Hamill, Kristol Go At It Over Lunch

During a spirited lunchtime discussion Tuesday at Michael's in New York City, that must-see-and-be-seen media industry eatery, many thought the sparks would fly between conservatives William Kristol and Christopher Buckley, at a panel moderated by Arianna Huffington.    Buckley's surprise endorsement  of Obama, and Kristol's vehement backing of McCain and especially Palin -- and the current war on the right for the "soul" of the GOP -- meant that seating them next to each other on the five-person panel was likely to breed arguments.

Buckley did say: "They go to Fox News if they are Archie Bunker and want a good dose of that," but Harvard-educated types "go to Jim Lehrer."   Huffington quipped that he "single-handedly ensured the victory of Barack Obama." That led to him joking about expecting an ambassadorship.  But it was Kristol and New York writing legend Pete Hamill who got into it during the event sponsored by the Independent Film Channel to promote its IFC Media Project, debuting tonight.

After a clip of the series, which referenced the April New York Times story by David Barstow that revealed numerous retired generals serving as pundits who were linked to defense contractors, the panel took on the issue of overall war coverage. Media Project host Gideon Yago said that even with an expansive new media world, war coverage was tighter than it should have been.

Kristol launched in, stating, "That is ridiculous. The discussion over the war in Iraq was much more sophisticated than the debate on Vietnam. All sides were well-represented. "

That led Hamill to chime in against some of the Pentagon censorship of photos: "There is no sense of the reality on the ground by editing out the corpse."

Kristol defended the move, stating the tragedy and death of the war was not censored by such practices: "People don’t know that people die in a war if they don’t see bodies on the ground???"

A louder Hamill bellowed, "let them see the coffins." At one point,  Huffington sought to calm the group, saying, "one at a time."

Elsewhere in the discussion, which roamed between the impact of anonymous sources to growing Internet opinion and reduced newspaper resources.

Hamill on the pundits: "I don't see reporting pieces by Olbermann and Maddow." He added that, "Bill O'Reilly is a populist," which led Huffington to ask, "is populist a polite way of saying a liar?"

Finally, when discussion turned to the dangers of growing opinion online and on cable television and the reduction of investigative reporting, Kristol sought to ease worries, stating, "people should just relax. People aren’t fooled. When they watch O'Reilly, they know what they are watching. You guys are so worried. People are grown up. The American people are certainly able to judge all of this."   UPDATE: Reporters for Portfolio and the New York Observer both asked Kristol about the status of his up-for-renewal NYT column and he expressed some ambivalence about continuing it.  --Joe Strupp

Comments

[Ian]

OK, this is ridiculous. This reminds me of an article I read a few years back about this huge anti-terror conference that was held where it literally went on for days without any mention of Iraq or other major issues that people didn't want to talk about.

What the hell kind of question is that from Kristol? Of course people know that people die in war, but it is the essence of propaganda to shield such images from the people so that it is not real to them and is kept out of sight and out of mind. This is nothing new in history, and I refuse to believe he is that dubm to think his simple minded response addresses the issue.

He knows damn well coffins and pictures of injured civilians are kept from our sight so that we do not rise up and stop the war from continuing. Did anyone call him out on this? Did anyone in our cowardice mainstream media call him out for the fraud he is, or any of the others for throwing softballs at our leaders while the world burned?

And you wonder why my generation has no faith in mainstream media and turns to the Internet for real news...