Harry Belafonte shreds Wolf Blitzer

[barondave]

On today's The Situation Room, a few minutes ago, Wolf Blitzer grilled Harry Belafonte on his "Bush is the worst terrorist" remarks. It was a terrible interview, with Blitzer sounding more like Matt Drudge than a real journalist. But Belafonte was terrific, answer all the questions, even the stupid ones, superbly. He was articulate, accurate and compassionate. I don't agree with all his characterizations and wouldn't use all his metaphors, but the man sure blistered Wolf's hide. If the The Situation Room transcript site ever releases this one, read it, and have Belafonte's hoarse but insistent voice in your head.

The next segment was another puff piece on "Bush is no Oprah, but he's going off script." Doesn't help: he still sounds like an idiot.

UPDATE Here is the transcript of the Blitzer/Belafonte exchange, near the middle.

Comments

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

Blitzer was soooooo out-classed.

[ex-radparker580.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing this! Wolf really is a poor interviewer, and I'm glad Harry stuck to his guns.

[(Anonymous)]

In the early days of Nightline, I liked Wolf. He stuck to the subject and had three or four prepared questions, on topic, that balanced out the rproduced segments and/or live reporting. He was never a particularly good interviewer, but he didn't have to be. In The Situation Room, he doesn't even get to sit down. He stands in front of this laptop, with a big screen behind him. It looks chintzy, and Wolf tries to be master of the situation, but he's horribly out of place. CNN has done him no favors.

Oh... and he's sold out. But then again, the conservative news media just eats people up. No virgins for them.

[ntrlstgrl.livejournal.com]

Wow. Wow. Seriously - Belafonte speaking up & sticking to his statements instead of saying "well, this" or "no, really, that..." is impressive.

[(Anonymous)]

Agree. For a guy nearing 80s, Belafonte was sharp and responsive. He had his talking points down, but he wasn't mouthing platitudes. I watch CNN intermittently (Ch. 3 is what's on when I turn off the VCR) and rarely bother to see the puff pieces or right-wing hatemongering; earlier they had on a very annoying Arlen Specter who insisted on dissing Al Gore's forceful denunciation of the use of wiretapping. Every now and again, it's worth it.

[barondave.livejournal.com]

Oops, both responses were from me. Somehow, LJ lost my log on while I was still on the page.

[ntrlstgrl.livejournal.com]

Computers are such wonderful things, aren't they? :)