“I was practically blown out through the back of my couch, I was so repelled by the sight of him. I found him unpleasant to listen to and to look at….I don’t think anybody really wants to watch him. They’ll tune in one or two times to see him. But he’s very loud. He’s very arrogant. He’s very smart. But he’s not really right for television.”—New Yorker television critic Nancy Franklin, on disgraced former NY Governor Eliot Spitzer’s appearance filling in for Dylan Ratigan on MSNBC, quoted in Felix Gillette and Reid Fillifant, “It’s Spitz-o-phrenia!”, The New York Observer, June 28-July 5, 2010
Now comes the news that CNN has hired the former “Steamroller” to appear with the Washington Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Kathleen Parker in a primetime slot.
If CNN chief Jonathan Klein were wise, he’d want to advertise the show as a kind of 21st-century counterpart to James J. Kirkpatrick and Shana Alexander in the old “Point Counterpoint” segments of 60 Minutes back in the ‘70s (lovingly recalled by Saturday Night Live devotees for inspiring parodies that invariably climaxed with Dan Aykroyd pausing a beat before unleashing on his on-air partner, “Jane, you ignorant slut…”). He should do anything but remind viewers of its more recent and familiar antecedent: Crossfire, the faceoff between bow-tied conservative Tucker Carlson and whichever liberal Klein could throw against him in an ideological mudfest.
Not a few viewers (I count myself among them) will share Ms. Franklin’s revulsion toward Mr. Spitzer (and roll our eyes the first time the ex-governor flashes the warmest smile he can manage at Ms. Parker--who, with her conservative outlook and blond haircoloring, seems ready for her Fox News closeup). “Client #9” is likely to reverberate in the back of our consciousness, too.
But, much as I might dislike it, Spitzer’s “very loud” and “very arrogant” mien is not likely to work against him on cable TV. Any medium that can absorb Bill O’Reilly, Keith Olbermann, Glenn Beck, and Rachel Maddow is not likely to blink at another bulging-eyed, ideological flame-thrower.
Welcome to your new arena, Mr. Spitzer. Just watch those lions on the way in.
Now comes the news that CNN has hired the former “Steamroller” to appear with the Washington Post’s Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Kathleen Parker in a primetime slot.
If CNN chief Jonathan Klein were wise, he’d want to advertise the show as a kind of 21st-century counterpart to James J. Kirkpatrick and Shana Alexander in the old “Point Counterpoint” segments of 60 Minutes back in the ‘70s (lovingly recalled by Saturday Night Live devotees for inspiring parodies that invariably climaxed with Dan Aykroyd pausing a beat before unleashing on his on-air partner, “Jane, you ignorant slut…”). He should do anything but remind viewers of its more recent and familiar antecedent: Crossfire, the faceoff between bow-tied conservative Tucker Carlson and whichever liberal Klein could throw against him in an ideological mudfest.
Not a few viewers (I count myself among them) will share Ms. Franklin’s revulsion toward Mr. Spitzer (and roll our eyes the first time the ex-governor flashes the warmest smile he can manage at Ms. Parker--who, with her conservative outlook and blond haircoloring, seems ready for her Fox News closeup). “Client #9” is likely to reverberate in the back of our consciousness, too.
But, much as I might dislike it, Spitzer’s “very loud” and “very arrogant” mien is not likely to work against him on cable TV. Any medium that can absorb Bill O’Reilly, Keith Olbermann, Glenn Beck, and Rachel Maddow is not likely to blink at another bulging-eyed, ideological flame-thrower.
Welcome to your new arena, Mr. Spitzer. Just watch those lions on the way in.
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