Gibson awarded the "Nitwit of the Week" to students and faculty at Boston College who opposed honoring Rice
Introducing a new segment on Fox News' The Big Story, host John Gibson awarded the "Nitwit of the Week" to students and professors of Boston College (BC) who planned to protest Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who on May 22 delivered the commencement address and received an honorary degree from the college.
Introducing a new segment on the May 19 edition of Fox News' The Big Story, host John Gibson awarded the "Nitwit of the Week" to students and professors of Boston College (BC) who planned to protest Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's commencement address there on May 22. Rice also received an honorary degree from the college. Gibson, whose comments were made prior to the graduation ceremony, claimed that "their values seem to be intolerance, closed-mindedness, and the cocksuredness of youth that allows a college student to pass high-minded judgment on a secretary of state." In fact, while Gibson highlighted Rice's role in the war in Afghanistan and the crisis in Darfur, the BC professors who organized the protest -- theology professor David Hollenbach and Theology Department chairman Kenneth Himes -- made clear in a letter that they, and the students and faculty who subsequently joined them, opposed Rice's participation in the commencement at BC because they said that she has embraced two specific positions they believe violate Catholic teaching and Jesuit tradition: the view that "U.S. foreign policy should be based [exclusively] on U.S. national interest" and "the strategic policies that have guided the United States in the tragic war in Iraq."
As Reuters reported on May 18, the BC protesters "say her support for the Iraq war contradicts Catholic teaching." It also appears to run counter to the view of a majority of Americans who oppose the war in Iraq. But rather than explain that the protestors specifically cited Rice's role in the Iraq war and what they said was her view that U.S. foreign policy should be based entirely on U.S. interests, Gibson instead highlighted Rice's role in the widely supported war in Afghanistan and the current crisis in Darfur:
GIBSON: Condoleezza Rice helped free more women in Afghanistan and Iraq than anybody has ever freed in the history of man. She is playing a major role in a solution to the war in Darfur. Condi Rice doesn't represent their values. I should say not, since their values seem to be intolerance, closed-mindedness, and the cocksuredness of youth that allows a college student to pass high-minded judgment on a secretary of state.
Hollenbach stated that 223 of Boston College's roughly 1,000 faculty members signed his petition objecting to Rice's commencement address. According to a New York Times article, "Several hundred graduating students wore white armbands with a circle with a red line through the word 'war,' and many hoisted signs that said 'no honorary degree.' "
From the May 19 edition of Fox News' The Big Story with John Gibson:
GIBSON: Now it's time for "My Word."
It's Friday, and we are instituting a new service here on The Big Story. We are looking for the person or persons deserving special attention as our "Nitwit of the Week."
Monday, Boston College will have its commencement, and graduates will gather to hear an address from Dr. Condoleezza Rice, the United States secretary of state. She is arguably the highest-ranking African-American woman in the three centuries or so that African-American women have been present here. She is the secretary of state of the most powerful nation on earth. She is discussed regularly as a candidate to be president of the United States.
Yet, 200 or so students at Boston College, along with some professors, will be protesting her presence at the college, protesting especially the school conferring upon her an honorary degree. Why? The students say they object to her presence because she doesn't represent their values. An adjunct professor and part-time novelist named Steve Almond actually quit over her appearance, saying in his resignation letter that he and others object to her because she is a liar. As far as the professor goes, I spoke to him on my radio show until he hung up on me, and the college should consider his resignation good riddance.
When it comes to the students, we have to consider some facts. These are students whose parents have paid upwards of $1,000 a week for them to be in school. They have lived protected and sheltered lives. They didn't suffer an attack on 9-11. They haven't fought the wars that followed. They have virtually no experience in life except for what happened before they left home and what happened when the college professors got hold of them.
Condoleezza Rice helped free more women in Afghanistan and Iraq than anybody has ever freed in the history of man. She is playing a major role in a solution to the war in Darfur. Condi Rice doesn't represent their values. I should say not, since their values seem to be intolerance, closed-mindedness, and the cocksuredness of youth that allows a college student to pass high-minded judgment on a secretary of state.
"Nitwits of the Week" goes to the students and professors of Boston College who will protest Condi Rice on Monday when they should be listening attentively and thinking. They might want to try it sometime -- listening and thinking certainly can't hurt. That's "My Word."
