gilly54

I don't know if this belongs in the MPC forum or here.

I read where Jesse Ventura is going to have a talk show on MSNBC. Good.

I think we all had hopes that Donahue was going to be a voice of reason. On his first show, you may recall he went against Pat Robertson who was defending "underGod" in the Pledge.He did manage to get in a few good points between Robertson's rantings.

I was disappointed when the Donohue show cancelled AA president Ellen Johnson's appearance in order to talk about the Columbia disaster. I thought they should have kept her on and allowed her to state that atheists can mourn a national tragedy just as well as theists.

A couple of days ago, I turned Donahue on who was debating with a racial separatist, and it was God this and God that. Phil, what happened to you?!

With Mr. Ventura, there is no doubt what his religious views are. In giving him a talk show, I hope MSNBC isn't hoping for a verbal version of WWF Smackdown. If they are, I hope Mr. Ventura doesn't give it to them.

dangin

I hope he get's well prepared for the debates he will have with guests. I agree with some of his views, but it is a bummer to see him make them, and then fail to defend them well. Perhaps, without the political restraint he is under, he will do that better.

capsaicin67

I, too, am really excited about the potential. It remains to be seen how it manifests itself.

I had some hopes for Donahue as well, but that was coming from my total desperation for any dissent to the right wing harangues that dominate the airwaves. The reality though, IMO, is that Donahue is a 1979 Democrat and is mostly irrelevant in his political credibility. He also is very poor at standing up to zealots and thugs. He would be better served stacking the guest list in his favor and merely focusing on interviewing well. All he does is provide yet another forum for religious whackos to spout their sewage when they have hours and hours of unchallenged airtime elsewhere already. He comes off as a wimp, and by default they come off favorably. IMHO.

I think that there is market for a something smacking of what I call a forward and center position with a better balance between business and populist interests. Free-er of the pacifists on the left, the fundies on the right, and the corporate shills on both sides. I am starving for a new thang like that!!!! I agree that I hope that Jesse doesn't make it into a laughingstock and that he doesnt get lazy with it. The Dems are living in a fusion of 1979 and 1995, the Repubs ina fusion of 1954, 1985, and 1991. Bring on a "centrist" third party or reform the Dems or Repubs, but bring it on soon before this administration drags us any further down.

Jesse is the closest thing that I can think of to someone with the momentum to really be aggressive with the current political situation. But they will be trying to make him into a clown at every turn in order to discredit him-----he better stay alert.

Rock on, Jesse!

pz

Erk. As a resident of the state over which Ventura has cast his pall the past few years, I don't see what the good news is here. He's left us with a deep, deep deficit that's hurting us bad right now. He was an absolutely awful governor.

All I can say is that if Ventura is to be the voice of freethought, then god help us.

gilly54

I'd be interested in hearing from others: who would you want to host an atheist talk show? Who else has the name recognition and isn't afraid to stick their career necks out like Jesse?

Bloop

Anyone atheist with a fetish for fecal matter in the daily mail?

capsaicin67

I totally concede that I didn't have to have him as Gov., so I defer to those that did on those matters. But I also know that things aren't so hot right now in many states....?

That being said, I think he has the notoriety and "toughness" that carry a lot of weight in the limelight of politics. People are fascinated by him and he's not perceived as a pushover. He's also the only one I know of that makes an alternative to the Dems and Repubs sound marketable and believeable to me. Kind of a progressive centrist if you will....? Some flavor of centrist at the least. What I don't like, however, is that he is a sucker for the sound of his own voice and does still love shock value I think. Sometimes he's like an obnoxious relative that says things loud that aren't really funny and makes you cringe.

But I think a talk show of some sort might be just the place for him: he might be best there, pushing the envelope and at the very least being outspoken regarding the religious zealotry that is going gangbusters right now. May just be wishful thinking on my part again tho.

atheist_in_foxhole

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but Jesse Ventura is NOT an atheist. He said on Tim Russert's show that he was a Christian and had accepted Jesus as his "personal savior."

But Ventura does, however, support the separation of church and state.

lpetrich

I checked that out, and I found the Nov-99 Freethought Today article:
Maybe he thinks of himself as an independent, church-free Xian or something.

ZiprHead

We just got rid of a right-wing Republican governer that also left us in a deep deep deficit, not to mention far more polluted waters and air, trash being trucked in from other *countries*, an unemployent system in shambles, and an whole litany of other problems. At least Jesse got some things right.