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Dude. Tim Robbins was one of the speakers at this morning’s “All Industry Opening Ceremony.” By all industry they mean the RTNDA Radio and Television folk and the NAB Radio and Television folk. Initially, Robbins was going to be interviewed by a guy from NPR in a question answer type format. Right away, Robbins started talking about a speech he prepared but wasn’t going to give, and the NPR guy starts talking about how he read the speech and it’s great. We’ll I wasn’t alone in thinking, “Just give the speech already.” After several shouts from the audience, he did.
Boy was I kicking myself for a) not rolling video on the first 3-5 minutes and b) for not having my firewire to post above mentioned video. I am convinced that if I did and if I had that it would be on tonight’s Hannity and Colmes. It was basically a very partisan assessment of how the war in Iraq was a mistake and how he told us so. Now that previous statement does not give his comments justice. They were very sarcastic, and at times pretty funny. However, from my point of view, not well reasoned at all. Of course, as a Christian Conservative, I do feel like a minority at the convention.
Judging from the reaction to Robbins speech, it was well received by the majority in attendance. He went on to defend Former President Clinton. Saying basically that his impeachment was just a sex scandal that got so much attention because of the salacious details. Well no. It was about lying under oath. The sex scandal ploy is the usual smoke screen thrown up by Clinton defenders. Lying under oath is a big deal if you are the law enforcer in chief. Robbins also seemed to be coming out solidly behind the equal time rule, which could kill Christian Radio if implemented. Again, my comments are not doing his speech justice. He was taking the opposite view, but his comments were dripping with sarcasm. For the most part, the crowd loved it! I guess if I was a liberal partisan, I would have too. You can read much more about the speech here and hear it too. I will warn you. There is some very crude language including the F-bomb and a reference to a sexual act that is very crude.
Now, I will give Tim Robbins credit. He did end with some good points. There IS too much reporting on celebrities. There IS too much attention paid to the car wreck and the sensational, but mostly empty, stories. Robbins asks, why don’t we have more reporting that builds people up? What if we consider more points of view and respect each other? He says our country is great, and it is. He says we are divided, and we are. I didn’t see his speech as a starting point to uniting us though. For some reason I was left with the impression that when he said as broadcasters we have a wonderful opportunity to educate and be a catalyst for change, he meant in a liberal, progressive sort of way.