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"Nitwit of the Week"? Sounds like a cheap ripoff of Olbermann's "Worst Person in the World" to me.
how very 3rd grade of John...LOL!
Grrrr...! I'm with Gibson...no dissenting views on my OWN land should be allowed! and, really...'nitwits of the week...' that's weak..
When it comes to wars, college students are always wrong and Secretaries of State are always right, right? *cough*kissinger*cough*
Yes and Secretaries of State are always open-minded as opposed to cocksure college students.
That was a basic theme common to Condi, McCain and Gibson's remarks.
My favorite line from Condoleeza's address was:
“There is nothing wrong with holding an opinion and holding it passionately,” Rice said, “but at those times when you are absolutely sure you’re right, go find someone who disagrees.”
I am sure Condi took her own advice when it came to WMD in Iraq.
This is the most group think oriented administration in history and they are lecturing college students about open-mindedness? Gibson, McCain AND Condi are seemingly oblivious to the irony.
Given Gibson's reign over the nitwit pack, as nitwit in chief who ranks as one of the principle nitwits of this short century and a portion of the last, his awarding the thinking people of BC who show more brains than Gibson could muster in 3 lifetimes, with his nitwit of the week award is at best, very weak. Hey John! guess what? BC is right and your wrong! Again.
high school antics
College students, especially those who know enough to protest, are much more aware of the world than this nitwit. Doesn't he understand that always assuming authority is correct is the worst thing you can do in a democracy?
I'll bet every one of the protesting students knows more about the world and Condi than Gibson.
[quote]When it comes to the students, we have to consider some facts. These are students whose parents have paid upwards of $1,000 a week for them to be in school. They have lived protected and sheltered lives. They didn't suffer an attack on 9-11. They haven't fought the wars that followed. They have virtually no experience in life except for what happened before they left home and what happened when the college professors got hold of them.[/quote]
Gee, that sounds like almost every single person in the Bush administration.
Nailed them to the freakin' wall!
Freedom of Speech was still protected in the Constitution and these professors and students have every right to protest the graduation. After all it is their graduation not the Ms. Rice's.
All I gotta say is: "Go B.C.!!!!!"
You LIED.
Who has liberated many Iraqi women and children from their lives.
along with Gibson, I about fell out of my comfy computer seat when Tony Snow in reply to a question replied - A competing network - was he thinking he was still working for Faux or does he know they are working for the White House? As for Gibson- I'm sure the BC student body and faculty have more knowledge about world affairs in their little toes than gibson's entire brain.
Gibson's academic background ?
looked for his bio and found nothing about his educational background, leading me to believe he would not be positively ranked by a review of peers, other than those paid byand at FOX.
If wealth and privilege are barriers to knowledge about the world and how it works...
WHY THE HECK ARE THOSE PEOPLE RUNNING THE GOVERNMENT???
Give me a break. Talk about hypocrisy.
they just thought condi helped sell a bogus war?
Gibson should just declare himself the winner of the "Nitwit" award every day. He's got a lock on it.
And I see the cons "revisionist" history is catching on:
GIBSON: Condoleezza Rice helped free more women in Afghanistan and Iraq than anybody has ever freed in the history of man.
Taken at face value, it sounds as if he is claiming she has freed more women and children than anyone else, ever. I'm sure Eisenhower would disagree, considering he oversaw the liberation of most of Europe, freeing many more millions of women and children from Nazism than are in Afghanistan and Iraq combined.
However, upon critical review of the statement, he is in fact saying that Condi freed more women in children in Afghanistan and Iraq than anyone else who freed women and children in those countries during all of history.
And that may in fact be true; but his wording implies a completely different take on it.
when you you say, " . . . the cocksuredness of youth that allows a college student to pass high-minded judgement on a secretary of state" . . . aren't YOU doing the same to the students?
Its bad enough no one is allowed to question "Dear Leader." But has the constitutional right of free speech and right of peaceful protest been eroded to the point we can't even criticize NONELECTED APPOINTEES?!
"They didn't suffer an attack on 9-11." That is such bullsh*t . . . AMERICA suffered an attack on 9-11 . . . what in hell gives YOU the right to decide who can and cannot speak up on the basis of who has and hasn't suffered?
