On Mon, Jun 26, 2017 at 9:23 PM, Chris Neuman <[email protected]> wrote:
> I seem to recall a moment -- I feel like it was a few years into his > tenure at CBS -- where Dave used his post-monologue desk shot to address an > item in the papers about his political leanings. I recall him saying he > had, at various times, registered as a Democrat, a Republican, and an > independent, and had voted for candidates of both parties. In particular, > however, he was clear that his voting record was utterly irrelevant in the > context of his job. > > Don't remember the cause of the media coverage but it significantly > predated the tenure of GWB, let alone Palin and her daughter. > I remember that segment and I think it was during the GWB presidency - I think around 2005-6. Dave did not want to do a political talk show. He was using Carson as a model: Johnny would do jokes about a politician's personality or character flaws and not policy positions. A few things happened during the run of the LS. Dave had some LGBT people in very senior positions and he would not be loyal to them if he tried to find the merit on both sides of same sex marriage or anti-discrimination legislation. He embarrassed John McCain in 2008 when McCain canceled his appearance to fly back to DC and then showed up on internal CBS monitors talking to Katie Couric. Dave saw it as good TV and not a political attack to show the monitor footage and call McCain out. The Palin incident shook Dave. He apologized and a contingent ginned up manufactured outrage and pressed to have him fired. And then he called Trump out for being a racist when Trump led the birther movement. Dave unfortunately took it back in order to get Trump to return to the show. I never understood that capitulation. Dave took climate change seriously and had guests like Al Gore and Bill McKibben to talk about it without making any sort of effort to invite a denier to represent the other side. In time it was the right that decided that Dave was not friendly to conservatives. -- -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TVorNotTV" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
