I'm surprised I didn't see this on earlier, and I might have overlooked a diary on this earlier, but the utter unmitigated gall and shamefulness of it all has to be highlighted.
On his August 10 radio show, only a day or two after hosting the columnist Stu Bykofsky, the Philadelphia Daily News writer who opined that 'To Save America, We Need Another 9/11', John Gibson defended him further, putting out the question about whether people agreed or not. After taking a caller, his producer asked if he remembered 'what the media was like' after then. Gibson's immediate response?
"Jon Stewart sobbing." He then goes off to playing an audioclip of Jon Stewart's heartfelt comments on 9/20/01, interjecting himself sardonically and mockingly. To finish it off, his producer, "Angry Rich" got in one last comment, calling Stewart a 'phony'. (more after the break)
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I mean....imagine the gall.
A man who approvingly hosts and agrees with a man who says that, for the sake of forcing another round of national unity, we 'need' another 9/11, goes out of his way, unprovoked, to attack a man's comments nearly 6 years ago, when the wounds of 9/11 were still fresh, and mocks him, even going so far as to call him a phony for those comments.
Who's the phony, John Gibson? You, who stain the memory of those who died on 9/11? You, who show your deep and rather disgusting disdain for human life by casually approving of the idea that we should get attacked so we can have 'national unity' again?
Keith Olbermann rightfully so named John Gibson his 'Worst Person in the World' for August 14th. And one thing he had to say probably sums it up quite nicely (though I have to paraphrase it for lack of the exact quote): The pain JOn Stewart felt, the pain ALL Americans felt, especially New Yorkers and Washingtonians, that WAS our National Unity. Hell, Keith didn't say it, but it was also our INTERNATIONAL Unity. The world sympathized with our pain, knowing the ravages of terrorism as well. A French Newspaper famously and memorably stated on its headline in the days after: "We Are All Americans."
And you mock that, John Gibson? Not only do you mock that, but you insist that we should live through that again? Not only for your artificial 'national unity', but out of the mindless assumption that such an attack on American Soil again would prove Bush's wayward 'War on Terror' RIGHT? That it would validate the blood, sweat, tears, lost opportunities to catch Osama and our misguided venture into Iraq? It would validate 'We have to fight them there so we don't have to fight them here'?
No, John Gibson, you are the phony. You and others, who insist that those who criticize the war, criticize our misappropriated priorities in this 'War on Terror', and have essentially been right every step of the way as to how disastrous this whole 'war' would be have "forgotten the lessons of 9/11", you are the ones who forget why there was unity on 9/11. And it is you who forget the price of that unity, in the 3000 lives lost in the WTC, and more lost at the Pentagon. It is you who are so phony as to actually wish more death upon Americans, and insist that it is to 'save America'.
Jon Stewart, in his comments, said that despite the towers gone, he still had an inspiring view from his apartment: The Statue of Liberty. What did you see, John Gibson?
Links:
John Gibson Mocks Jon Stewart's 9/11 Comments
Keith Olbermann: Worst Person in the World 8/14/07
Gibson's Reaction to being "Worst Person in the World"