Ezra Klein: More Media Me

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June 20, 2007

More Media Me

I'll be on The Larry Kudlow Show arguing for universal health care around 5:20 Eastern.

Update: Video here.

June 20, 2007 | Permalink

Comments

Yeah, I'm with the commenters on the previous post. What'd you do to deserve all this punishment?

Is there an audio archive? I have a meeting then.

Posted by: Nicholas Beaudrot | Jun 20, 2007 3:58:29 PM

Your facing down the most egregious serial violator of NotSneaky's ninth principle, huh? He for whom all good things everywhere are a sign of Republican economic wisdom and for whom all bad things everywhere are a sign of Democratic economic malfeasance?

Have fun.

Posted by: jhupp | Jun 20, 2007 4:02:20 PM

I already know the three talking points whomever you're debating will be:
1) Canada has really long waits, aieeee!!!
2) But so much research is being done in the U.S. thanks to private health care and the rest of the world mooches off us, aieeee!!!
3) Imagine the DMV running our health care system, aieeee!!!

So have fun.

Posted by: Media Glutton | Jun 20, 2007 4:06:09 PM

Ezra, have you instructed your friends and family where to send the pieces of your body and mind after Kudlow makes you sound like such a deranged fool that the CBNC crew draws and quarters you?

Kudlow makes the term 'serial prevaricator' sound like a nomination for the Nobel economics prize.

Don't forget to shower afterwards.

Posted by: JimPortlandOR | Jun 20, 2007 4:06:38 PM

Wow, Media Glutton offered 3 really great criticisms.

Posted by: Jason | Jun 20, 2007 4:34:45 PM

Wow, Jason, you're right. Being a right-wing media hack is easier than I thought, and much more lucrative than the alternative. I didn't even have to do any research! Get ready cable news: Here comes Media Glutton, "Republican Political Strategist"!

Posted by: Media Glutton | Jun 20, 2007 4:38:29 PM

Remember, if you should falter in any way or need to buy a second or two to formulate a reply to something, just shout out "now is a great time to buy stocks!" Everybody else on a CNBC show is required to shout out an approving response so you should get a few extra seconds there.

Actually, did you promise to shout that already as part of your guest spot?

Posted by: greg | Jun 20, 2007 4:59:12 PM

Raging Ezra!

Bonus: Somebody on CNBC was finally called out for "free market platitudes".

I loved that segment, thanks Ezra. Great Job!

Posted by: greg | Jun 20, 2007 5:45:49 PM

I couldn't hear what you were saying, some old jerk was talking over you.

Posted by: Eric the Political Hack | Jun 20, 2007 5:47:07 PM

Ezra did a great job. Such a great job that Kudlow eventually tried to fillibuster Ezra and wouldn't let him make his points. Still, Ezra got enough points across for a easy decision over Kudlow and his fellow traveler.

Posted by: .Ben Brackley | Jun 20, 2007 5:47:54 PM

For the record, my favorite line: "Which health care facility are you talking about? Walter Reed? Walter Reed is a army hospital!"

pwn3d.

Posted by: Eric the Political Hack | Jun 20, 2007 5:49:05 PM

Great job, Ezra! I love hearing Larry tell you to let someone else talk after he had just went on a 90 second rant. Well done!

Posted by: MacGyver | Jun 20, 2007 5:49:33 PM

nice job, I liked the list of groups who rate the VA as high quality. I've wondered who is watching Kudlow at this time of the day?

Posted by: k | Jun 20, 2007 5:50:11 PM

Mr. Klein,

I had not heard of you prior to your appearance on Mr. Kudlow's show. It is funny to me how the talking heads can smell that their asses are about to be handed to them in the form of actual facts and reason.

Despite being incessantly talked over; well done.

I'm a fan.

Demian Dellinger

Posted by: D. Dellinger | Jun 20, 2007 5:50:40 PM

Okay, someone find me internet video! I want to watch! (I have a personal obsession with people handing Kudlow's ass to him.)

Posted by: jhupp | Jun 20, 2007 6:02:32 PM

The people have spoken! We want video evidence!

Posted by: Nicholas Beaudrot | Jun 20, 2007 6:10:46 PM

Ezra, you completely annihilated Kudlow and Stu. Every point they raised, you shot down with stats about HSAs, the V.A., Canadian prices. Every point you raised, their response showed they didn't have a clue what they were talking about (even though somehow they keep yammering over you with nonsense).

I especially liked how you immediately put the debate on your own terms, as well. Brilliantly done, dude.

Posted by: Media Glutton | Jun 20, 2007 7:23:40 PM

"The people have spoken! We want video evidence!"

Indeed. There isn't a repeat on the CNBC schedule. YouTube it must be.

