Tuesday, April 29, 2003

Savage Weiner on Banfield

PRESS: Well, not necessarily. I’m not nice to Pat.
But I’ve got a-here’s my beef, OK? I want to go back to your book, which I read before the last time you were on with us. And I want to read what you said about Ashleigh Banfield: “Turn on MSNBC and you’ll find the mind slut with a big pair of glasses that they sent to Afghanistan. She looks like she went from porno into reporting. What happens, from 20 to 30, they do porno. From 30 to 40, they do weather. Then, from 40 to 50, they do TV news.”
I just want to know, I don’t think that’s fair. I don’t think it’s true. Have you apologized...
SAVAGE: No, I wouldn’t apologize.
PRESS: ... to Ashleigh Banfield and are you sorry you wrote that?
SAVAGE: No, I’m not sorry at all and I’ll tell you why. I don’t know the girl personally, but I’ll tell you what she did that pissed me off, if I may. And this shouldn’t have been done on this wonderful channel.
She was on assignment with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is fundamentally a Jewish children’s killing organization. She was on assignment with them in a hidden location as they were out hunting Jewish kids? And I’ll never forget this as long as I live. The lights come on and one of the guys in a head scarf says: “The Israelis, the Israelis. Kill the camera. Kill the camera.” And she looked so excited, as though she was on a Girl Scout cookie-hunting mission here.
They were out killing people. What was she doing with them? Didn’t she understand what she was doing?
PRESS: Well, here’s the question, Michael. Can’t you disagree with her and say that without calling her a mind slut?
SAVAGE: No, I can’t.

I'm still waiting for NBC news to condemn that.