Noel Sheppard said there’s more to the Frost/Nixon fallout with Ron Howard. Over at Foxnews.com, Jim Pinkerton blogged that Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace "threw a fair-and-balanced apple of discord" into the liberal Dubya-as-Nixon theorizing at a Monday night panel discussion after the movie was screened at the National Geographic Society. The Q&A was moderated by liberal historian Robert Dallek, and included director Ron Howard, screenwriter Peter Morgan, and James Reston Jr., son of the liberal New York Times columnist of the same name and a Frost researcher featured in the film. Reston said the film was a metaphor for Bush, and Wallace pounced:
"To compare George W. Bush to Richard Nixon is to trivialize Nixon’s crimes and is a disservice to Bush," Wallace said. Recalling that 3,000 people were killed on 9/11, and noting that there hadn’t been any attacks on U.S. soil since, Wallace suggested that something had been done right. That’s why, he said, "we are all sitting here tonight so comfortably"—and not afraid of another terrorist attack.
Moreover, Wallace said, "Richard Nixon’s crimes were committed solely for his own political gain, whereas George W. Bush was trying to protect the American people." To suggest otherwise, Wallace insisted, "was a grave misrepresentation of history, then and now." And, amazingly, Wallace received a smattering of applause.
Seemingly not wanting to get into a fight with the TV newsman, Dallek answered that we knew full well of Nixon’s criminality because of the Watergate tapes, but that no similar documentary record existed yet for Bush. Only when such information comes out, Dallek suggested, would the full horror of Bush’s presidency become visible. Which, of course, proved Wallace’s point: It was not fair to equate proven facts about Nixon with mere allegations about Bush.
"You make suppositions on no facts whatsoever," Wallace concluded.
"Do you read The New York Times?" Dallek countered. That might not have been the strongest comeback ever, but it worked just fine with this audience. And with that, the Q & A session resumed its liberal course for the rest of the evening.
Pinkerton also noted the liberal audience eating up the Bush comparisons included "former CBS News reporter Daniel Schorr, now in his ninth decade, who proudly recollected for the audience that he was 'number fourteen on Nixon’s enemies list,' and former Watergate Committee counsel Richard Ben-Veniste, who resurfaced in 2004 as one of the 9/11 Commissioners."
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.
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Opie's a dolt
December 2, 2008 - 14:29 ET by KC MulvilleYou hate to say it, because the characters he played were so honorable and likeable, but Ron Howard has become a bit of a dolt. I knew that things were bad when he made a movie about the Grinch, to make a point that the Grinch was a victim of intolerance. (I mean, when you feel compelled to explain the Grinch, you know you've gone too far ...)
He's certainly welcome to make movies and present his point of view. It's a free country. But that same freedom gives me the right to consider him a lightweight bonehead.
Oh, and by the way, Dallek's condemnation of Bush based purely on speculation and no evidence ... makes me suspicious of everything else he wrote. I'll try to do a little speculation of my own: He claims to be an historian? Based on what?
Cheers to Wallace. Attaboy, Chris ...
Free Country? Well, maybe
December 2, 2008 - 14:31 ET by mattmFree Country? Well, maybe it was...
Yes...he and Meathead
December 2, 2008 - 19:52 ET by Cape Conservativehave both gone wayyyyyyyyyyyyy over to the other side since reaching adulthood!
Just you wait!
December 2, 2008 - 14:30 ET by Mica the MagnificentDon't ya love Dallek's logic?
Yeah, there's no proof now that Bush is a criminal, but just you wait for the evidence to surface!
Dalleck must agree, then, that Obama is the worst president in U.S. history, just wait until the evidence comes out!
Correction
December 2, 2008 - 16:29 ET by Gat New YorkDalleck already knows that Obama is the most successful President in U.S. history and will wait till the evidence of that is invented out fo thin air.
"Liberal" fantasies
December 2, 2008 - 16:06 ET by iveseenitall"Liberals" like these clowns live in a fantasy world when they make their movies, and then they transfer their fantasies to real life. I'll bet there isn't one in a hundred of them who have done any real reseach, except to give justification to their own ignorance and hate. Bits and snippets rule their "brains", like scenes from their flicks. A guy like Ron Howard, an "actor" since he was a kid, probably has never known a day in the real world. The problem, as with all the media, is that they have a huge microphone with which to spew their nonsence. Hypocrites all. Turn them off.
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
New York Times?
December 2, 2008 - 14:45 ET by rammingspeedHistorian Robert Dallek's first source to back himself up is the New York Times? The Times is discredited daily because of its biased reporting and for presenting unsubstantiated allegations as fact.
The man is a liberal shill and a joke.
To quote Bud Abbott: "Why
December 2, 2008 - 14:46 ET by SickofLibsTo quote Bud Abbott: "Why you ungrateful ingrates."
Dallak's reasoning is brilliant
December 2, 2008 - 14:56 ET by landsharkLet me try one;
Only when the information comes out will the full-horror of Robert Dallek's collie-molesting become visible.