Posted by: Petey | Jun 20, 2007 7:57:07 PM

I've met Larry Kudlow, and I can tell you that there's a remarkable difference between the genial polite guy he can be offscreen and the annoying curmudgeon on the air - more than most, I can see the act (I wish he and Jim Cramer still worked together, because they're better together, though Cramer alone is more interesting than Kudlow alone). I think Ezra did as well as you can when faced with it, given that Kudlow wasn't about to let contrary facts get in the way of what he plans to think now and forever. Still, I don't think the ultimate segment was useful given all the talking over, the refusal to really have a discussion and to get meaningful data out in the open. I hope Ezra, that you can find a better program to go on and have this discussion... or something. Because I think Kudlow is a signal of how bad the "health care debate" could go once a real proposal is out there; a lot of people - who have no idea what they're talking about - will start in on any proposal, and that's going to be a big problem.

Posted by: weboy (I am not Spartacus) :) | Jun 20, 2007 8:07:53 PM

I missed it. Was Larry hitting the nose candy again?

Posted by: Joe Klein's conscience | Jun 20, 2007 8:12:58 PM

weboy,

I was thinking that Larry might be pretty nice offscreen. He has lots of people on the show over and over (Robert Reich, Jared Bernstein, Jason Furman, who would never show up over and over again unless this guy was pretty nice offscreen. Onscreen, he's a crazy dick, but a master of changing the subject when the facts are clearly against him, and he knows the value of saying simple, understandable statements over and over and over and over and over and over until people get it. We should watch and learn from this master.

I wish I had known earlier, I would have watched.

Posted by: mickslam | Jun 20, 2007 8:18:15 PM

thank you, ezra.
you stay in the light, even in the heartland of greed, vanilla flavored corruption and sulka ties.
lose not thy courage.
there, you were like the lotus...
in the mud, but not of the mud.
lose not thy courage.
keep speaking the truth.
stay in the light.

Posted by: jacqueline | Jun 20, 2007 8:26:40 PM

Damn, no video! Josh Marshall's team, or Crooks and Liars, or Media Matters should have been alerted ahead. Maybe The American Prospect needs to get the video equipment to make recordings of their folks and post them?

Weboy called it right: curmudgeon

But a fast-talking, overbearing, curmudgeon.

The kind of guy that in a bar-chat, you'd call an a**hole.

Posted by: JimPortlandOR | Jun 20, 2007 8:55:24 PM

Ezra, I didn't know who you were until today.

Exceptional performance. Some comments.

(i) Your argument regarding the VA were on point. You correctly hammered the point. Kudlow had not rebuttal, especially when you cited the Rand/other org. which supported your argument.

(ii) Your data regarding American sentiment toward private health care accounts were revealing, and caught Kudlow off guard, which brings me to..

(iii) Kudlow seemed flustered and flummoxed by you. I have never seen him move his arms so much. He seemed unstable.

Posted by: Patricia | Jun 20, 2007 9:32:48 PM

Somebody better come through with video...

Posted by: Petey | Jun 20, 2007 9:39:03 PM

Can we at least get a transcript or maybe someone to sum up the points made roughly

Posted by: Phil | Jun 20, 2007 10:05:25 PM

Here's how to fix the U.S. health care system. Put the names of Britain, France, Canada, Germany, Sweden, and Cuba into a hat. Have President Hillary (or Michael Moore) pick one out of the hat. Implement that system in the U.S. After it's been up and running for ten or fifteen years, tweak it to make it even better.

Statistics: Everyone in Canada agrees that there are some serious problems with the health-care system. Still, I would have guessed that over 90% would not want to abandon public, universal health care. I was wrong. A 2005 Environics-Crop poll indicated only 87% of Canadians thought that eliminating the public system would be bad.

Posted by: mijnheer | Jun 20, 2007 10:45:43 PM

Dude you kicked his ass

Posted by: Phil | Jun 21, 2007 12:29:34 AM

Your arguments and control of the debate allowed us to witness a textbook example of the right-wing media bullying techniques that are used when the host knows he's lost the argument on a factual level.

Kudlow spoke over you because he knew you had him beat. Good job.

Posted by: danimal | Jun 21, 2007 12:40:29 AM

I'd suggest, if you wish to continue to make appearances on such shows, that you adopt a pusillanimous persona. Competent espousers of liberal viewpoints seem rarely to be invited back.

Posted by: Matt | Jun 21, 2007 12:48:40 AM

Ezra, you are a brave, brave man.

