3-24-05 Amy Goodman interviews Phil Donahue on state of American Media

AMY GOODMAN: That was Harry Belafonte on KFMB radio in San Diego being rebroadcast on Donahue's show on MSNBC. Phil Donahue was on in the same time slot as Fox's Bill O'Reilly, but the show didn't last -- Phil's, that is. In fact, it didn't even last a year, even though it was MSNBC's top rated program. When Donahue was fired, the network moved to hire a string of right wing hosts. Phil Donahue joins us in the studio right now. It’s great to have you with us.

PHIL DONAHUE: Hi, Amy. Nice to be here.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we all learned about this memo, just soon after you were fired that came out of NBC, that was -- that said that as we led into the invasion of Iraq, they didn't want to have their flagship show, no matter how successful it was, the most popular show on MSNBC, being one that provided a forum for anti-war voices. They didn't want an anti-war face when the other networks were waving the American flag.

PHIL DONAHUE: Right.

AMY GOODMAN: Your response?

PHIL DONAHUE: Well, that memo was a fact, and it was reported by The New York Times and other publications. Our program was doing reasonably well. We weren't Elvis, but the program for its -- the numbers of our program on the family of NBC -- MSNBC at night, was very respectable, and I think had a prospect of growing even larger. So, the numbers did not warrant our departure, our dismissal. And along the way it became clear to us that they were terrified that we were going to become a place -- an anti-war kind of platform, where all of these radicals would come and oppose the war.

more at:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/24/1446244

and his new show was good, he even gave plenty of room for opposing views, and never used the right-wing tactic of berating or bullying his conservative guests. msnbc really proved their stupidity and general whorishness when they canned his show, and to think he was replaced by that idiot savage, made it even more illogical.