Ezra Klein points to this bizarre grilling of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by CBS’ Scott Pelley:
PELLEY: What trait do you admire in President Bush?
AHMADINEJAD: Again, I have a very frank tone. I think that President Bush needs to correct his ways.
PELLEY: What do you admire about him?
AHMADINEJAD: He should respect the American people.
PELLEY: Is there anything? Any trait?
AHMADINEJAD: As an American citizen, tell me what trait do you admire?
PELLEY: Well, Mr. Bush is, without question, a very religious man, for example, as you are. I wonder if there’s anything that you’ve seen in President Bush that you admire.
AHMADINEJAD: Well, is Mr. Bush a religious man?
PELLEY: Very much so. As you are.
AHMADINEJAD: What religion, please tell me, tells you as a follower of that religion to occupy another country and kill its people? Please tell me. Does Christianity tell its followers to do that? Judaism, for that matter? Islam, for that matter? What prophet tells you to send 160,000 troops to another country, kill men, women, and children? You just can’t wear your religion on your sleeve or just go to church. You should be truthfully religious. Religion tells us all that you should respect the property, the life of different people. Respect human rights. Love your fellow man. And once you hear that a person has been killed, you should be saddened. You shouldn’t sit in a room, a dark room, and hatch plots. And because of your plots, many thousands of people are killed. Having said that, we respect the American people. And because of our respect for the American people, we respectfully talk with President Bush. We have a respectful tone. But having said that, I don’t think that that is a good definition of religion. Religion is love for your fellow man, brotherhood, telling the truth.
PELLEY: I take it you can’t think of anything you like about President Bush.
AHMADINEJAD: Well, I’m not familiar with the gentleman’s private life. Maybe in his private life he is very kind or a determined man. I’m not aware of that. I base my judgment on what I see in his public life. Having said that, I think that President Bush can behave much better. There were golden opportunities for President Bush. He should have used them better.
First, as Klein wonders, what most impresses Scott Pelley about Bush is that he’s “very religious”? Really? Is Pelley very religious himself, or did he not anticipate having his stupid query turned back on him, which forced him to spit out the first thing he could think of?
Second, say what you like about the messenger, but what in Ahmadinejad’s message is the least bit unreasonable? George W. Bush once told an interviewer that his favorite philosopher was Jesus Christ. (Hey, ask a stupid question…) Has Scott Pelley or any other American journalist demanded to know, in light of the events of the last five years, what exactly Bush admires about Jesus’ teachings? Because, as Ahmadinejad indicates, the answer is far from apparent.
And, just as an afterthought, please note that Ahmadinejad implies an ethical unity among Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Now perhaps he’s speaking with a forked tongue, but if he were really out to antagonize the West and score points among radical Muslims, what better time and place to rail against Jews and Crusaders? Hell, America’s faux-butch warbloggers lambasted Bush for calling Islam a “religion of peace” back in the day – imagine what the al-Qaeda types must be saying about Ahmadinejad now.
By trying to be fair and brotherly in his answers to creepy bombastic corporate media shrill Scott Pelley’s belligerent questioning on CBS 60Minutes (how that show has diminished in scope and relevance), he might now be targeted for assasination by al-Quadians (whoever they are) or other religious extremist haters. Now it is Cheney/Bush’s turn to be questioned by Iranian media. How interesting would that be. If only.
I would have a hard time with that question too
That was a funny headline!
That pales in comparison to the “coverage” CNN gave to his speech at Columbia University. It is very apparant that members of the US media have little interest in reporting the news, but every interest in either making or framing the news. The two talking heads on CNN could not and did not even bother to try to hide their obvious bias.
When war comes to Iran you can bet these ‘reporters’ will do just as they did Iraq and be the Administration’s best cheerleaders and propaganda instruments.
