So, I never had the opportunity to listen to David Brudnoy — before my time. I gather he was a legend. I guess Brudnoy used to take on Falwell et al — and take the heat. Jon Keller, who was Brudnoy’s producer, says this upon Jerry Falwell’s death:
I’ve observed plenty of emotional political debate and invective over the years, before and since the Falwell era, about everything from school busing to war, racism, and other bitterly-contested issues. But I have never experienced anything like the arrogance and bigotry Falwell seemed to elicit from many of his followers. And that’s really saying something.
It’s hard to know what to say when one of one’s political adversaries dies; if you really say what you think of them, it’s considered distasteful and over the top. And certainly, you want to keep a bright line between criticizing someone’s views and wishing death on them.
That being said, I appreciate Keller’s frankness. Falwell was a nasty piece of work, an outrageous (and occasionally unintentionally hilarious) shyster, and we shouldn’t sugarcoat that at all.
Update: David Bernstein blames Falwell for the death of the libertarian strain of the Republican Party. Very interesting.
Update 2: Bernstein also points us to Tim Noah’s litany of Falwell Foolishness at Slate. (Hey David — you wanna write this blog?)
Wow, keller has a lot of class. Way to go..
Is/was like every other zealot (of whatever stripe) :blind.
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He and other folks of likeminded singlemindedness cannot see beyond the nose on their face.
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The more passionate people come to a cause, the more encumbered they become by tunnel vision. There are a whole lotta folks that should take a long hard look at Falwell, criticize him and then stand in front of a mirror and take a good long look at the person looking back.
I always saw Falwell as a deliberate, calculating operator. Not to say he didn’t sound passionate when speaking, but that the subject matter and passion were carefully selected to meet his ends. His ends being political power and personal material comfort. Well, whatever the truth about his motivations, I agree that the world would been a better place if he’d done the mirror check. There are 57 legislators who could do with a peek.
She wouldn’t feel glad to hear anyone had died, not even Jerry Falwell. Me, I didn’t put “Another One Bites the Dust” on the CD player and dance around the living room, but I’d be lying if I said I were sorry. Falwell peddled a grotesque pastiche of Christianity that encouraged people to mistake intolerance for standing up for God and morality. It’s sad that a powerful Christian social movement could be built on self-righteous condemnation of others.
So, I never had the opportunity to listen to David Brudnoy
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The question is, how old are you? Brudnoy was on the radio until he died only a few years ago.
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The comment is, we were listening to Brudnoy since I arrived in the Boston area in 1979. He actually ran a pretty good talk show in the 1980s, and was part of WRKO’s heyday (Gene Burns, Jerry Williams, etc.). He had a 4 hour show, and would have guests on for 2 hours to discuss their books, which were on many topics. After returning from his AIDS bout in the early 1990s, his program went steadily downhill, as it was clear that he was less inquisitive (as he was in the 1980s), and more dogmatic, particularly politically.
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Actually, another comment. The only interest that people like Fallwell has is money. They shake the money tree, and to shake it, they take extreme positions of fear, fright, hate, etc., against “the other” to the rubes who fear “the other.” They (Falwell, Robertson, Oral Roberts, Dobson, et al.) know exactly how to do it, and they do it quite well. As someone said, there’s a sucker born every minute.
I moved to MA in 2001, having lived in NY, OH, RI, IL, and IN. (and even a summer in MN)
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So it’s more accurate to say I didn’t listen to him, or was only dimly aware of his existence, from ’01 to ’04.
…Brudnoy actually was very good in the 1980s, except that he was defensive about his homosexuality (not particularly important at the time). It’s unfortunate that you were unable to listen to his shows. He, and Burns and Williams were actually much better than public radio then and now.
His WBZ evening drive show was brilliant as well – and I lisetened every night from 1998 to 2003/4 when he began to fail, and Paul sullivan took over (whoem I rarely lsiten to).