UPDATED! At the end.
A follow up to posts on Morgan Freeman here and here. I did not have the opportunity to watch 60 Minutes last night (CBS is not offered here by cable or satellite - and that's usually OK by me) but CBS offers a short clip from the show here.
I'm not sure why CBS has done this because Mike Wallace comes across as the archetypical liberal-who-knows-best-what's-good-for-the-black-folk. Freeman sets about to put him in his place. When Wallace asks what Freeman thinks about Black History Month - a BIG mistake - Freeman answers, "Ridiculous." Wallace's part in this conversation consisted of, "Oh, c'mon. Heh. Well. Ubd-ubd. (inhale), (exhale - perhaps a sigh) as well as these exchanges:
Freeman asks him if there is a white history month. Wallace says, "No." Freeman asks, "Why not." Then comes the bonehead answer of the year. I haven't heard an answer this dumb since last October and November from John Kerry whenever anyone had the temerity to insist on an answer to a question. Wallace says, "I'm Jewish". Apparently Jews are not white people in the mind of Mike Wallace. Har, har, har. He had this wide-eyed look on his face like, "Aha! I've got you now." No he didn't.
Freeman rolls his eyes and asks, "OK, when is Jewish history month?" Wallace says, "There isn't one." Freeman says, "Oh. Oh. Well, do you want one?" Wallace says, "No, no." Freeman says, "Well, I don't either." Wallace asks with the narrowed eyes, pinched nose and pursed lips of a disapproving parent trying to make a point to his recalcitrant child - another BIG mistake, "How are we going to get rid of racism if we . . ." - interrupted immediately by Freeman, "Stop talking about it." At the end of this massacre, Freeman asks Wallace, "You know what I'm saying?" Wallace mumbles, "Um-hmm," and looks off to his left for help from a producer, cameraman, water carrier, ANYBODY.
Watch the clip several times and study Wallace's facial expressions and his gestures. Classic. Priceless. He runs out of chair to sink back into. Then study Freeman's. Exasperated, irritated and Out. Of. Patience. With. This. Guy.
One of the complaints leveled many times against 60 Minutes, and, indeed, many other television newscasts is that they will film an interview and then edit it so that the final product shown to viewers does not reflect what really went down. If 60 Minutes producers edited this to take out all of the bad parts, it must have really been a disaster. I would love to see all of the film that was shot. What 60 Minutes has made available does Mike Wallace, CBS and liberals in general no favors whatsoever. Wallace was condescending, asked stupid questions, gave an even more stupid answer, and limped away from this bad day at Black Rock with his head tucked under his arm.
UPDATE: This is even better, or worse, depending on whether you're an optimist or a pessimist. Watch the CBS interview with Mike Wallace about his interview with Morgan Freeman. It's a hoot. Wallace has been watching too many Edward R. Murrow reruns. Loooong pauses before answers. The pursed lips of the thoughtful and ever so patient college professor. He says that Freeman had to wait too long to get his Oscar (hinting that racism played a part) and says, disapprovingly, "He deserved it long before he got it." Note to Mike Wallace: A. You're talking about Hollywood where deservin's got nuthin' to do with it, and, B. John Wayne waited a whole lot longer for his Oscar than did Morgan Freeman and made a hell of a lot more than 40 movies before receiving his Academy Award. So what?
TAGS: Morgan Freeman, 60 Minutes, Mike Wallace, massacre, Bad Day At Black Rock
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