate media would have to take the blame.

Poster: Ken
Comment: Janeane is absolutely correct about the media. I think the reason behind the media's focus on the inane is a calculated manuever to distract the public from the reality that the Bush administration, the mega-corporations and other power brokers do not want them to see. It's the magician's trick of distracting their audience with the shining object, so they don't see what the other hand is doing.

Poster: JimmyDean
Comment: Garofalo stated the essense of the "polarity" issue as it has come to affect all of american society today with the statements she made concerning the "redefinition" of basic american TRUTHS by ALL politicians. I remain mystified that when the labels of the RIGHT, or conservative, or fundmentalist.... or for that matter the LEFT, or liberal, or revisionist are used by the same people at different times and to different audiences to evoke the appropriate response......to be used as necesary at the appropriate date.Strange how that when a LIE is told enough by the RIGHT sources at the RIGHT time it seems to become the TRUTH. Thanks to NOW/PBS for the interviews that force us to THINK.

Poster: Jacky Ward
Comment: Still no one is discussing the runaway cost of health care. Television is guff and very irritating to anyone over 30, and yet I know no one under that watches broadcast T.V. or buys anything that is advertized. I am a boomer

Poster: John
Comment: Janeane Garofalo is ill and needs help. It is exactly this type of rhetoric that divides this country and contributes to my belief that the Democratic party has strayed WAY off course from reality. As a Democrat, I side with the Republican party philosophy and will continue to PRAY for the democratic party to abandon their position of ange and hate.

Poster: David J. Litttle
Comment: As a moderate, green friendly, conservative and a committed Christian, Miss Garofalo might find it unusual that I asseverate many of her views on the effete media, the President's penchant for "repackaging" accurate explainations of his policies for "p.c."-speak and the criminal complacency of the middle class. However, her view that "Bible thumpers" want to repeal the 19th Amendment, to make seat belts optional, etc. is regrettably absurd and surprisingly myopic. Christianity was never supposed to be a belief system in which one suspended all reasoning, all cerebral scrutiny. Indeed, in Luke 10:27 instructs christians to love God with all of their minds. That involves ongoing rumination as, hopefully, no one remains at a static intellectual level. I feel confident that the comment was "knee-jerk" response to something Mr. Brancacchio was addressing. Great spot!

Poster: Kenny Embry
Comment: Janeane Garofalo speaks with the zest and conviction of someone with absolutely no expertise or facts at her disposal, simply a seething reactionary position and the need to lash out at an available target. I worked in television news for five years and I, too, watched the emergence of info-tainment. I saw the loss of foreign desks replaced by celebrity information. However, it's ridiculous to pin this on a "vast right wing conspiracy" or an unusually liberal media for this emergence. Since leaving television journalism, I have been working on my Ph.D., and I can say with a great deal of certainty that Garofalo's assertions are both ill-informed and barely English sentences. If people were truly interested in understanding politics, CSPAN would be the #1 network...bar none. But it's not. Garofalo's assertion that all Americans would agree with her if they knew the TRUTH is also extremely disturbing. Basically what she seems to say is "if you knew the facts, you'd agree with one set of conclusions." Here's a FACT. Last month, we have a little more than 270,000 more jobs than we did the month before. That's the fact. Is it due to President Bush's tax break? Is it due to increased immigration by illegal aliens? Is it due to natural business cycles that have nothing to do with politics? The TRUTH is that probably all of those things came into play. However, I would guess (and it's only a guess) that Garofalo wouldn't allow for the possibility that any right wing initiative could possibly have any positive outcomes...if indeed 270,000 jobs is a positive outcome. Likewise, the limiting of some privacy rights may, to some, seem reasonable in a time of war against terrorism. Garofalo's zeal is admirable. But her dogmatic positioning makes her as big (or bigger) in the propaganda department as she assigns to the right side of the aisle. She has all passion, but relies on non sequitur reasoning, faulty causal relationships (which she doesn't and can't support), and an arrogant presentation that is, frankly, appalling from both sides of the aisle. In her conception, can someone be intelligent, honest, and a Republican? I would imagine she would allow someone to pick two, but not all three.