Oh BTW . . . I looked up Johnny's bio in Wikipedia . . . all it mentions is that he was born in 1946 and is a graduate of UCLA . . . so when he talks of students living sheltered lives and having no experience of the world before college, he's talking about . . himself. And though he's old enough to have served in Vietnam, no military service is mentioned, so I'm willing to bet he's another chickenhawk who talks the talk of "fighting the wars that followed," but didn't walk the walk . . .
Big Story. My Word. Gibson and his writing staff must be a bunch of geniuses to come up with something so "original." Now Nitwit of the Week. Just another opportunity to bash anyone that doesn't fit into conservative idiot agenda.
"Condoleezza Rice helped free more women in Afghanistan and Iraq than anybody has ever freed in the history of man."
Try and resist sickness when that is heard. I found it difficult.
"They have lived protected and sheltered lives. They didn't suffer an attack on 9-11. They haven't fought the wars that followed."
Wait, so now you don't as being attacked on 9-11 if you happened to be a US citizen on that day? Will Gibson no longer say "We were attacked..." in reference to 9-11?
He pressumes those that protest did not serve. I know personally of Iraq police action veterans that would disagree (sorry, I can't call it a war if you defeated the country 3 years ago), as they got out, attended college and protested the administration's actions.
As for helping free more women than anyone in history. Right. She was NSA advisor to the president? So by failing in that role, Al Qaida attacked us prompting the US and NATO into a war with the Taliban thus freeing (well, changing leadership of the drug lords) all those people. Further failure by Condi (if we pressume she was not lying about WMD's) led to US invasion of Iraq leading to a toppeling of Saddam and deaths of tens of thousands of our good friends and allies the Iraqi people (who we continue to kill, but hey, free people are free to die, it's a beautiful thing). I guess Condi is guilty of pulling a Homer Simpson in Gibson's eyes. She failed twice, but people got freed.
To be honest, as a black woman, Condi has achieved alot. As a woman, Condi has achieved alot. As a person, Condi has achieved alot. She's not being protested because she's successful, black, female or a person. She's being protested due to being tied to an administration that lies as a matter of record and lying on that administration's behalf. Lies that lead to death, destruction and waste of national resources and political goodwill. Gibson wants to hint at any protest of Condi being racist in nature. It just ain't so.
First and foremost, this is a blatant ripoff from K.O.'s "worst person in the world". Hey, Keith must be doing something right to be "copied" from his rival network.
Second... I take offense to the suggestion that Condeliezza helped free more women in Iraq than in the history of man. Uh no, women had more freedom during Sadaam's reign. They had more government positions, had more access to colleges, had more freedom to practice whatever religion they wanted to. Now? Let's see, how many women in the government? College (if they have electricity)? And religion? Last I knew, you really don't want to be a Christian in Bagdad or any other region in Iraq, unless persecution is your thing.
So, John, maybe a little "education" would help you in your interpretation of the "history of man". I, for one, applaud these students, for not drinking the kool-aid, for standing up to the administration that is full of deceipt and lies.
JOHN GIBSON, NOW AND FOREVER, PERMANENT MEMBER FOR "NITWIT OF THE WEEK!"
I thought the only credentials Gibby had came from his on cameral jockstrap sniffing with Kato Kaelin during the televised embarrassment that was the OJ trial? He must have been the President of the Dolta Stigma Krappa house while on campus. He surely is lord god King Nitwit of the Me-toos!.
The propaganda continues. The problem is that those who listen to Gibson will not follow up to see what the objections were. They will just take his word for it that Rice was repre- senting some kind of feminist concern for the women of Afghanistan and Darfur. It worked in 2000 and in 2004. What can we do to stop this game beyond what you and organizations like this are attempting?
The majority of these students Gibson objects to are 18 to 22 years old. So what if they have lived "protected and sheltered" lives? Isn't that what we all want for our kids?
Well, obviously Gibson has room to talk about this. At that age he probably had already worked his way up from the mean streets to win a gold medal in boxing at the Olympics, then travelled the world working as a deckhand on a cargo ship, and spent two years fighting in Vietnam. I mean, he couldn't have been just another fat, weak, undersunned middle class nobody earning C's at UCLA, right?