Come back anytime

Well, we already know that Dennis Miller has to pay people to be part of his studio audience. But he sunk to new lows this week in his treatment of Eric Alterman. On Alterman's blog, he tells his story of being on Miller's show.

Anyway, what was so weird about it was how professional it seemed until I finally sat down with Miller.  It was set up long in advance by the book’s publicists.  The car came on time.  In my dressing room, which was pretty elaborate as such things go, I met with a series of staff members who informed me that Dennis would be wanting to discuss topics such as George Soros and the funding of 527s; whether Bush was exploiting the 9/11 families, and I forget what else, just like a real talk show.  Then I go out there and what?  I’m talking to a stoned teenager, who can’t be bothered to say more than, “Whoh, man, you are so totally screwed up.  Like, you really believe that stuff, dude?”  I paraphrase, but really, Dennis did not say much more than that.  Everyone on staff was extremely apologetic afterward and the word “unprofessional” was used over and over.

I try to avoid most of these guys, though I’ve been on O’Reilly, and Scarborough and Michael Medved’s silly radio program a couple of times but never have I encountered a guy who could not be bothered to make his own case on his own show.  Really, what can CNBC be thinking with this guy?...

Some guy provided an excerpt of the appearance in QuickTime form, but I don't know how long it will be available, so I transcribed some of the more interesting parts. (If you're a close, personal friend and want the QuickTime file, I'll send it to you.)

Alterman: ...I'm not here working for Dean. He can defend himself. I don't believe [Bush knew about 9/11 beforehand].
Miller: Alright, what are you here to talk about? [paid audience laughs]
Alterman: They didn't tell me...
Miller: I'm so pissed off, I don't even know what to say! You're looking at me like, you're just sitting here like, [does exaggerated impression of Alterman] Give me a question, and I'll ask you a question! What do you want to talk about?

First, what talentless hack asks his guest to come up with questions to ask? A good interviewer has plenty of questions ready. Second, Miller's whiny outburst was totally unprovoked -- the tone of the interview leading up to "What are you here to talk about?" was very matter-of-fact with no raised voices. As far as I can tell, the only reason for Miller getting pissed off was because he disagreed with Alterman -- a poor justification.

Anyways, Alterman comes up with a question that Miller can ask him, and then answers it for several minutes, with a couple of Miller questions in between. Then near the end of the interview, Miller starts to interrupt (his justification is "I've been letting you talk so much"), and we get this:

Alterman: ...I'll just finish this thought.
Miller: Let's finish this [expletive] segment.

And at the very end, Miller has the gall to say,

Miller: Alright, you've been great. Come back anytime.

Now I know who Jay Mohr's conservative commentator caricature on the West Wing comes from! After all, you can be as rude as you like during the interview, as long as you say "You've been great. Come back anytime."

Dumbfuck.