LARRY KING: On your blog you write, “Bush is going to declare war on China next, I swear.”
ROSEANNE BARR: I was so scared because I woke up and there was the Drudge, you know. I always read the Drudge Report and it said on there that the Chinese were like, you know, spying on our subs or doing something with our subs and I was like, “Oh no, he’s going to think that’s an act of war and then we’re going to go over there next.” I mean we’re everywhere. We’re everywhere.
KING: The Internet as a political medium viable?
BARR: Yes, it’s like the only one left, absolutely, and that’s not just me saying it. That’s everybody saying it.
KING: But there’s 80 billion things on it.
BARR: Yes, but if you know where to look, you know, it all can come together. When you’re looking for the particular information that you’re looking for after you do the big search, this is what I found out by going on there, it just takes your mind and then you live in there forever. You can never come out.
KING: I’ve never done it, never gone searching.
BARR: Oh, my God! It just opens up the whole universe. It’s so awesome. You would love it.
KING: No, I wouldn’t.
BARR: Anything you want to know.
KING: The wife loves it. I wouldn’t love it. What do you punch little buttons and things?
BARR: You just click on this thing. The thing is you got to be able to read, so you have to have strong glasses when you’ve over 50 and then you just scroll down and click. It’s not that hard. I can show you how to do it.
KING: No, thanks. —Larry King Admits He’s Never Used The Internet: ‘Do You Punch Little Buttons and Things?’ (Think Progress)
The little blue and green dots in the background of the set still look great, but henceforth I will trust Rosanne Barr’s opinion on politics more than I will trust Larry King’s. (Though that ain’t saying much.)
I don’t know whether he deserves more pity for his ignorance or more disgust for his arrogance.
I would say that the arrogance is born of being the sole proprietor, so to speak, on his own program for years without any dissenting views to consider. Meanwhile, the world has passed him by and now people form their opinions from a variety of media sources: “social intelligence” as the recent book of that name suggests is becoming more important as the internet “flattens” the world in some respects. People ignore public opinion at their own peril.