Nice Going, PBS

Isn't it wonderful to know that the Public Broadcasting System is so scared of a celebrity half-term governor that they would edit a speech given by Tina Fey during her acceptance of, of all things, The Mark Twain Prize?

Here's what they edited out:

“The success of Sarah Palin and women like her is good for all women—except, of course those who will end up, you know, like, paying for their own rape 'kit 'n' stuff. But for everybody else, it's a win-win. Unless you're a gay woman who wants to marry your partner of 20 years—whatever. But for most women, the success of conservative women is good for all of us. Unless you believe in evolution. You know—actually, I take it back. The whole thing's a disaster."

From the Kennedy Center website, here's part of the description of what the award is about:

...As a social commentator, satirist and creator of characters, Samuel Clemens was a fearless observer of society, who startled many while delighting and informing many more with his uncompromising perspective of social injustice and personal folly. He revealed the great truth of humor when he said "against the assault of laughter nothing can stand."

PBS said the speech was edited because of time concerns. It's a shame they didn't read what the Mark Twain Prize was all about before editing out the very crux of what Twain would have applauded. Guess they really needed those 40 seconds or so.

Bill Moyers Journal: Jon Stewart

Bill Moyers interviewed Comedy Central's Jon Stewart this past week and it was an incredible interview, looking into the man behind the satirical news show, and getting beyond the comedy and see Stewart's serious side.

Here's a section of the interview:

STEWART: You know, one of the things that I do think government counts on is that people are busy. And it's very difficult to mobilize a busy and relatively affluent country, unless it's over really crucial-- you know, foundational issues. That come sort of sort of a tipping point.

But war that hasn't affected us here, in the way that you would imagine a five-year war would affect a country. I think that's why they're so really — here's the disconnect. It's sort of this odd and I've always had this problem with the rationality of it. That the President says, "We are in the fight for a way of life. This is the greatest battle of our generation, and of the generations to come. "And, so what I'm going to do is you know, Iraq has to be won, or our way of life ends, and our children and our children's children all suffer. So, what I'm gonna do is send 10,000 more troops to Baghdad."

So, there's a disconnect there between — you're telling me this is fight of our generation, and you're going to increase troops by 10 percent. And that's gonna do it. I'm sure what he would like to do is send 400,000 more troops there, but he can't, because he doesn't have them. And the way to get that would be to institute a draft. And the minute you do that,
suddenly the country's not so damn busy anymore. And then they really fight back, and then the whole thing falls apart. So, they have a really delicate balance to walk between keeping us relatively fearful, but not so fearful that we stop what we're doing and really examine how it is that they've been waging this.

You can watch the whole interview here.