Medved’s assistant expresses himself

This in from Dan Sytman, spokesman for Michael Medved, continuing the exchange of views he and I had last week. Sytman’s message speaks for itself and requires no further comment from me, or, indeed, even allows the possibility of an answer, any more than, say, an attack by Justin Raimondo (to whose writing style Sytman’s bears a certain resemblance), would require or deserve an answer. However, to grasp Sytman’s statements in context, one should definitely read the previous exchange between us. The only question of interest is whether Medved, a prominent and respected figure in the conservative movement, ok’d this e-mail from his spokesman. (For anyone who’s interested, the complete sequence of my recent posts on Medved are here and here and here and here and here.)

Lawrence,

Thank you for acknowledging your ignorance about Michael’s actual views. You may assume—or wish—that Michael Medved meant whatever your twisted mind desires that he meant when he recognized the “heroic violence of brave men and women with guns, fighting selflessly for their country.” But it doesn’t change the fact that Michael has spoken many, many times on the national airwaves about why he opposes women in combat. Your paranoid delusions on a blog that very view people actually read (I assume this since you don’t allow people to view your web statistics) doesn’t change the actual, verifiable truth.

I realize that you may not have the capacity to understand this, but briefly acknowledging—in some comments about the war on terror—that women are, in fact, serving and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan is not as you say, “an extravagant statement” in favor of women in combat, but rather a simple and obvious statement of fact. Now you might have preferred that while Michael was thanking the troops that he rudely refuse to acknowledge female soldiers. That’s probably because you’re a knuckle-dragging nincompoop—a pathetic shut-in with a lame blog, while Michael Medved is hosting a nationally syndicated radio show, penning well-read books and writing in national publications like USA Today.

On a final note, please call into the show sometime soon—maybe even this Thursday @ 5pm ET—to test your rather unimpressive rhetorical skills. The number is 1-800-955-1776. I’ll put you right through. I’ll eagerly await your call—but don’t worry, I won’t hold by breath.

Love and Kisses,

Dan Sytman
Michael Medved Show
culturalcrusader@aol.com

A reader comments:

Sytman’s been caught with his boss’s pants down, for this is clearly in the vein of “actions speak louder than words,” the action being a speech where Medved had no need to refer to the gender of our soldiers, but made a special point of doing so, undermining all his previous pro forma statements to the contrary. Sytman’s message is entirely in keeping with the atmosphere of the show he works for, where there is only one right answer and anything else is held up to ridicule. If you happen to take him up on his invitation to call, a prediction: if you’re making headway, Medved will launch into a lengthy monologue, almost forgetting you’d called, and then go to a commercial break—a technique perfected by Rush Limbaugh (“we don’t cut people off”). You’ve got his goat (Sytman), and all the rest strikes me as posturing.

I replied:

Thanks. I like your description of Medved’s m.o. But I don’t have the remotest thought of calling that show, given Sytman’s statements to me above.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 06, 2005 05:39 PM | Send