Re: [Marxism] Scott Pelligrino calls out Tom Brokaw on racism at NBC

[Eli Stephens <elishastephens@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I don't know if anyone else caught Tom Brokaw interviewing Al Gore yesterday on 
Meet the Press; it was one of the most disgusting interviews I've seen on TV in 
a long time, and I even watch FOX News sometimes. Brokaw just fired one 
right-wing talking point after another at Gore, and I'm talking primarily about 
environmental issues, not political ones.

For example, challenged on the cost of his proposals ($1 1/2 - 3 trillion), 
Gore 
noted that was less than the cost of the Iraq war. Brokaw quickly shot back 
that 
"We haven't spent that much on the Iraq war," which is technically true, but he 
knows very well the proper comparison would be how much we are GOING TO spend 
on 
the Iraq war, not how much we already have spent, and he knows very well, or 
should as a newsperson, about the conservative estimates for that cost.

Then there was the "But Al, you live in a big fancy house, how can we believe 
anything you say about caring for the environment" question (paraphrased, 
obviously), and the "Don't you fly in private planes?" question. I kept waiting 
for Gore to ask Brokaw about the kind of house HE lives in and how many plane 
trips HE takes.

The transcript is here:
  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25761899/

Brokaw truly proved himself a tool of the corporate establishment in this 
interview, far more so than I've ever seen him do before.

By the way, Al Gore has been attacked from the left as really being a stalking 
horse for the nuclear power industry. His latest proposal (making all 
electricity from renewable sources) doesn't even mention nuclear power, nor did 
he bring it up in this interview, so I'd say we can put that claim to rest. 
Incidentally, that insightful newsperson Tom Brokaw was too busy asking Gore 
about his house to ask him the far more relevant question about nuclear power. 
So the subject never even came up.

Gore is no doubt also very much a part of the ruling class. But that doesn't 
make his proposals wrong. It just means that only a fundamental challenge to 
the 
system itself is ever going to make a serious dent at implementing them. Gore 
of 
course thinks that the system can mend itself, and that smart capitalists (like 
T. Boone Pickens) can see the light and realize they can't keep plundering and 
destroying the environment for profit indefinitely. To a certain extent, he's 
right, but only when the profit potential from some other source becomes 
greater. Which may well be too late.




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