could vote for Pat Buchanan, after he spent fucking YEARS on "Crossfire" demonstrating what a stupid fucking Neanderthal Nazi he is... Sure, Mike Kinsley always came off as a bit of a wimp in comparison -- but then, who wouldn't, compared to fucking Attila the Hun?!? And at least Kinsley has shown that he HAS more than two neurons to rub together; see, e.g, [link|http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39936-2003Mar27.html|Our Kind of Law (Washington Post)] (only available for about ten days more; then it goes into their for-pay Archive).

So, uh, yeah: I'm reasonably familiar with that kind of program.

But I still don't think there's any such complex "lend it legitimacy" reasonings behind this whole thing as you assume; FWIW, it seems much more likely to me that they just asked the guy if he would mind answering some questions on air, and he felt he couldn't very well say no -- after all, *he* wanted people to answer *his* questions.

And your opinion of "the skeptical Iraqi" is somewhat insulting, BTW: People fucking SPEAK ENGLISH nowadays, or at the very least, they know someone they trust who does. There would be no issue of "easily doubt[ing] the translation"; at least, much LESS so than the issue they get having it done by their own: "So, is this just some total nutjob; a 'deserter' or 'traitor' saying anything Saddam wants him to? Or is there someone just outside the picture holding a gun on him?" Given those possibilities, which I'd think would be the first to occur to your "skeptical Iraqi", anything copied from Yank TV would probably seem *more* credible to him, not less.

...it's "propaganda", dammit!

And this goes for several of you others, too, not just Drew.

You know who you are... I hope!