Phil Donahue Talks About his Short Stint at MSNBC During Run-up to Iraq War

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/phil-donahue-talks-about-his-short-stint-at-msnbc-during-run-up-to-iraq-war_b43577

Remember 2002? The wounds of 9/11 were still raw, the coalition was finishing up (or so we thought) operations in Afghanistan and the U.S. was looking ahead to an invasion of Iraq. Somewhere in between, that summer actually, MSNBC made a huge promotional push for its new primetime show, “Donahue” with legendary talk show host Phil Donahue.

The show lasted less than six months. Tonight on CNN’s Parker-Spitzer, Donahue reprises what many of you have heard before: that his anti-war stand was not good business.

“I didn’t make it to the invasion. I was gone … the invasion was March of ’03 and I was gone in January.”

Full interview video at link

love the honest discussions on that show. It is so refreshing. Not much of the GOP robotspeak.

It was during Bushco's run-up to war. Rocca spoke about how much Chaney's Halliburton profited during the 90's Gulf War. Donahue's show was canceled about three days later. That's when I realized our media was being controlled.

K&R

they would snap him up in a heartbeat. They need the ratings and Mr Donahue needs a forum for his reasoned intellect. He is and always was a class act.

Thanks for posting the link to to this. It seems like most people don't remember his program. His show went off the air even though the ratings were good.

It wasn't about ratings or profits from the number of listeners as some claim. It as about not interfering with the businesses the owners were going to make money by supplying the war.

Then the war itself became like a movie with cheer leading. No other viewpoints were allowed. The coverage of the Shock 'n' Awe campaign was inescapable. It was on all the networks, just like the September 11th attacks were.

Many people attended the FCC meetings to try to stop some of this, knowing what was coming, but it did no good. Now some people are calling for the FCC to do something about the way the networks are inciting people and telling them things that are not true.

I don't think they can since some of the really bad programs are on cable. I never imagined that the airwaves could get as bad as they've been since the Clinton impeachment circus when most of the cable network people became so big.

Very hard to get anything done in this political climate. When people keep hearing the same lies 24/7 it's impossible to get them to listen to reason. Things do seem to have calmed down a bit since the election but it was proof that corporations have way too much power.

War was good for business; the truth wasn't.

Victims of propaganda.

How Tweety "Executed" DONAHUE on MSNBC.

Tweety was on his book tour for another one of his "books" (large type, wide spaces between lines, blank half-pages). It was in the jingoistic hysteria in the run-up to the illegal Iraq attack. The book was about supposed "Americanism" --an American Civ 101 ripoff about books and movies and cultural stuff that are essentially American (think, "The Great Gatsby"). So Phil welcomed him as a colleague and peer on Phil's show for the full hour to plug the book. From the moment he appeared, there was a strange, deadly snake look in Tweety's snake eyes. Phil was walking around, apparently not sensing anything, while Tweety was motionless, following him only with his eyes. Phil brought up something or other questioning blind jingoism, and Tweety STRUCK! He started out with venom dripping, "You see THIS is EXACTLY what's wrong with you Liberals: You are NEGATIVE about this country, you find NOTHING good about it," and on and on. It took awhile before Phil figured out what was happening. Later, Phil was sitting at the table with Tweety and, weaker and weaker, did some of his trademark shoulder shrugging and arm waving. Tweety delivered the coup de grace, "What's THIS (mimicking the movements)??!! What's with the --APE-- movements???" Days or a week or two later, Phil's cancellation was announced and took effect.

(from my Tweety file in "Demopedia")