On September 11's edition of the MSNBC show "Imus in the Morning," Don Imus hosted former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw, where Brokaw promised to underline in his NBC spots that "we still don't understand Islamic rage." And, in case you wondered if Tom was a wee bit liberal, he said he was a "big fan" of Newsweek columnist Anna Quindlen -- who felt the death penalty wasn't appropriate for Timothy McVeigh. Imus brought up Quindlen to discuss her preference to stay in New York despite the terror threat, noted her new novel would be number one on the new New York Times: "I realize it's not a morning to promote books. I like her." Brokaw replied warmly: "You can promote Anna any time on my watch. I'm a big fan."As I suggested in our old "Magazine Watch" feature on the December 4, 2000 editions of the news magazines,
Anna felt that President Clinton could leave office with a big bang: "He should call for a moratorium on federal executions to study the obvious [racial] bias in the system, and commute the sentences of those now awaiting death to life in prison without parole. One of these men is Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber; the outcry, surely, would be enormous. But the president need never run for office again, and so he can follow his considerable intellect and his legendary empathy to the inescapable conclusion that executions make murderers of us all."
