Last week, Terry Gross interviewed William Ayers on Fresh Air on NPR - you can listen to the podcast here.
James Fallows and Dave Winer have completely opposite reactions to the interview. What do you think?
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Update by Dave Winer with which I agree.
Actually they're not completely opposite. Fallows says she did a very competent interview, and I don't disagree with that. The problem is that she prosecuted the Republican case against Ayers and Obama, which was an unfair. Read my follow-up today for more.
Once I read your update, I realized that. I agree. I especially agree with your update 100%.
ayers made some decent points, but he's much too fond of the "i'll only take responsibility for my actions if everyone else does, too" game. he's a smart fellow, but still none too eager to make any decisive statements on his participation with the WU. would he, i wonder, admit to practicing "terrorism" if (despite his good intentions, of course! :p) one of their bombs HAD crippled or killed someone? he put lives in danger with his actions, casualties or no casualties. and he seemed to forget that the interview was about him and not john mcCain (who surely has his own conscience to wrestle with).
gross did a decent job. with a figure as polarizing as ayers, is she not supposed to try to actually pin him down on anything? should she stay away from pointed questions altogether (which winer seemed to have a problem with)?
so i'm obviously more with fallows than winer on this. however, i did think the wrap-up was kind of silly. ayers had been evasive about the issue of 'coming clean' with the public over the WU bombing campaign throughout the interview. did she then expect him to suddenly 'fess up? rather lame, imo; and so i think winer had a point there.
my take.
mr. winer:
re: your update-- well said.