Hey! It works!
Since when is the new york
December 2, 2008 - 15:01 ET by TexasteacherSince when is the new york times considered a reliable source for anything other than bird cage liner?
landshark
December 2, 2008 - 15:09 ET by littlemissmuffinToo, too funny!!
If the NYT calls you for an interview, hang up the phone as soon as you can. LOL
"If we conservatives moved to those seven non-existent States, the government couldn’t find us and tax us to death!"
→ Chris Wallace rocks
December 2, 2008 - 15:41 ET by Cool ArrowLet's not even mention FDR who interred no German-Americans, but felt himself sufficiently racially superior to the Japanese-Americans (maybe he had another name for them) to cage them like animals and deprive them of everything they owned.
Yeah, I think there's plenty of evidence FDR, who also hated African-Americans, far surpasses Nixon or Bush in felonious exploits.
FDR
December 2, 2008 - 15:43 ET by littlemissmuffinFDR was also anti-Semitic.
"If we conservatives moved to those seven non-existent States, the government couldn’t find us and tax us to death!"
Like Nero
December 2, 2008 - 16:27 ET by Gat New YorkFDR "fiddled" and chose not to get involved in Europe, while he knew that Jews were being sent to concentration camps.
I predict this movie will
December 2, 2008 - 17:14 ET by suzycreamcheeseI predict this movie will bomb just like all the other Hollywood political movies of late. I have zero desire to place my derriere in a car, drive to the theatre, and plunk down my money for this tripe.
An American Carol
December 2, 2008 - 19:58 ET by Cape Conservativeis the only picture that received any dollars from this household!
And we were amazed that it was even being shown on Cape Cod! If you didn't get a chance to see it, try to find a theater and place your derriere in your car to have an enjoyable time at the movies. You know, where you come out of the theater with a smile on your face ;-) The audience stood up and cheered/clapped when it was over!
Doubt there will be any others worthy of our time or money any time soon...but I sure want to thank everyone who had the courage to put that one out!
Merry Christmas everyone ;-) I said, MERRY CHRISTMAS! (Just received our 'holiday greetings' card from Crawford today)
You aren't the only one who
December 2, 2008 - 20:14 ET by bigtimerYou aren't the only one who has said this about the movie, I am getting it for us for Christmas, was going to no matter what, we aren't that close to theaters, so it is in the home we will watch, especially in the winter.
"America isn't the problem...America is the solution." ~ Rush Limbaugh
THE BIGGEST OBAMA TEST
December 2, 2008 - 21:38 ET by reelman46The big test for Obama will be stopping these wack-o Bush haters who have been fed hate by the lib-media for 6 years. They are chomping at the bit to find something before the summer to indict Bush-Cheney for...or at the minimum...smear them once and for all in history. They WILL TRY hard in 2009...watch. Its all part of their "over-reaching".
When it comes to factless assertions as smear ammo, the modern liberal wrote the book.
Doug Schexnayder, Ph.D. (theconservativecrawfish)
Every president has had his
December 3, 2008 - 00:41 ET by RR GOPEvery president has had his good points and bad...some more weighted on one side than the other, depending on who you talk to of course. But according to the press Bush has NO good qualities. Clinton had bad qualities, but somehow that was OK ('cause the economy was good...that trumps thinking critically any day in this country I guess).
If one mulls through things like Vince Foster, Ron Brown, Monica Lewinsky, Arkancide, FBI reports with Hillary's fingerprints on them, Whitewater, etc. ad nauseum and then thinks about Watergate...Watergate was little more than a political panty raid (and an ineptly carried out one at that). People always said what disgraced Nixon was that he lied. OK, but how was it that so many stuck up (and still do) for WJC Superstar when he lied also?
Oh, that's right, the political party thing.
At least someone is sticking up for GW, though I'm not even sure he can be credited with no more terror attacks having happened. Getting rid of Hussein (no, the other one) and confiscating his 500+ metric tons of yellow cake uranium, having set into motion our military/allies that have killed something like 55,000 Muslim terrorists, and helping to bring two new democracies into the world are all certainly things that would not have happened under Gore or Kerry.
One of the 24% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 89% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.
President Bush has Kept The White House Interns Safe
December 5, 2008 - 00:59 ET by Rush FanPresident Bush liberated the people of Afganistan and Iraq, and kept the people of the United States safe for more than seven years.
But what is not mentioned is that since President Bush assumed the Presidency, parents can now safely send their daughters to Washington, D.C. as White House interns, and be assured that they won't be molested by the President of the United States.
President Clinton at White House Press Conference (Jan.26, 1998):
"Now, I have to go back to work on my State of the Union speech. And I worked on it until pretty late last night. But I want to say one thing to the American people. I want you to listen to me. I'm going to say this again: I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anybody to lie, not a single time; never. These allegations are false. And I need to go back to work for the American people. Thank you."
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Why the two Americas, the Left and the Right, can never reconcile - An excellent article by Dennis Prager