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More Thoughts to Come, But for Now…
I was a fool to think this couldn't happen and to condescend to those who did. May the next 4 years humble me with prosperity and progress.
— Rob Long (@rcbl) November 9, 2016
Agreed. We all have our bad moments, and that was Rob’s. He lacked any semblance of humor during that interview and even failed to address Dr. Arnn by either name or title, as I recall. He was obviously angry and his disdain for anything Dr. Arnn had to say was reminiscent of the treatment the Trump voters had been getting throughout the campaign. I had to fast from the flagship podcast for many weeks afterward, it left such a bad taste.
/I admit, part of my reaction is because Larry Arnn is a hero of mine. You don’t tug on Superman’s cape…
Morning Blue Yeti,
The focus of hosting in the arena of ideas is to present a guest whose ideas may be interesting or challenging so that the audience might hear some new point of view or some informed thoughts.
To do this. The host introduces the quest in the usual formal manner and then introduces the guest in terms of the ideas the guest is about to present. The host can set up the guest, refer to the Heather Mac Donald interview for a great example, or the host can ask the guest to explain his point of view or to highlight what is new or insightful about his positon. The host can then paraphrase the guest’s positon so that the audience and the guest can see that the host understands the points being made and that the host is not twisting the guests thoughts, or impugning the guest’s motives. The guest can then either add to or correct the host’s interpretation or can note that the host has restated his positon accurately. The host could ask the guest to examine both the strong and weak points of their position. The host could point out what he thinks are the strong and weak points of the guest’s position and ask the guest to respond. The host could ask the guest what are the implications of your position if the positon is correct and if the position is wrong. The guest is allowed to make the best case for his position, he has been invited to do just that, and to block or interrupt the guest form doing that is bad manners. After the guest has left then, our lads can give their opinions, for repeat members of the audience giving an opinion for the nth time gets old. The focus of the presentation is the audience, to inform or entertain. From this member’s view, that is often lost.
To clarify misinterpretation.
I did not suggest that I wanted Rob to become Buckley or that if he did not that “I would cancel my own damn subscription”. I suggested that a host could use Buckley as a model and that when interviewing someone as patience taxing as Mark Green, one could still be pleasant and entertaining. The Buckley suggestion was as a model, heck most of the folks here have never seen “Firing Line”.
Concerning, Mr. Kaus, I mentioned at the time of the podcast and just then that I imagined that you were all friends and that conversation can contain a background that explains the jumping around, but this audience member was not at all the previous conversations so I didn’t hear all those earlier arguments. Again it is a matter of manners, it may be old hat to you but conversations that leave the audience in the dark are rude, this is a podcast for an audience not part of an on-going private conversation.
We have a host on the show who was literally hand picked by Buckley himself: his name is Peter Robinson.
Mickey has been on the show at least 10 times since we started doing it and did his own podcast for us for two years. Guess we assumed everyone knew him and his relationship to us. He’ll be on again very soon.
You guys do such a great job booking the guests. I really appreciate the effort and the diversity of the picks. Mickey is always fun to listen to on the show.
Afternoon Blue Yeti,
In the paragraph you quoted concerning using Buckley as a model you edited out “I did not suggest that I wanted Rob to become Buckley”. In this first sentence, the subject clearly is Rob; the paragraph was under “to clarify misinterpretation”. I may have missed it, but it was Rob’s post, and I did not notice that anyone had criticized Peter. If you could point out what I missed, that would help my confusion, otherwise to edit out the subject of the paragraph and changing its meaning is not good. Would that everyone would interview like Peter, most of the time a listener can almost see the smile on his face, most of us would love it. We all enjoy a happy warrior.
At the very first of this disagreement between us, when I mentioned that I thought the interview with Dr. Arnn was an example of a type of style which I find off putting, you could have said, “yes there are a few who found the Arnn interview not to their liking but most of our audience did not hear it that way and most liked the interview”. At that point I can understand that my view is not the view of most and that for a variety of reasons including appealing to the largest slice of the audience, we will keep with a more popular style. At that point, I would accept that Ricochet makes choices in its best interest. I understand that this is your company, and as a consumer no one is forcing me to choose your product, but your style of response has been more like a Monty Python, than a representative who is interested in understanding a critical comment.
Rob Long forever!
But he is no Peter Robinson
I am very glad to hear that. I came here when James first announced on his own site that he was to be part of a new enterprise. In the nearly six years I have been a member I have also grown to like Rob a great deal. They both deserve whatever the podcast version of an Oscar is for having me convinced that the otherwise genial Rob was blind to the fact that James was about to wring his neck one of these days, and that James was on the verge of quitting mid-show and telling Rob to stuff his Harrys, Sanebox, and Caspar where the sun don’t shine. If Rob’s new gig doesn’t work out he ought to pitch a show with a similar premise.
As for Rob being kind of…unwavering and unequivocal in his dislike for Trump, I’d rather truly know how the man feels than having him trying to weasel it both ways solely for the sake of PR for the site. Sometimes the people you trust the most are also the ones you disagree with the most often. It’s always easier to tell people what they want to hear instead of telling them your true feelings.
James is the master of the slow burn.