Jim Garrison's 1967 Nationally Televised Rebuttal to NBC
Posted: Fri Sep 05, 2008 4:49 pm
Ordinarily this kind of youtube link might get posted in the video only thread, but this is too damned good for that. All of you who own a paperback copy of On the Trail of the Assassins should turn to pages 192-200, specifically page 199 (if you have the same version I do, I'm not sure how many versions exist). I'll type it out for those who don't own the book:
"Within several days after NBC aired the program, I sent off a furious letter of complaint to the Federal Communications Commission. I requested equal time to reply personally to the network's rapacious attack on my office.
The FCC made NBC provide me with a half hour to reply to the hour long White Paper. Not exactly equal time, but all I needed. I made my reply live from the network's local affiliate, WDSU-TV, and it was broadcast across the country.
Afterwards, I felt I had communicated my message, but I was not left with a satisfied feeling. I kept asking myself, why had NBC worked so long and hard to tear our case apart? Indeed, to tear our office apart."
Here is that half hour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS0p3tyZUlQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cats9ANQtk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxybNe7XuGM
Watching it, I was overcome by a few things, emotionally and intellectually.
First, this human being was a fucking HERO. No hero is perfect, and heroes often lose. But heroes can and do exist. Jim Garrison was one of them. The courage, dignity, sincerity, eloquence, and optimism Garrison demonstrates in that rebuttal makes my eyes water with admiration and my heart beat stronger with hope.
Second, no matter what a filmmaker attempted, any movie portrayal of Garrison was destined to be a hollow tribute. The true power of unsexy unmusical reality invariably trumps its fictional dressing-up and choreography. The real Jim Garrison will always be better than a fake Jim Garrison now matter how glorified. Oliver Stone exponentially compounded the inherent trappings of fiction by being (if I'm generous) an ego-tripping auteur douchebag who fancied his bloated artistic vision as something more important than Garrison's authentic story.
Third, note that Garrison merely wrote a letter to the FCC asking them for equal time, and the FCC forced NBC to broadcast an uninterrupted uncensored rebuttal from Garrison on national television which lasted about a half hour. Watch the whole thing again if you need to, I insist. Pinch yourself. Note how mind-boggingly blunt and incisive Garrison's remarks are on the government, on the media, and on the assassination itself.
Fourth, keep in mind the repeated sabotage, harassment, and libels he and his office directly suffered -- underhanded attacks on his reputation that were launched wide open in public, physical attacks on his case that were material and sometimes deadly. Consider also the kind of directly confrontational libel still thrown his way decades later in the form of pseudo-journalism like the piece of shit book False Witness.
Fifth, and this is what enrages me right now, forgive me...How on fucking earth can a sane or honest person have the gall to claim that a virtually-omnipotent national security apparatus would bother with a so-subtle-as-to-barely-exist tactical advantage of using a television program's name to confuse the future synapses of a tiny subset of children about the mere surname Garrison...but yet at the same time would allow the real Garrison himself an uninterrupted half hour of unsupervised network television exposure to air the foulest of their dirty laundry in a most dignified and persuasive way? There ought never to be again another bullshit claim involving Garrison and keyword hijacking, not that there was ever a reason for one before. Jim Garrison's heroic soul SHITS IN THE MOUTH of the person who would make such a bullshit claim.
"Within several days after NBC aired the program, I sent off a furious letter of complaint to the Federal Communications Commission. I requested equal time to reply personally to the network's rapacious attack on my office.
The FCC made NBC provide me with a half hour to reply to the hour long White Paper. Not exactly equal time, but all I needed. I made my reply live from the network's local affiliate, WDSU-TV, and it was broadcast across the country.
Afterwards, I felt I had communicated my message, but I was not left with a satisfied feeling. I kept asking myself, why had NBC worked so long and hard to tear our case apart? Indeed, to tear our office apart."
Here is that half hour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS0p3tyZUlQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cats9ANQtk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxybNe7XuGM
Watching it, I was overcome by a few things, emotionally and intellectually.
First, this human being was a fucking HERO. No hero is perfect, and heroes often lose. But heroes can and do exist. Jim Garrison was one of them. The courage, dignity, sincerity, eloquence, and optimism Garrison demonstrates in that rebuttal makes my eyes water with admiration and my heart beat stronger with hope.
Second, no matter what a filmmaker attempted, any movie portrayal of Garrison was destined to be a hollow tribute. The true power of unsexy unmusical reality invariably trumps its fictional dressing-up and choreography. The real Jim Garrison will always be better than a fake Jim Garrison now matter how glorified. Oliver Stone exponentially compounded the inherent trappings of fiction by being (if I'm generous) an ego-tripping auteur douchebag who fancied his bloated artistic vision as something more important than Garrison's authentic story.
Third, note that Garrison merely wrote a letter to the FCC asking them for equal time, and the FCC forced NBC to broadcast an uninterrupted uncensored rebuttal from Garrison on national television which lasted about a half hour. Watch the whole thing again if you need to, I insist. Pinch yourself. Note how mind-boggingly blunt and incisive Garrison's remarks are on the government, on the media, and on the assassination itself.
Fourth, keep in mind the repeated sabotage, harassment, and libels he and his office directly suffered -- underhanded attacks on his reputation that were launched wide open in public, physical attacks on his case that were material and sometimes deadly. Consider also the kind of directly confrontational libel still thrown his way decades later in the form of pseudo-journalism like the piece of shit book False Witness.
Fifth, and this is what enrages me right now, forgive me...How on fucking earth can a sane or honest person have the gall to claim that a virtually-omnipotent national security apparatus would bother with a so-subtle-as-to-barely-exist tactical advantage of using a television program's name to confuse the future synapses of a tiny subset of children about the mere surname Garrison...but yet at the same time would allow the real Garrison himself an uninterrupted half hour of unsupervised network television exposure to air the foulest of their dirty laundry in a most dignified and persuasive way? There ought never to be again another bullshit claim involving Garrison and keyword hijacking, not that there was ever a reason for one before. Jim Garrison's heroic soul SHITS IN THE MOUTH of the person who would make such a bullshit claim.