Myself Posted June 18, 2009 Report Share Posted June 18, 2009 Ayn Rand's first appearance on Donahue has surfaced on youtube: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Posted June 18, 2009 Report Share Posted June 18, 2009 The stupidity of Donahue makes me cringe. It's seems like when he doesnt understand something he tries to speak over and get in Rand's face to intimidate her into compromising, but gets frustrated when it doesn't work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myself Posted June 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2009 (edited) I don't think Donahue was that bad. I thought he seemed genuinely interested in listening to what Rand had to say, was a good interviewer, and treated her respectfully. The audience members were the irritatingly stupid ones. Edited June 18, 2009 by Myself Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Posted June 18, 2009 Report Share Posted June 18, 2009 Wow, I've been waiting for this one for a while now. Thanks! What a great start for a day. *goes watch* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Posted June 18, 2009 Report Share Posted June 18, 2009 The audience members were the irritatingly stupid ones. Especially the 3 or 4 people that asked basically the same question regarding monopolies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Posted June 18, 2009 Report Share Posted June 18, 2009 That was good, except for the contradiction she allowed herself on gender. Her argument against a woman president is emotional and makes no sense whatsoever. I think she was so invested in being anti-hippie she allowed herself such parochial mistakes. Still, the only thing really imperfect about her was her heart (the physical one.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Erik Martinsen Posted June 18, 2009 Report Share Posted June 18, 2009 Now there's only one remaining television interview with her that hasn't been made available, correct? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarrisan Posted June 18, 2009 Report Share Posted June 18, 2009 Now there's only one remaining television interview with her that hasn't been made available, correct? I believe so. The Carson Interview. I think there is a thread here somewhere where it was discussed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarrisan Posted June 18, 2009 Report Share Posted June 18, 2009 Now there's only one remaining television interview with her that hasn't been made available, correct? I believe so. The Carson Interview. I think there is a thread here somewhere where it was discussed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Patroller Posted June 18, 2009 Report Share Posted June 18, 2009 The stupidity of Donahue makes me cringe. It's seems like when he doesnt understand something he tries to speak over and get in Rand's face to intimidate her into compromising, but gets frustrated when it doesn't work. Yet, for some strange reason, they liked each other. In a 1979 show, the subject of religion came up and Phil asked the questioner "Whose god..." Rand said to him "That is why I like you" without limits,attributes, conditions or modification or any comment at all and he said he liked her. Now I can't picture her being so shallow as to let religion be the sole criterion of whom she liked or she would have preferred Leonid Brezhnev to Reverend Ike, whom she said she liked. or for that matter, she would have preferred Marx or Lenin to St. Thomas Aquinas. Now this is passing strange since in the middle 1980's Donahue took the Soviet side in the Nuclear Freeze, even working as a comrade of Vladimir Posner as a propagandist. Besides which he's got a 25 year reputation as being a looney leftist. His 75 degree list to port couldn not have happened overnightski after 1982. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Myself Posted June 18, 2009 Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2009 In a 1979 show, the subject of religion came up and Phil asked the questioner "Whose god..." Rand said to him "That is why I like you" without limits,attributes, conditions or modification or any comment at all and he said he liked her. Now I can't picture her being so shallow as to let religion be the sole criterion of whom she liked or she would have preferred Leonid Brezhnev to Reverend Ike, whom she said she liked. or for that matter, she would have preferred Marx or Lenin to St. Thomas Aquinas. Which 1979 show? How many times was she on Donahue? According to IMDB she was on twice, once in 1979 and another time in 1980. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IchorFigure Posted June 19, 2009 Report Share Posted June 19, 2009 The stupidity of Donahue makes me cringe. It's seems like when he doesnt understand something he tries to speak over and get in Rand's face to intimidate her into compromising, but gets frustrated when it doesn't work. I don't think that his interviewing style represents his actual thoughts and personality. I was too young to watch Donahue growing up, but he seems to assume a kind of doofusy devil's advocate position to guide the conversation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ifat Glassman Posted June 19, 2009 Report Share Posted June 19, 2009 The stupidity of Donahue makes me cringe. It's seems like when he doesnt understand something he tries to speak over and get in Rand's face to intimidate her into compromising, but gets frustrated when it doesn't work. I think considering the fact she was opposing ideas that his whole life is based on he took it pretty well and actually continued to think and try to understand. I think the audience and Donahue have a different method of thinking and have different premises to understand her philosophy in such a short time. For example, you can't talk about god before you established the proper method to gain knowledge ("you are not called upon to prove a negative"). