Correspondence

I wrote an email to Martha Zoller after she said on Lou Dobbs this week of Stephen Colbert's Correspondents Dinner Speech, "What came to mind after seeing 'United 93' this weekend is 9/11 was a Tuesday, so that was -- and he probably didn't even think about that, but for me, having lost friends in the World Trade Towers that was the first thing I thought of."

She commenting on a segment that Lou played where Colbert said, "The greatest thing about this man is he's steady. You know where he stands. He believes the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday. Events can change, this man's beliefs never will."

I wrote to her, "Criticizing Stephen Colbert for saying the word Tuesday because of your 9/11 sensitivities is completely disingenuous. You know full well that he wasn't invoking 9/11 in any way. This just shows a level of political correctness that is often the hypocrisy of the Right."

She responded, "I think if you read the whole quote you would see that I was saying how I felt about the comment and I said I am sure he did not intend it that way. But I will never apologize for remembering 9/11. Thanks for taking the time to write but if you look at the whole quote, I think you will see what I mean. If you don't that's fine, that why we have free speech."

I wrote back once more, "I appreciate that you've taken the time to respond. I don't believe you should ever forget 9/11. However you choose to qualify it, the intent was to equate Mr. Colbert with a 9/11 apologist, the implication being that you are more patriotic for remembering 9/11, Mr. Colbert less so for criticizing the President. You are correct, we do have free speech, and sometimes it comes in the form of embarrassing satire."

She has yet to write me back, but I wanted to expand a bit, perhaps narcassitically.

After watching the video again, its obvious to me that her invoking of 9/11 was a pure non sequitor and meant to do exactly what I've described above. She in no way attempted to address the content of Colbert's remarks, but rather hid under the typical 9/11 umbrella as her defense against free thought and open criticism. A radio talk show host who is trained to speak in sound bites should realize that they are said out of context as often as they are taken out of context.