Fisk

There is a new battle for nightly television in Ireland, between Eamonn Dunphy and Pat Kenny, two dull talk show hosts. I flipped briefly between them. Dunphy brought on Robert Fisk, the well known street hustler. I listened for a few minutes, until Fisk came up with this. He brought on what he said was a medal his father received during World War II, which he claimed had written on words to the effect that it was a war to save civilization. Obviously, he told his adoring host and audience, it had failed. He said that perhaps he should send the medal to President Bush. Thus does Fisk dismiss a war that, among other things, prevented the Holocaust from being complete. Thus does Fisk dismiss the threat of Hitler. And thus does his admiring Irish audience conveniently forget how Ireland spent the war as a neutral, which is diplomatic speak for hiding behind Britain’s skirts (although in fairness, thousands of Irish men signed up with the British military, and their efforts were ignored by successive Irish governments for some fifty years).

Meanwhile, Pat Kenny was droning on about the Stones. I hope Kenny’s show beats out Dunphy, for whom I now respect less than people who make bestiality movies.

AN EXTRA THOUGHT: I don’t like the way that post sounded. It seems to suggest that Dunphy’s audience is typical of Ireland. I don’t think it is any more typical of Ireland than the people who read the Nation and show up on Jerry Springer are typical of America. It is typical of the kinds of people who inhabit the press and universities, though. Otherwise, the post was far too kind to Fisk and Dunphy.