Killer TV
Tonight promises to be an exciting TV night.
Other than the news, I don't watch much
television. The only time you can definitely find
me in front of the TV is at 9:00 p.m. Tuesday
nights, as I fervently await the next hour of "24."
More often than not, I also try to catch
"Enterprise" (the latest "Star Trek" series) on
Wednesday nights. Besides that, about all I use the
TV for is news and the occasional DVD.
Tonight, however, should be interesting.
Following "Enterprise" on UPN, CBS News anchor Dan
Rather interviews the tyrant himself, Saddam
Hussein. "The final truth will be decided...in
Iraq," the Iraqi leader told Rather in the
interview. I must agree. There hasn't been much
truth coming out of Iraq since 1991, so the truth
will have to be found within Iraq
itself—most likely at the head of a
division of U.S. troops.
Take, for instance, Hussein's reply when asked
by Rather if he would blow up Iraqi oil fields or
other major infrastructures, as he did during the
1991 Gulf War: "Iraq does not burn its wealth and
it does not destroy its dams." We all remember the
images from 12 years ago, of day becoming night
under the thick, black smoke of Iraqi oil fires.
Iraq did indeed burn its wealth then, so the man is
either delusional or a liar, probably both.
When asked about the Al Samoud missiles that
weapons inspectors recently determined to be in
violation of U.N.-permitted ranges and ordered to
be destroyed, Hussein replied that no such missiles
exist. Rather than deny that the Al Samoud
missiles' range did not exceed U.N. allowances, he
claimed that there were no such prohibited
missiles, that any Iraqi missiles that violated the
range restrictions had already been destroyed. More
lies, more delusions. (Stay tuned to this issue;
the deadline for Iraq to destroy these non-existent
missiles is this Saturday.)
Though CBS News has posted what appear to be the
highlights of the interview on its Web
site—including Hussein's comical debate
challenge to President Bush—there are
sure to be many other fascinating and entertaining
twists in this broadcast.
And following that program, ABC will air an
interview with another murderer: actor Robert
Blake. (For the record, allow me to amend that to
"alleged" murderer.) Though I lived in Studio City
until recently (where the murder of Blake's wife
took place), I have little interest in this case. I
never watched "Baretta," and could not care less
about celebrities' brushes with the law.
Nevertheless, the spectacle of an interview with a
man accused of murder—before the case
goes to trial—is highly unusual, and
probably worth putting up with Barbara Walters.
Development note: I've
noticed that this site doesn't look like it should
in Netscape Navigator. Rather than waste time
jury-rigging it to look right in a
soon-to-be-obsolete browser, I'll just add the
cliché "This site best viewed with Internet
Explorer."
©2003 Michael
Strickland ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
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