Poster: Rodray Price, Jr.
Comment: I agree with Janeane Garofalo. Another element in the mix is that people have priorities and those priorities generally do not have a high concern for facts that are uncomfortable or require accepting responsiblity.

Poster: Carole
Comment: I agree with Jeneane about the American media. I do not watch news on the major American TV networks anymore as they are empty of anything related to real life. They are either frivilous stories used as distractions or staged propaganda intended to instill fear. The thoughtful interviews on NOW are refreshingly different. How long will it take before the average person turns off his TV set and starts taking back his life and his country from the spin doctors?

Poster: A.Brown
Comment: Yes I think Janeane is correct the news organzition is helping to keep america DUMB about the real issues, and if anything of value gets through it's only due to PBS. I just read this week in the NYTimes that the PBS station is under attack by one of the Republican Chairman. Once they try to silence this station the American people are in Big Trouble.

Poster: Chuck Paul
Comment: I didn't realize until I started following Janeane Garofalo on the radio and paying attention to her words of wisdom, but she is right on here and she is one of the few who has guts enough to say it out loud. Kudos to Janeane for saying it. She is someone who really does her homework. The hours and hours she spends doing research and stydying have paid off. It gives me confidence to vbe able to listen to a well-informed current events comentator. and it shows in comentary.

Poster: Suzy
Comment: Totally Agree with Janeane. If it wan't for NOW, the Frontline show, KPFK and now Air America (which has lead me to even more resources), I would still be in the dark.

Poster: Mark Harryman
Comment: I could not have said it any better. I also think Janeane said something even more important and that is the truth about how the now extreme right wingers in this country have confused any truth from being evident, as in the distorted use of words to cover up the real problems at hand. As she stated, "it's not my opinion, it's the truth". We have been duped ever since late 2000 beginning in Florida by men who support big business over the people. Good for you Janeane, I'm glad I heared it at least once on TV.

Poster: Mark N
Comment: By TV standards, JG sounds too 'committed' to be strictly truthful. But it's TV that is not being truthful. It claims 'balance', but really shows cowardice. It's not the Left that is lying and taking over anything. It most definitely is the Right. This year is shaping up like Reagan's second term: reactionary payoffs, 'nothing to lose'. God. I thought Bush was a mere harmless bozo. Then events made him pilot for the authoritarians. In Garofalo, what might appear as breathless and reflexive isn't. I'm finding myself more and more radicalized. Yes. God help the republic. We will all need the kind of courage she shows.

Poster: Doug McNeill
Comment: I enjoyed Ms. Garafolo's remarks as I admittedly share her progressive viewpoint. Her comment about the equivalence between "activist judges" and "judges with whom I disagree" was especially sentient. I would be particularly interested to see a conservative response in the Schiavo case had the wishes of the husband and the parents been *reversed*. We might then learn whether they objected to the application of the rule of law (surrogacy devolving to the next-of-kin) or objected to the effect of the decision to validate lower court rulings and/or deny certiorari by the Supremes. "Everyone has a right to his opinion but there are only one set of facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan...

Poster: Mark
Comment: I totally agree that the corporate media has been doing a horrible job of informing Americans about things that matter to them. It is also true what Janeane said about how facts have been made out to be "liberal bias" by the right. So many people assume there is a liberal bias in the media because they've heard it over and over. The right has learned to capitalize on people's fears, ignorance, sense of morality, hate, patriotism and so on. In my local newspaper, when thousands of us showed up for a anti-war rally, they ran a photo of one of only a couple pro-war demonstrators which made it look like it was evenly divided. Still many people think this newspaper has a liberal slant. Right wing ideology has crept up on us slowly but surely. Perhaps we need to keep hammering the message to people that they are being force-fed right wing propaganda. It is great that people like Janeane are doing all they can to try to get the message out and everyone should as well. It seems like an uphill battle and it is, but the right has given us plenty to work with in terms of things we can use to our advantage(tax cuts for the rich,lies, cronyism, hubris, hypocrisy, abortion rates increasing, more poverty, less compassion for the poor from "Christian regressives" , an unwillingness to require paper trails(WHO ARE THESE UNAMERICAN PEOPLE WHO ARE STEALING OUR DEMOCRACY?)etc. It would be a good idea for the left to work as hard telling it like it is as the right has worked at lying to us. We need to get angry about this.

