8 years ago: There are many copies

September 20, 2005, here on slacktivist: There are many copies

If I were a producer on, say, Hardball, I’d get a hold of one of those old Groucho-duck puppets from You Bet Your Life. Whenever a guest started repeating the same, exact line from “D.C. Talkers” that the previous guest used, the duck would drop down from the ceiling in a rain of confetti, holding a sign reading “The Blame-Game” (or whatever that day’s particular magic words happened to be). Chris Matthews would then push the button (I’d have installed one of those giant red prop-buttons on his desk) and the guest’s chair would whoosh out of the studio (oh, and I’d also have installed one of those Broadway-style automated set-change track systems).

Maybe that’s a little too elaborate, but I bet ratings would go up. And it’d beat the current practice at Hardball — responding to blatant media manipulation with a hearty “Thank you, sir. May I have another?”