BLOBBY'S BLOG

Talk of the Town

Last night we had tickets to see Juan Williams at the Cleveland State Town Hall series.

We've been to a number of these over the last few years and oddly enough, we've never purchased one set of tickets. Folks I know, who are season ticket holders, have offered them up when they cannot attend. We've seen some good speakers - and some not so good ones.

Going in, I was iffy about Juan. I always liked him on NPR's Talk of the Nation and just doing other stories on a variety of NPR programs.

But I kind of lost a little respect for him when he started gigging at Fox "News".

I realize everyone needs to make a buck, but c'mon! NPR to Fox? He's supposed to be their liberal face, but if you've noticed (and why would you - unless you watch Fox) over time, he starts to spew their more right-leaning shit.

That being said, the talk was ok. Not great, but not bad. As always with this series, we bring the median age down by about 35 years. I'm surprised there aren't a few more broken hips on the way in and out of the theater.

The first 5-10 minutes were like stand-up. Bad stand-up. Yes, I turned to Denton and said, "is there a two-drink minimum with this?" Ahhhh - always a chestnut!

Juan didn't really stay on topic, which was supposed to be about politics in DC. It got more into those subjects, but it wasn't exactly what we thought it was supposed to be about. He yakked about how the media was influencing the fringe of healthcare, immigration and economic recovery debates. But never once did he address his involvement in that circus we call Fox.

Ugh - and the moderator at the end during the Q&A. His first question - honest to g-d - was at least 5 minutes long. And he just asked his questions and never really referred to the ones submitted by the paying audience.

I don't think there is anyone else in the series I want to see, except maybe David Gergen.


Song by: the Pretenders