Poster: Patrick
Comment: I was really struck when Janeane Garofalo said that the mainstream news media is now giving equal weight to spin on one hand and truth on the other. I've never heard it expressed quite that way and I think she's absolutely right. I'm a liberal democrat who has turned to other sources for my news. I used to watch CNN faithfully, but I've found that in the past few years, rather than cover stories that might cause controversy on either the right or the left, they simply don't report in depth anymore. I don't mind listening to conservative commentary which is truthful but sadly, I find that it's more spin than truth. I think the main purpose of a free press is to be critical of ANY party that is in power, 'speaking truth to power', and I think they've forgotten that that is their vital role in our society.

Poster: RickStar
Comment: Absolutely true... and even more... it's a way to keep the airwaves warm and fluffy and a nice environment to sell products. These stupid stories also provide a way for the owners of these airwaves to continue selling weapons and wars. Now PBS is under seige by representatives of these corporations now installed in the government that was to be of, by and for the people. Former Bush loyalists are being installed at the top and soon even the usually balanced CPB information will be carefully massaged. Action is required.

Poster: Alex
Comment: Gossip and entertainment have their place, but Janeane's point can not be emphasized enough. The capitalistic pressure to create profit centers out of American newsrooms reveals that as their bottom lines go down, so does the accurate political awareness of the electorate. This excuse of pleasing the shareholders conflicts with the obligation of the mainstream media to keep the government in check and the public properly informed. This seemingly inadvertant consequence creates a sociopolitical environment that should be the envy of all tyrants.

Poster: Mary Ellen Hunner
Comment: Thanks Janeane for taking a stand and speaking the truth.

Poster: Janet Sharp
Comment: I agree completely with the statement above. My husband and I recently returned to living in the US after living for 23 years in North Africa and the Middle East. We have often commented to each other on the lack of indepth coverage about issues of vital importance in our American media, and the focus on the silly and trivial. Ignorance fostered by the Media, I believe, has led to the lack of solid understanding of the history and the cultures of the people in the Middle East. This lack of historical perspective made it easy for our citizens to believe the fairy tales told before the war, and to sway them to support the invasion of Iraq. Part of the problem is the need to create crises to lure viewers. We have often commented to each other that when we came home to visit in the summertime there was always a "crises" that the Media was following. If there was no war, no election, and no Olympic games to take on crises proportion, for instance, we could expect that a crisis would be conjured by the Media. One year it was pit bulls, one year it was OJ Simpson. In the Middle East when we watched the local news we knew that it was biases toward the government. We knew that nothing critical of the government would be shown. However, once that was understood, the viewer could get a picture of what was happening around the world. Compared to American television broadcasts the delivery was less polished and not so engaging. But, we concluded, we are not watching to be captivated with the personality of the news team, or their hairstyles and wit. We wanted the news. In the Middle East the news anchors sat at a desk in front of the camera and read what came off the wire services. A different person did the delivery every night. Boring? Yes! But I felt we were getting the NEWS.

Poster: Bob Hofer
Comment: Janeane touches on a truth about the trivial content of the media in America. Most people will NOT go to the library to dig out the facts: like exactly which income group benefitted from the President's tax breaks. The real cost of his Medicaid plan. The real cost of his Social Security plan.

Poster: Thomas Schell
Comment: It is very refreshing to hear someone so unapologetically liberal and progressive. I can't think of anything to say that is good enough, that succinctly expresses my complete approval and agreement. Thanks to Janeane and to everyone at NOW and at PBS.

Poster: Jane
Comment: She's right. The news media and television in general is a sedating tool for the administration. We are becoming a country of Tabloid Zombies. How about some real news and some real questioning? Has the boss threatened to take away your suburban homes and suv's? There are exceptions of course like Brancaccio.

