Anyone Remember Firing Line?:
You know, the Rude Pundit isn't exactly sure what the right wing of this country means any more by "liberal." The pendulum of political rhetoric has swung so far to the right that what used to be called "moderate" is now seen as wildly leftist. So "liberal" must now be equated with "telling the objective truth" because everything that's not liberal is spun by the right wing.

Take the whole blow-up over PBS. Or, let's be honest here, over Bill Moyers' former program, NOW, which saw fit to criticize the Bush Administration and led, in part, to the new attempt to transform public broadcasting into a propaganda arm of the White House.

Now perhaps 1999 seems like a long, long fuckin' time ago, but does anyone remember William F. Buckley's Firing Line? Where the fuckin' founder of the fascistic National Review held forth for an hour (later a half-hour) on PBS for thirty-three goddamn years? For about 1500 programs? Funded by your contributions and tax dollars?

Buckley loved to invite liberals and putative leftists on to argue with, eruditely, never screaming, "Shut up" at them. But the program was a showcase for conservative "thought" from the terms of LBJ through Clinton. Buckley spent an entire show chatting with Rush Limbaugh, offered entire episodes devote to promoting the National Review. Buckley interviewed and/or had on for debates Ronald Reagan (back when he was a demi-evil governor), Heritage Foundation members, and others.

And no one considered PBS a bastion of conservatism. As cuts to PBS's budget are considered by Congress and oversight by Bush adminstration lackeys, let us remember that William F. Buckley was allowed to thrive for years with a right wing ideology. And Bill Moyers' left wing ideology brought out the long knives.

(The Rude Pundit is sojourning to Red State America for the next week. There will be daily posts, but they will be noticeably briefer.)