Tavis Smiley: interview with Lisa Duggan re neoliberalism

[AP]

Historian Lisa Duggan's 'Twilight of Equality'

Author and historian Lisa Duggan believes that free-market economics and neoliberalism have contributed to a shift in wealth distribution in the United States over the years. She visits with NPR's Tavis Smiley to discuss these issues, which she outlines in her new book entitled The Twilight of Equality: Neoliberalism, Cultural Politics and the Attack on Democracy.

She puts together a lot of things we talk about here, in terms of Latin American policy, linking up indentity politics and economic liberalism, privitization, and the spread of wealth "down and out" vs. "up and narrowly".

She gives a nice little history of where neoliberalism started, and talks about where it might be going.

The Tavis Smiley Show -- index for the entire program for Monday, December 8, 2003

[GainesT1958]

1. Boy if that shot of Dub at Andover...

Doesn't make him look like a PANSY...and a preppy one at that!:eyes:

(NOTE: I have NOTHING WHATSOEVER against male cheerleaders; just wimpy ones like Dub!)

From the way his News & Observer write-up told it, John Edwards was a hard hitter on the field as well as in the courtroom!:D

B-)

[AP]

2. It's amazing that that is '64. Bush looks like he thinks it was still '49

He said his favorite band was the Everly Brothers.

Edwards liked the Greg Allman Band.

[Westegg]

3. Tavis Smiley

Tavis Smiley often has very interesting and timely guests, but I find him a mediocre (sometimes obsequious) journalist/interviewer. I usually can't get through an entire show.

[AP]

4. I couldn't disagree more.

I've heard other (uh, white) people say this. However, after actually having them listen to a few shows and talking about the content, they admit they were wrong.

By the way, I ACTUALLY HEARD my local hosts during pledge drive say that they get complaints about Tavis Smiley's "voice" and that it took people a while to get "used to it."

I couldn't believe it. I had to check my calendar to make sure it wasn't 1954.

Could you identify any particular stories or interviews you thought were mediocre or obsequious?

[Westegg]

5. Tavis Smiley

Geez, Tavis Smiley has a great voice---a very mellow, NPR-style tone that is certainly not objectionable! Don't know what those cats were on about. No, I just find that Tavis is a very middle-of-the-road journalist who often (but not always) doesn't ask the tough questions his subject-matter demands, and is pretty bad at follow-through questions, which is typically when you get the REAL answers. How do I know this? I've been a journalist conducting interviews for almost 20 years.

Oh yeah. By the way, I'm white. But you already knew that, based on my criticism of Smiley as a journlaist, I guess. Because I'm white and he's black (I guess he is. If you say so. Is he? I never looked into it). Hey, some of my best friends are journalists and reporters, and some of them aren't exactly first-rate at what they do. I'd love to dissect with you, piece by piece, various Tavis Smiley interviews I've had a problem with, but don't know how to do it in this particular forum.

[AP]

6. Hey Gatsby, he works on NPR!!! He got kicked off BET ...

... for talking about issues too much.

If he was far left, he wouldn't be on NPR. They'd take him off the air. In fact, they're already cannabalizing his audience by producing that new program (Today, or something like that) and then trying to sell to stations in slots that Smiley is in now. (Apparently, Smiley is replacing Talk of the Nation in many markets, which is pretty conservative, in my opinion.)

Smiley pushes things as far left as possible on NPR, and, off NPR, he's super liberal. When the rest of NPR was promoting the Iraq invasion, Smiley wasn't. And who else gives Cornell West a regular slot to talk about politics? Nobody.

All I'm asking you for is ONE interview you remember which wasn't good. Just one. I just can't believe that anyone who listens to this show regularly doesn't recognize instantly its value.

And, I presume you're talking about the news segments. Smiley does news, entertainment, tech, money, etc., segments. It's not JUST a news show. Sure, some of the other segments are lame -- but it's rare, and it's usually a guest commentator. but it's still the most liberal show on NPR, with the best guests, and best interviews, and the best overall message.

And it's core, Smiley is about creating a dialogue over, and giving more knowledge and political and economic power to, first, its black audience, and then to all working and middle class people, and it's about showing that black and white people, if they aren't rich and powerful, have a lot of the same interests.

[Westegg]

7. You got the Fitzgerald reference...

Fuck. No one else EVER has. I love you instantly.

Yeah, I'm fucking Gatsby. But I don't feel guilty about it. The "American Dream" and all.

Man, you're calling me OUT! Okay, next time I listen to Smiley, I will annotate my reactions and post it here. And we can go from there. Yes, I "recognize the value" of Tavis Smiley's show. That's why I listen to it.

Hey, I LOVE hearing Cornell West on Tavis's show. I look forward to it. There are other places to hear or read what West is up to, but that's not the point, as you mentioned.

What it comes down to, maybe, is the fact that Smiley's show is NOT, in fact, creating the dialogue that it should. You say he got kicked off BET. Why?

I appreciate your feedback, and I hope we have the chance to communicate again.

[bobbieinok]

8. I discovered Smiley on BET

He was on an hour M-Th; the topics were all over from rap to the relationship range between black men and women to books (fiction and non-fiction) about blacks.

I learned a lot about some aspects of black life in America. (I'm female, white, over 60.)

I first heard about Tom Joyner on Smiley's show.

For me, his laid-back, non-confrontational style was just right.

A black woman told me the owner of BET fired Smiley because he was doing things in addition to working for BET. She also said that the owner then sold the network to Time-Warner (?) in 2000, thus silencing the only black-controlled media before the selection. She also claimed that Oprah was furious that he had not let her and other wealthy blacks know that he wanted to sell the network.