 lan
Keyes's new TV talk show,
Alan Keyes is Making Sense, premieres Monday, January 21,
at 10 PM on MSNBC TV. The show, which will air Monday-Thursday, will
cover military tribunals, evil, capital punishment, and Harry Potter
in its premiere week.
NRO:
What do you think of other TV personalities like Bill O'Reilly,
Chris Matthews, and Larry King?
Alan
Keyes: They're fine as far as they go. What I'll be trying
to do is a little different. Instead of just talking about current
events and bringing on the usual suspects, the core of the program
is a small panel — what we're calling "people just like
you" — just ordinary Americans. We'll start the show with
an information section, where we'll give basic facts on the topic
of the day. Next we'll have our panel of ordinary Americans discuss
the issues based on their common sense, without pretending that
they have some expert credential or special knowledge or the usual
pretense.
The idea is
to showcase common sense. I wanted to do that because I deeply believe
that this country should be about self-government. A lot of times
television programs are based on the notion that the people watching
don't have an attention span and can't understand anything beyond
the seventh grade. Well, the implication of that is that the people
of this country are now too stupid to govern themselves. It's devastating,
in fact, if all that's true. And I guess part of what I would like
to show is that it's not true. I've heard more sense from ordinary
Americans than I generally hear from all of the people who pretend
to be so smart about the different issues of the day.
NRO:
So, will your show be less sensationalistic than other talk shows,
given that the emphasis is not on the showy guest?
Keyes:
Oh no, no, I'm not finished yet! The group discussions will be the
core of it. After that, we will have a segment called "Cutting
to the Chase" and a typical big-name guest will appear in that
segment. And then we'll have some segments where I'll be talking
with folks back and forth, on the phone, or in the chat room, and
then we'll close out the show.
In addition to guests who are diametrically opposed to me, I'm going
to bring on conservatives, like myself, but in an environment where
they won't be fighting all the time, so people can see what often
is not shown in the media, that conservatives are thoughtful, compassionate,
loving people who think more clearly than liberals!
NRO:
If you could ask Bill Clinton one question, what would it be?
Keyes:
Why am I thinking about Bill Clinton?!
NRO:
What do you think about the recent controversy surrounding plans
for a statue version of the famous photograph of three firemen hoisting
the American flag over "Ground Zero" that would alter
the faces of the men to include a black man and a Hispanic man?
Keyes:
It's an illustration of the hubris of our time. We think it's okay
to manipulate history. I think it results partly from the fact that
we no longer believe that God is at work in human affairs. Instead
of believing that you should take events as they are and try to
understand their meaning, we believe that we can just manipulate
those events any way we want according to our agenda. It's a deep-seated
flaw in our understanding of ourselves. The statue at the Vietnam
memorial is very different — it was made to be representative
— but that made sense, because by making it representative
you are actually trying to use it to capture historical reality,
to reflect the facts. In the New York case, rather than accept the
truth, they falsified it. The people who messed with the image missed
the point — they think that we represent our unity in physical
ways, when, in point of fact, the real firemen in that photo represent
our unity of spirit — the things you can't see, can't touch,
can't put color on, and yet unite us anyway.
NRO:
What is your opinion of the recent controversy at Harvard with Cornel
West?
Keyes:
Cornel West? I'm sorry, I have to put that back with my Clinton
question: Why am I thinking about Cornel West?! He never says anything
one can understand. No, I'm sorry, I didn't say that, did I? Don't
quote me on that!
NRO:
What is missing on television that your show will provide?
Keyes:
Most shows are based on the approach that everyone is entitled to
his opinion and we'll just show the clash of those opinions. I think,
yeah, everyone's entitled to have an opinion, but I'm also entitled
to realize that an opinion is a stupid one. The folks on my show
will apply the basic premises of common sense and intelligence to
make judgments so that when people don't make sense one can see
that. Look, if I have a thought and it doesn't make sense, I don't
have the right to get all self-righteous and opinionated about it.
Somewhere along the way we turned the freedom of opinion into the
right to be self-righteous about opinions that make no sense. And
that's just not true.
NRO:
You've hosted a radio show — how will TV be different from
radio?
Keyes:
The difference between the radio program and the television program
is that with the television program, in terms of structure and content,
you have to think it through more carefully. It has to be consciously
structured. Within that structure, spontaneous things can happen.
Radio is pretty much about spontaneousness — you have to know
what you're talking about, in terms of what interesting topics might
be out there, but then you just let it happen, and it does. With
television, the need is to do a lot more thinking and planning beforehand
and then to discipline the presentation to fit within the framework
that results.
NRO:
Have you given up your presidential hopes? Will we see Alan Keyes
in primary races again?
Keyes:
Well, I am going to continue to speak out on issues I care about,
support people I believe in, promote things I believe in. What the
future holds in that regard I don't know. But in the next several
years I'm going to be concentrating on making sure the show goes
well and hopefully informs people and provides some examples of
how we can engage each other in a thoughtful way
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