Posted by: Nicholas Beaudrot | Jun 21, 2007 1:25:31 AM

Ezra,

I've been reading your blog for a good long while, but this is my first post. Ya' done good, kid. Having seen you on bloggingheads, I wasn't expecting this kind of forcefulness (and it was fair, Kudlow spent the whole segment spouting off uninformed bs). It doesn't look like you need anymore practice in confrontation...but if you want some I'd guess that bloggingheads will need someone new to fill Spencer "this isn't 'effing' Des Moines" Ackerman's slot vs. Eli Lake.

Posted by: Gus | Jun 21, 2007 1:31:30 AM

Thanks for the video link. Here's what kills me: literally zero seconds of what either Kudlow or Browning says -- in the whole damn segment -- has any basis in reality. They've got talking points, and lovely though they are, they exist in an Econ 101 universe.

Posted by: jhupp | Jun 21, 2007 1:47:49 AM

I dunno. Is there any point to this kind of "discussion". All the rightwingers could come up with was pure ideology -- no facts just ideology.

It's like making bread. We know what works. Everybody around us makes bread with yeast. Only the rightwingers don't want to make bread out of yeast. They want to make it out of hot air. Why? Because hot air fits in with their ideology.

The last thing you want is a rightwinger administering healthcare.

Posted by: leo | Jun 21, 2007 2:03:41 AM

I just watched the video. Congratulations on your performance, Ezra. You didn't let that bully Kudlow steamroller you. You won by a knockout, in my opinion, though that won't change the minds of those who are determined to stop "socialist" medicine. (I wonder whether they're also opposed to the "socialist" education system in the U.S.?)

Posted by: mijnheer | Jun 21, 2007 2:13:37 AM

Now having seen the video, Kudlow was worse than I could have imagined, and although Ezra's points often were overtalked, he got his licks in enough to push Kudlow into being a perfect caricature of a factless, bloviating winger.

But this is the preview of what the health care 'debate' (ugh!) will be like. Fear of government and boundless market faith from the other side, and unwillingness to allow an alternate view to be presented.

Posted by: JimPortlandOR | Jun 21, 2007 2:21:31 AM

You should be flattered that those wimps felt like they had to tag-team you to be effective. Imagine how badly you would have kicked either guy's ass one-on-one. Of course, if you don't agree to these verbal gladiator fights, they probably won't have you on.

Posted by: kth | Jun 21, 2007 2:41:41 AM

Ezra, that was spectacular. You've really figured the format out.

It's a bit long for a comment, but I have an extended review of your performance over at my blog.

Posted by: Neil the Ethical Werewolf | Jun 21, 2007 3:33:58 AM

Ezra is everything that Alan Colmes is not. Brilliant framing vis a vis completely ignoring the Moore bait and seemlessly shifting to substance: "let's talk about the VA," acting as if you were the host. Also pro: having the foresight to prepare that devastating statistic regarding private accounts.

Posted by: Tim P. | Jun 21, 2007 3:55:15 AM

I think the only piece of feedback I have is that a better response to the Canada question may be to (a) point out that while stuff like breast cancer mortality is lower in the US, other things are lower in Canada, then (b) suggest that Canada spend half the difference between the US and Canada, which would still give it lower costs, to make up the difference.

The bit where you mention that consumers don't want them is priceless. I don't think I've ever heard a better moment of silence on cable news.

Posted by: Nicholas Beaudrot | Jun 21, 2007 9:18:37 AM

I made this comment over at Neil's place, but what I loved was that you didn't treat it as a fair debate. You immediately changed the framework to something that you had prepared, and you used facts not so much to arrange an argument as to give the feeling that you had the facts and they didn't. The fact that the actual evidence is on your side helped to give that feeling, but it's only a minor aspect. Well done.

Posted by: DivGuy | Jun 21, 2007 10:26:10 AM

Ezra should consult for the Presidential candidates on how to make the wingnuts look foolish.

Posted by: gregor | Jun 21, 2007 12:41:22 PM

Kudlow reminds me of the cokefiend great-grandfather I barely knew.

Posted by: norbizness | Jun 21, 2007 1:21:24 PM

Kudos, Ezra...I know it wasn't a comedy bit but I laughed a lot. It was great from the moment you pointed out that since neither of you three had actually seen Sicko, there wasn't much point in talking about it. Both were on the defensive after that. What do you think your chances are for being invited back?

Great work.

Posted by: Emma Zahn | Jun 21, 2007 5:19:06 PM

Beautifully done. It would be nice to actually have a substantive discussion that didn't involve yelling, but making Kudlow look totally insane is certainly an acceptable alternative. I especially loved when he said "Why don't you let someone else talk?" Even a Stuart Browning thought that was funny.

Posted by: Sam L. | Jun 21, 2007 7:40:42 PM

That was superb - congratulations! I watched it twice. I'm definitely a big fan of yours now.

Posted by: berger | Jun 21, 2007 9:02:54 PM

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