ABSTRACT

Oh, yes you can. And one of the things that has hampered the debate on that weary topic, the-left-and-the-war, is that too many people seem to know too many other people.

The Hitchens-Galloway debate had some promise as an Event. Sponsored jointly by the International Socialist Organization and The Nation Institute (and with the big signs to prove it), with the old Nation regulars, Navasky and all, seated down front, and with Amy Goodman as moderator (Vince McMahon would have been so much better), the actual hall was a place to steer clear of. A transcript wouldn’t suffice: Galloway would just lie, Hitchens would say what he’d said elsewhere, Galloway’s insults would be unearned, and Hitchens’ superfluous. The telecast would be perfect. C-SPAN, unfortunately, was too chaste for the job, which called for razzle-dazzle camerawork and lots of audience shots. Long before Hitchens complained of “zoo noises,” the viewers should have been pelting the screen with peanuts.