From: "Frank Haber" 

Brooks is usually the far-from-token near-right-winger - he's half the
opinion segment, and carries his weight very competently.  They brought in
a token Black, for obvious reasons, last night.  Clarence Page is also no
foaming Sharpton - he's often on the side of self-reliance.  Remember, our
Public TV is currently in a wet-underwear reactive mode, scared of any
Liberal shadow they might cast.

I yanked my wife away from pre-poaching tonight's salmon, DEMANDING she
hear Brook's comments (rebroadcast, an hour later on another channel).  I
was blown away by the "historicity" of his reasoning:

o Johnstown flood = the dawn of muckraking and anti-monopoly legislation -
as well as the Progressives.
o 1927 flood = the birth of the New Deal and the boiling soup in which the
Kingfish was born.

I would have added stockyard exposes = public health, and Triangle Fire =
labor and public safety.  The depth of thinking on, of all things, TV just
blew me away.  The measured rage shown by these worthies, all most
definitely part of the Establishment, welcome inside the Beltway at all the
Best Places - again most impressive.

My wife listened to it all, then said, "Brooks has some very good
assistants. I'll bet none of them get bylines."

And I thought I was a blase' New Yorker.

Now we'll see if the body politic has any guts, or if we really are living
in the last days of a Weimar Republic.  This calls for rage.

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5