The coverage of Ahmadinejad’s visit is clearly part of the major propaganda intitiative intended to prepare the public for war with Iran. This is what Gareth Porter warned us about.
http://www.antiwar.com/blog/2007/08/31/gareth-porter-10/
The mistake is to assume Bush is a Christian. He isn’t. He is an owl-worshiping pagan and a member of multiple death cult frats.
Religion is just a tool that Bush uses to fleece the sheep.
And now in a display that illustrates dramatically the full extent of the slavery that grips the American people when it comes to Middle Eastern policy, it is announced that the Congress just passed 397-16 yet another anti-Iranian resolution, this one denouncing Ahmadinejad. No event could possibly manifest more openly the distance between the self-serving bacteria that run our country and the people that suffer because of them. At one point or other, some new, organized political entity will have to emerge to give voice to the millions who on this side of that cleavage can no longer abide the abuse of their opinions and rights by these usurpers. Today, David Brooks in his column laughs at them and points to their impotence. Perhaps tomorrow, David Brooks will be laughing out of the other side of his mouth.
John Lowell
WOW…you are a boob…this is a blog that all of us that are not Yale grads are reading and apparently some Harvard Grads visit. But lets take a laymans approach, shall we?
Ahmadinejad….if that is the correct spelling I copied and pasted from your junk! Is Hitler reborn. Did you watch his speech to the UN?
OKAY what in the Hell does this mean?
At one point or other, some new, organized political entity will have to emerge to give voice to the millions who on this side of that cleavage can no longer abide the abuse of their opinions and rights by these usurpers.
I am very fond of Cleavage…however you make it sound kinda dirty ya BOOB.
GO back to school study some history…or cook up another rock and smoke it ( for the Yale Challenged thats Crack)
Which history would you like us to study? Where, exactly, did the blogger get it wrong? Your post is fact-free and argument-free, so it makes it difficult to understand your objections.
I understand that, in your opinion, we are boobs and Ahmidinejad is Hitler. Would you like to back that up with a real argument? Or should I just take your word for it?
If this is the state of political discourse in this country, then the future is dim indeed.
The “center” is holding at the presidentital level, although the dems have not fielded a good set of candidates.
However, at the congressional level liberal dems are making a lot of headway and the netroots is having a big impact.
In the broadcast of Pelley’s interview, Ahmadinejad’s answer was cut beginning with the word Judaism.
The millions who watch 60 minutes never heard much of what is written above.
The official transcript did not include Pelley’s introduction and narration with highly tendentious statements.
I collated the difference between the transcript and and the broadcast.
For more: http://tinyurl.com/25heow
What is it that you think should be done about a traitor that supports a tyrant that has vowed to destory jewish nation.
gosh Bobbie I don’t think you can farly answer that
A crank is a nut is a fanatic no matter how you slice it. What’s creepier than a heavily-armed lunatic coming to save us in the name of God? Who is so convinced he’s doing God’s will no exterior fact or reality can dent his mental armor? Ahmaddie has some excellent questions for Bush and his so-called christian beliefs.
Note how Bush’s puppets act in the same unchristian way. Hannity criticizes liberal Catholics as hypocrites for supporting abortion, while he acts precisely the same way by loving the war contrary to the Pope’s position. How many buffoon evangelicals out there pray to the God of Life while shrieking for America to drop death and horror on countless innocents?
Cool heads should be prevailing at this time. The leaders of Iran, America and Israel should “pull their heads in” at this time in history. The strategic postion of the world is at a very delicate point. Confusion always precedes understanding. It is my fervent hope that understanding will reign between the various nations in the very near future.
See Video: CBS’s Scott Pelley Suppresses “War President’s” Incompetence
When Pelley tells President Ahmadinejad what President Bush said, he omits the sentences which expose Bush as dangerously ignorant of the basic facts.
This is Mainstream Media at its most devious, suppressing things from most of the people. Bush doesn’t understand the BASIC facts, And Scott Pelley suppresses this? How many people are going to go back to the original transcript from January and read what Bush actually said and find out Pelley is playing them for fools?