Poster: Elizabeth Baker
Comment: Janeane Garofalo's discussion of regular media's use of actors was a point nicely made about the construction of news. However, there were moments when she sounded as 'fundamentalist' as the commentators on the right and farrrrright.

Poster: Bill Trolinger
Comment: Thank you for having Janeane Garofalo on the show. It's a real pleasure to listen to someone who is neither a fascist or a moron - I could listen to such sensible discussions all day long. As a former prisoner of the American gulag, I sometimes worry that our citizenry have forgotten the fact that their ancestors for many generations fought and died for freedom. As with the weather, a lot of people talk about liberty, but very few do anything about it. Mankind reached its current status from millions of years of peaceful cooperation - let's not blow it now! Just say no to fascism.

Poster: Edward Shea
Comment: The media is suppose to inform us ,so inteligent choices can be made by the American people. Going to the library and learning about History and current events is a great idea also stated by Janeane Garofalo. Great Interview

Poster: Richard Snyder
Comment: Janeane G. is not a worthy guest. She comes across as almost hysterical and irrational. Her statements border on purposeful distortion for her own purposes. One could never have a discussion with her. Always with an axe to grind...Way too biased.

Poster: Jenn Koerkenmeier
Comment: Inviting this woman to appear on this show is an embarrassment to public television. If this "right-wing" conspiracy does not have the best interests of the majority in mind, how do they manage to win the elections? She says that the right is changing the definitions of things such as partial birth abortion, but at the same time is just fine with calling herself "progressive" rather than "left-wing." It's easy to see that she's a conspiracy theorist with a major ax to grind. Perhaps she's been spending too much time with Al Gore.

Poster: Charles Smith
Comment: Thank you so much, Janeane, for exposing the "elephant in the room" which is how our media is so bought and paid for by vested corporate interests, that they have been turned into a powerful tool to keep the masses diverted from the very awful truth that our government is lying to us, energy & defense special interests are taking us and our economy to the cleaners and what was once known as FACTS are now disputed by the ubsurd.

Poster: Paul
Comment: Garofalo is a joke and is promoting her radio show. I think "celebrities" should be banned from intelligent news programs. From the left, I'd like to hear more from Bill Clinton, not some flakey, pampered Hollywood personality that has no experience in the real world.

Poster: Kenneth
Comment: I Love listening to janeane garofalo on air america radio.

Poster: Jeremy Lewis
Comment: Well, that about says it all. And you know what? It really works!!

Poster: Alexis Larson
Comment: I both agree and disagree with Ms. Garofalo. On the one hand, yes, it sure is cheaper just to clamp down on these useless drivel stories and not have to waste the resources of a Woodward/Berstein type investigative team. On the other hand, I often have the sneaking suspicion that Americans LIKE to be kept dumb; we are almost PROUD of it. Look at our president; ask Bush supporters, and they'll say, "yeah, he's dumb, but he's genuine!" If Lisa Simpson of "the Simpsons" has taught us anything it's that it is harder to be smart than popular.

Poster: Sharon Unkart, Littleton, CO
Comment: My mother mentioned to me a few years ago how irritated she had become with the "human interest" stories on the local news. She said, "They're just trying to get more people to watch by tugging at their heartstrings." She's since passed away, but in hindsight I realize how profound an observation she was making. I believe she would be disgusted with today's media and its focus on trivial 10-second sound bites on who's sleeping with who. Who cares! Leave the gossip for Entertainment Tonight and tell me what is going on in the world! EXPLAIN a story, don't just expect me to accept what you're telling me - tell me HOW and WHY you know! I'm intelligent, I can handle it.

Poster: Steve Nass
Comment: I don't believe this is a conscious conspiracy. It is simply the family pet, reluctant to bite the hand that feeds it. The media should be a stray pitbull; instead, we've got little Fi-fi, all primped and groomed, with a pink bow and a diamond-studded collar. And who's holding the leash? . . . Okay, it IS a conspiracy, but one that is decidedly UN-conscious.

Poster: NOW Editor
Comment: Read more about and by Janeane Garofalo.

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