July 29, 2004
Ben Affleck on the Bill of Rights
I meant to publish this a couple of days ago, but since I've been busy with work and school, I simply made some quick notes on an index card, which I'm posting here now.
On Tuesday of this week, while wrapping up some work and getting ready to head out to my night class, I had the TV in the background tuned to the Fox News Channel, and was about to turn it off, since the segment that was starting to air was that of Bill O'Reilly, a rude, populist jerk whom I can't stand, broadcasting from the Democratic national convention in Boston. I decided to leave the tuner alone and watch a very short segment (1701-1710 Pacific time) of an impromptu, live interview with Ben Affleck, who was attending the convention.
Unscripted, Affleck actually acquitted himself well; he's not quite the empty shell the press makes him out to be. I was particularly interested to hear him make the following assertion, when questioned by O'Reilly about his political leanings, after calling himself a "moderate liberal" and emphasizing that he doesn't necessarily hew to a party line:
I believe in all the Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment.
That's a direct quote from Ben Affleck, which I'm preserving here, without editorially correcting "all the" to read "all of the." I'm not sure why I'm preserving this, but it's not inconceivable that the guy might run for some public office eventually, as his career (continues to) wane.
Posted by Russell Whitaker at July 29, 2004 11:33 AM | TrackBack