Franken bombs, Ivins delights....

((if you go read the article, check out Brian Williams's remark..."Looks like they're taking names."))


NEW YORK (May 20, 2005) -- Last night's gala celebrating the 35th anniversary of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press drew about 500 attendees, including some of the biggest names in journalism, and raised some $700,000 for the committee amid grave concerns about the state of press freedom in the United States.

snip....re Franken:

Then he turned toward The New York Times table in the front of the room, where sat Judith Miller, best known these days for two things: her articles on weapons of mass destruction that didn't quite pan out and the possibility she will go to jail for not revealing sources in the Valerie Plame case. "Judy,"" Franken said, "maybe you can find some WMD in your cell." Silence. "OK, I shouldn't have told that joke."

snip

Ivins accepted her award with a funny, impassioned speech on the difficulty of fighting for press freedoms and civil liberties in the George W. Bush administration. "What you need to do is talk to a Texas liberal," she told the crowd. "We know what it's like to be outmanned and outgunned." Ivins spoke of her work on behalf of First Amendment causes, noting that for the last 15 years she has given one speech a month, for free, on behalf on free-speech issues. She doesn't give these speechs in places like New York or San Francisco, but in places without a lot of liberals. "You don't know what courage is," she said, until you sit in the basement of an Alabama Holiday Inn with "seven local heroes, led by a librarian, fixing to start a chapter of the ACLU."

Sharing the lessons of being an outgunned Texas liberal, Ivins said, "One of our rules is that things are not getting worse -- things were always this bad." But she acknowledged journalists are in a particularly tough spot right now. "If you're not scared," she said," you should be." But she encouraged the audience to continue fighting the good fight, and to continue having fun. "In Texas," she said, "we recommend imagination and beer."

more at http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/newspaper_2point0_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000929343

I'd have given anything to have seen that smug smirk wiped off her face when she heard the line

A big fat kudos to him for having the nerve to say that

may she have some photos of her in her big baggy thong undies, so she can be tabloid pals with you know who

No, Al, that was the BEST JOKE of the night!!!:rofl:

to say that TO HER FACE, not in a little op-ed piece somewhere. And just because the crowd didn't roll with laughter doesn't mean he bombed. It wasn't a "funny" line, and wasn't meant to be.

He confronts these sob's in person.

i respect him for always speaking his mind and standing his ground.
go al!
:applause:

Who is "they" Brian? If it's the BFEE and their cronies, why don't you and your brethren in the biz grow a pair or step aside.

should be sniffing for the mushroom cloud in the cell.

I am glad he said it even if it didn't get any laughs and created an uncomfortable situation. I am sure people walked out of their talking about that comment and not as much about Ivins comments. The comment probably stunned people and made them realize how bad she fucked up!!!

Thank you Al

in her cell....

Laura would have told this joke so much
better...