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kainscalia Posted June 19, 2009 Report Share Posted June 19, 2009 Now if they could just find those Johnny Carson appearances. And to think this was taped the year of my birth, and that she'd be dead four years after that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IchorFigure Posted June 19, 2009 Report Share Posted June 19, 2009 (edited) If I remember correctly I think someone had said that Carson's estate owned the interview. So who knows what might become of it for some years. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Of course I'd love to see it as well. Edit: Actually according to this Carson's "episodes that aired from 1962 and 1972, were erased to save on storage costs". And ARI states that she appeared on the show 1967. However the recent book "Objectively Speaking" says it has both (apparently she made more than one appearance?) interviews. That seems to be the only option. Edited June 19, 2009 by IchorFigure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thales Posted June 19, 2009 Report Share Posted June 19, 2009 If I remember correctly I think someone had said that Carson's estate owned the interview. So who knows what might become of it for some years. Someone correct me if I'm wrong. Of course I'd love to see it as well. Edit: Actually according to this Carson's "episodes that aired from 1962 and 1972, were erased to save on storage costs". And ARI states that she appeared on the show 1967. However the recent book "Objectively Speaking" says it has both (apparently she made more than one appearance?) interviews. That seems to be the only option. There was a poster here a year ago who claimed he'd just seen her Johnny Carson appearance (don't know which one). I don't know what happened to the guy, but he was going to look into the whole issue. Here is the thread: http://forum.ObjectivismOnline.com/index.p...t=0&start=0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Posted June 20, 2009 Report Share Posted June 20, 2009 Edit: Actually according to this Carson's "episodes that aired from 1962 and 1972, were erased to save on storage costs". And ARI states that she appeared on the show 1967. According to wikipedia, the first VTR (ancestor of the VCR) was out in 1965, so someone might have saved it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrs Posted June 20, 2009 Report Share Posted June 20, 2009 Donahue seemed to change and become much more favorable to her as the interview progressed. I learned two things from the interview: 1. She explained why she refuses to answer certain kinds of questions: Because the questioner is gratuitously insulting her and she refuses to sanction that kind of behavior. 2. She clarified why she would not support a woman as commander-in-chief of the armed forces: Because of the nature of female sexuality, a woman could not be happy ruling over all the men with whom she associates. So a woman who would accept such a position would have to be self-sacrificing, thus immoral, thus unworthy to be a leader. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ctrl y Posted June 20, 2009 Report Share Posted June 20, 2009 The stupidity of Donahue makes me cringe. It's seems like when he doesnt understand something he tries to speak over and get in Rand's face to intimidate her into compromising, but gets frustrated when it doesn't work. I am sure it was just theatrics. Donahue comically exaggerated all of his responses to everyone. In any event, his style made Rand look better. If you had never heard of Ayn Rand before, which would impress you more: a Rand who was able to answer all of a friendly interviewer's questions, or a Rand who made it through an extremely aggressive interview? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Patroller Posted June 20, 2009 Report Share Posted June 20, 2009 Which 1979 show? How many times was she on Donahue? According to IMDB she was on twice, once in 1979 and another time in 1980. Could be the 1980 one, they were so close together Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthem2112 Posted June 20, 2009 Report Share Posted June 20, 2009 Could be the 1980 one, they were so close together When she was wearing the orange dress was in 1979. She was wearing a blue dress on the 1980 show. Anthem2112 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Patroller Posted June 20, 2009 Report Share Posted June 20, 2009 When she was wearing the orange dress was in 1979. She was wearing a blue dress on the 1980 show. Anthem2112 Yes, a dark blue Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whYNOT Posted June 23, 2009 Report Share Posted June 23, 2009 This was a real pleasure to view. Thank you. I think Donahue did a good job; he had apparently researched his subject pretty well, and posed just enough of a challenge to Ayn Rand to elicit her interest and intensity. Admittedly I haven't seen all of it yet, as I've got limited bandwidth, but it does seem as if he put himself up as a benevolent strawman. [interesting, as I was watching this, I had Oprah on in the background, and couldn't help thinking how Rand would have handled her. The Queen of Liberalism and Spiritualism and her adoring audience would have gone into a permanent state of shock!] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheEgoist Posted June 23, 2009 Report Share Posted June 23, 2009 Regarding the Carson interviews, they're in Objectively Speaking and they're really quite good. Carson and Rand had quite the report together, it seems. He seemed much more respectful throughout than Donahue does here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kate87 Posted November 17, 2012 Report Share Posted November 17, 2012 Not sure if this has been posted before on another thread, but here is the Carson interview - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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