November 22, 2004
WHY CAN'T THEY BE AS SMART AS ME?:
Rooney offers his opinon: Commentator answered questions on politics and journalism (Keith Barry, 11/19/04, Tufts Daily)
Andy Rooney, the "60 Minutes" correspondent who turned "curmudgeon" into a job title, spoke at the Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy last night. [...]Rooney said he thought Iraq was "an ignorant society, not to be critical of them," a remark which was questioned later in his speech. Rooney defended the comment, saying that it is difficult to sell democracy in a country where few have access to the media and illiteracy is high, but acknowledged that "my attitude of the Iraqis is typical of the America I am complaining about."
Rooney also attributed voters' reliance on religion in the recent election to ignorance. "I am an atheist," Rooney said. "I don't understand religion at all. I'm sure I'll offend a lot of people by saying this, but I think it's all nonsense."
He said Christian fundamentalism is a result of "a lack of education. They haven't been exposed to what the world has to offer."
Rooney said he also could not understand how "men who work with their hands voted for George Bush," and again attributing the phenomenon to a lack of education. "The labor force is conservative," he said. "How in the world did that happen?"
Rooney said that he hoped Bush's re-election would give him the "confidence" to end the war in Iraq. "I think if George Bush said tomorrow, 'I was wrong, I ask for an apology,' I bet the American people would thank him, and they would like him," he said.
Many of the questions directed to Rooney were about journalism, a profession that Rooney said he loves so much that he "can't imagine doing anything else with my life."
Rooney's own show, "60 Minutes," was involved in a public and politically charged flap when it unwittingly used false documents in a Dan Rather piece on Bush's National Guard service.
"I am very critical of some of the people at CBS who make it apparent what their political leanings are," Rooney said. "That's what happened to this thing of Dan Rather's that got out. There's no question they wanted to run it because it was negative towards Bush."
When this nitwit is criticizing you for making your political leanings too aspparent you're in some trouble. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 22, 2004 11:42 PM
"I don't understand religion at all."
Why is it Andy finds his own ignorance as a virtue, but everyone else's as, well, ignorance?
As a contemporary of Cronkite, but as a continuing employee of CBS, Rooney is a little more calculating about his comments than Walter, who has let all his biases hang out since Bush's 2000 election.
Andy would probably love to do a segement basically telling the 60 Minutes viewers,"Yes, we are liberal. What are you going to do about it?" but he and the producers realize the consequeces of validating their opponents that would entail. That's why he supports the more subtile biases that the show and the network had been engaging in before Rather's faux pas on the sister program to Rooney's show (and if you think Uncle Wally has been out in looneyland with some of his remarks recently, wait until CBS puts Dan out to pasture and he feels free to say anything he wants on Larry King Live).
Posted by: John at November 23, 2004 8:31 AMSince Andy is clueless about so much one wonders why he so readily offers his opinions.
Posted by: Pilgrim at November 23, 2004 8:41 AMmy favorite part:
'..this thing of Dan Rather's that got out.'
I wonder how many other 'things' of Andy and Mike and Morley managed to be kept from the public.
jeez, pin a note to his sweater ..
Do people still go to journalism school to "change the world?"
I am sure that a lot of "fundamentalist" mothers are much more effective at "changing the world" - one diaper at a time.
Posted by: Randall Voth at November 23, 2004 10:11 AMIf Andy doesn't understand something does that immediately cause him to deny its validity? So, if Andy were to not understand Integral Calculus, does that make it ipso facto invalid?
I guess this senile old fool never read Hamlet. 'There are more things on Heaven and Earth than are written of in your philosophy..'
Posted by: Bart at November 23, 2004 10:18 AMBart:
I would imagine that "I don't understand religion" was his 'polite' way of saying "I don't understand how anyone with an ounce of sense could be religious".
Which, as an example of tact, obviously leaves something to be desired.
Posted by: Brit at November 23, 2004 11:41 AMBart:
It would apparently mean that Rooney thinks you and anyone who finds truth in Integral Calculus are foolish dunderheads.
As he faces the twilight of his life, Rooney is apparently pondering his own ignorance and unbelief. As he questions where he has been placing his hopes and dreams at all these years he's finding only emptyness and bewilderment. That's a pretty scarry place to be.
Posted by: Dave W. at November 23, 2004 4:22 PMDave,
I'm a hardcore secular guy, a proud Reform Jew in all that it means, and I know from travelling around the country that people find meaning in the spiritual even if I don't.
When you are not a Christian and you travel around the country, you meet Christians who feel a need to testify. THey tell me how their decision to 'come to Jesus' changed their lives for the better. For me, I'm just thrilled. If 'coming to Jesus' can make people lead better lives, care for their families, stop engaging in anti-social behavior, then I'm all for it.
As a non-Christian, I am truly impressed by the power that Christian belief can exercise in society for the betterment of all. I don't 'understand' it but I appreciate it and am thankful for it.
If Rooney can't appreciate this, then he is simply a mean-spirited old fool.
Posted by: Bart at November 23, 2004 6:53 PM