Rachel Maddow just completed one of her patented epic takedown interviews. This one was with Richard Cohen author of Coming Out Stratight and Gay Children, Straight Parents. Cohens work is one inspiration for the proposed homosexual death penalty law in Uganda.
The segment has just wrapped up so there isn't video available yet. When it becomes available I will post it here if this thread takes off. The following impressions on the interview are strictly from the top of my head.
As soon as the interview commenced Cohen condemned the proposed Ugandan law, claiming that he was a proponent for tolerance and understanding of gay people. Maddow pointed to a section of Coming Out Straight in which Cohen quotes a debunked study claiming that most molestation of children by teachers is by gay teachers, that gays target children for recruitment and so on and so forth. Cohen promised to remove that section of his book when the 3rd edition is released, and acknowleged the faultiness of the study's. Score one for Maddow.
Maddow also asked Cohen to justify a quote from Gay Children Straight Parents in which Cohen lists a series of reasons on why children may be gay. Amongst those reasons were divorce, and race. Maddow asked how race could possibly be a factor and initially Cohen denied that was in the book. Maddow held the book up, read the page number and the list again at which point Cohen pleaded that she was reading out of context. Maddow read the preceding paragraph from the book, in which Cohen explains there are several reasons children may be gay etc etc... Cohen then challenged Maddow to read the passage following the list, and it had no pertinence to the question. Finally Cohen just came out and admitted that race has no influence on whether or not a child may be gay.
One of the most electric moments in the interview came when Maddow told Cohen that he had "blood on your hands" because his work was being used to justify the persecution of gays. It was just riveting.
The overall interview was a masterpiece by Maddow. She was completely civil as always. I remarked to my wife following the interview that they both probably got what they wanted. Cohen was able to throw in several gratuitous plugs for his work, and Maddow was able to dismantle him live on her show.
I know I've missed several very important moments of the interview which I'll wish I had remembered as I bashed out this diary, so please leave your impressions of the interview in the comments and I'll update as appropriate.
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Update: Heres a link to the MSNBC video. I'm getting html errors when I try to embed it here.
Update II: Thanks to SuperbowlXX for the embed code on the following video:
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