Comments on: Hitchens Debases Self

By: Jason Cherkis

Jason Cherkis — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:41:32 +0000

Lonnie:

Your points are pretty darn valid.And wow. Thanks for remembering my own cheap stint at standup. But I guess my main point was that reporter's subjecting themselves to waterboarding had been done to death. Hitchens--who I think is a great writer--didn't need to do it to make his point....

By: Lonnie Bruner

Lonnie Bruner — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:56:38 +0000

ps: Was it a "cheap stunt" when Jason Cherkis tried doing stand up comedy years ago to figure out what that was like?

By: Lonnie Bruner

Lonnie Bruner — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:54:17 +0000

1 - It's hardly a "cheap stunt". A cheap stunt would've been performing a meaningless act like eating worms on Fear Factor or going on an episode of Survivor. Despite the hundreds of journalists who've discussed waterboarding ad nauseum and the subject of whether it's really torture or not, Hitchens is the first --- and only --- journalist to actually come to an opinion on the issue by actually trying it himself. Maybe you don't think the issue of whether the US tortures people is important. I do, and I respect anyone who thinks it's important to come to a conclusion on important issues by direct experience. 2 - Making jokes about Hitchens' drinking is shooting fish in a barrel and you know it. I'd say that's about the only "cheap stunt" on this page. 3 - You obviously haven't read Vanity Fair too much. Its readership is far and wide, and not confined the "middle aged Lexus people" who are so deserving of your derision (anyway, who cares if this pseudo-demographic reads VF anyway. They're smart for sure). VF has been around since 1913 and covers a wide range of subjects. It's a well-respected publication --- much more so, than say, that stapled tabloid rag known as the Washington City Paper. Best, Lonnie Bruner

By: Katie

Katie — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:39:05 +0000

Okay everybody, I know it's fun to take cheap shots at ol' Hitch. But a lot of his fellow defenders of the Iraq war are still claiming it's not torture, and his experience should drive the point home to his fellow Fox news guests that no matter what anyone says, it's torture. Also, judging from the letters-to-the-editor Vanity Fair publishes, there are a fair amount of conservatives that still read VF, and Hitchens could do worse than to convince those types that torture is still going on.

I have to say though, Hitchens has been publicly subjecting himself to a lot of physical pain these days-- getting his body waxed, quitting smoking, now this. Paging Dr. Freud.

By: reid

reid — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:13:43 +0000

"I hope he got some extra dough or nice bottle of booze for this." What you failed to realize is that it wasn't water that they poured on him, it was cheap gin. So let's just say that for ol' Hitch, the experience was it's own reward.

By: Joshua

Joshua — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:12:13 +0000

So this was something he subjected himself to? Too bad there was so little advance notice - but I imagine the line would have stretched unmanageably around the block if he had put out an advert for waterboarders.

By: IntangibleArts

IntangibleArts — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 19:06:32 +0000

he looks a bit like auntie hillary in that shot, no?

By: Jason Cherkis

Jason Cherkis — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:45:53 +0000

zing

By: Michael J. West

Michael J. West — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:37:05 +0000

Well, this is an easy one. He fell for the cheap stunt because his towering intellect is ultimately dwarfed by his towering ego.