Note: The first week of the First Quarter 1998 was the
last week of the last month of 1997, which includes the
program broadcast on 12/29/97--
Episode #115, a rerun from
the Second Quarter 1997.
Go figure.
Episode #136: What The Fuck Is He Talking About?
First Broadcast: 1/12/98 -- Program started 1 or 2 minutes late, and
end credits were cut off as a result.
Successfully Repeated: 1/19/98
The title of this week's episode is a rather obvious question, based on
an article in the 12/30/97-1/7/98 edition of
the Resident, (a tiny local
paper in Manhattan) in which the author advocates eliminating one of our
public access channels and replacing it
with Turner Classic Movies, because the
author is under the mistaken impression that the public access channels in
Manhattan (the same channels which broadcast our program--or one of those
channels, anyway) are used by Ruth Messinger
--or whoever's occupying the
office of
Manhattan Borough President lately (i.e.,
C. Virginia Fields)
for her own personal patronage. Aside from being completely incorrect
about who runs
Manhattan Neighborhood Network (it's an
independent non-profit organization which is not controlled by city
government), the article is so pompous in it's advocacy of "classic movies"
over free speech that I just might reprint it here so that everyone can
laugh and be angry at it just as I was when I taped this program. Some
people are just plain fucking idiots.
Episode #137: 1000 Different Shows
First Broadcast: 1/26/98
The rant from Episode #136 continues.
Episode #138: Deep Throat
First Broadcast: 2/2/98
No, not the porn movie. This week, we jump into the media circus with
both feet, and discuss the whole Monica Lewinsky thing, and whether or
not she was indeed the "Special Assistant to the President in charge of
blowjobs." And, because I'm such a generous soul, I donated 2 ideas
for Saturday Night Live to use in their next episode (since I have more
than a feeling that they watch public access for inspiration for their
sketches). In brief: The President makes his traditional phone call to
the winner of Super Bowl XXXII--while he's getting a blowjob ("Live from
New York--It's Saturday NIIIGGHHT! OH GOD!"); and Bill, Monica, and
Hillary turn up as guests on the
Jerry Springer show--where fists fly as
soon as Hillary walks on stage. Will SNL use it? Will I get a thank
you? Who knows. Stay Tuned.
Episode #139: I Now Pronounce You Head Guy
First Broadcast: 2/9/98
A slightly
somnambulistic Chris F. discusses topics ranging from
Iraq to
the
"Asian Crisis,"
all while wearing an
Eeyore T-shirt.
Episode #140: Little Icons
First Broadcast: 2/16/98
More about Iraq, and
the 1991 Gulf War in
general, where I also mention the title of
Episode #28 at the end.
Episode #141: Same Fucking Opinion
First Broadcast: 2/23/98 Repeated: 11/16/98
This week's title goes as much for our show as it did for
CNN's so-called
"International Town Meeting" in Columbus, Ohio on February 18, 1998.
"This isn't a town meeting! This is a media event!" said one man in the
audience. Ain't that the truth. 1) It wasn't international, since all
three members of the "panel" were from the US Government, the meeting
took place in the United States in an audience full of Americans, and
only a fraction of phoned-in questions came from people who weren't
Americans; 2) Since those
three people--
the
Secretary of State,
the Secretary of Defense,
and a
National Security Advisor
--were not only all from the US Government, but
all from the same branch
of the US Government (hence, they all
had the "same fucking opinion" in favor of bombing Iraq) there wasn't
even a pretense of diversity on the panel; 3) The White House and CNN
made this event an exclusive feature for CNN, allowing all the
other networks to only show 2 minutes of footage afterwards, not
allowing any other network to carry the event live, and not allowing any other
reporters (besides the 2 from CNN) to ask questions, so neither the
White House nor CNN was truly interested in having many Americans watch
this program either. What was the program's purpose then? Well, since
Iraqi officials have openly admitted to watching CNN a lot, my guess is
that the President intended to intimidate Saddam Hussein, et. al., by
showcasing 3 high-ranking White House executives explaining exactly how
the US was going to destroy Iraq, with 5000 Americans cheering them on
(The commercial for the
Air Force One video--with Harrison Ford
sneering "I'll never negotiate!" through his teeth was also a nice touch.)
and CNN was only too happy to comply. Unfortunately--for the White House--
more than a few people in the audience recognized what a huge farce this
event was, and wasted no time in screaming out their protests against the
panel and US warmongering in general ("1-2-3-4, We don't want your racist
war!" "Bullshit! Bullshit! Bullshit!" and cutting off Madeleine Albright's
assertion "There's a bully in the region--" with a loud "THE U.S. ARMY!"
were some of the many, many highlights), shattering the illusion that
people in the US were united in favor of killing more Iraqis and commiting
more acts of violence on an already weak and shattered nation. Kudos to
the protestors in the audience for getting their point across the only way
they could, since there was no
opposing view on the panel. Let's hope
they keep it up across the nation, as a constant reminder that Americans
are not going to stand idly by and watch their military murder people by
the hundreds for no good reason--not this time, anyway.
Episode #142: Wooden Nickels
First Broadcast: 3/2/98
Does
our illustrious mayor
want New York to be more
"civil," as he says,
or does he just want New York to be more like
Singapore, where everyone
is neat, clean, polite, and living in fear of being hauled off to jail
for even the smallest offense? Gosh, I wonder . . .
Episode #143: All Right, Fine
First Broadcast: 3/9/98 Repeated: 3/5/01 (Episode began at 1:59 AM and ended at 2:28 AM)
Yet another episode from our past that is again strangely
current, in light of recent events.
So, the US wanted to bomb Iraq because Saddam Hussein can't be trusted
to own "weapons of mass destruction" (even though both Iraq and the US
have attacked people with such weapons in the past)? So, because we're
more civilized over here, we can openly discuss whether or not the US
should assassinate Saddam Hussein? Can you imagine what would
happen if the Iraqi legislature was openly debating whether or not they
should assassinate Bill Clinton? Or what might have happened if it turned out
Cuba decided it was in their best "national interests" to
assassinate President Kennedy? (Never mind that the US actually did
try to assassinate Castro more than once. I guess that's not
important enough for the "mainstream" media to mention at the
moment.) The US fired 23 cruise missiles at Iraq
in June, 1993, in "retaliation for an alleged Iraqi attempt to assassinate
ex-President Bush in April on a visit to Kuwait." (
World Orders Old
and New, by
Noam Chomsky, pp. 16-17) If the US has the
right to attack another nation for even an alleged attempt to
kill a former president, wouldn't another nation have an even
greater right to attack the US if the US actually kills a
current president of that nation (Saddam Hussein is still the President
of Iraq, after all)? This is the boldest example of hypocrisy yet to
emanate from Chuck Robb and company. It's one thing for the US to be a
sore loser in the wake of Kofi Annan crushing its plan to bomb Iraq
yet one more time; it's quite another to start assassinating people
because of it.