Well... this is quite an interesting / infuriating read. I think the writer is going to quickly realize he shouldn't have put his email address at the end of the article...

Why we should boycott Conan
Richmond Register - 9/2/06
By Don McNay


"Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again."
- The Who

The Concert for New York took place after Sept. 11, 2001. It was a time of mourning. Most of the performers chose to play softer songs that reflected sorrow.

Then The Who came on the stage. They played a defiant set that included "Baba O Riley" and "We Won't Get Fooled Again."

It struck a deep emotion with the audience. It was time to get up and fight.

The situation on Sept. 11 was different than the airplane crash in Lexington last week. Sept. 11 was a deliberate terrorist attack. The crash in Lexington was an accident.

Still, each city lost lives and felt a total sense of loss.
In a city the size of Lexington, 49 deaths is a big number. Other Kentucky cities lost prominent members of their community. The five passengers tied to London, Ky., seemed to know everyone in that city.

I have yet to find a person in Central Kentucky who did not have a connection to someone on that plane. I knew several passengers or their families.

A step in grieving is anger. I am there.

I'm not angry at the airport, airline, pilots, controller or anyone who caused the Lexington crash. Things went wrong, but no one did them maliciously.

My anger is at Conan O'Brien.

He inflicted pain on grieving people.

I was watching the Lexington NBC affiliate when it cut from its extraordinary coverage of the plane crash to the opening of the Emmy awards ceremony.

On the same day as the most destructive airplane fatality in recent history, Conan decided to do a "comedy" skit about an airplane crash.

It wasn't funny, but that is not unusual. O'Brien has never been funny. The Emmy awards were not his day to start.

The air crash was news hours before the Emmys were shown. It gave Conan time to take his stupid stunt out of the show.

What was funny to Conan was not funny to the rest of the world. At least it was not funny to the people of Kentucky.

I did not catch more of his "act," but why would I? From where Conan was going, he might have been compelled to throw in jokes about child p ornography or mass murder.

What happened to the Emmys anyway? They were being conducted in August, when few people watch television and hosted by O'Brien instead of a star such as Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, who is actually relevant.

To his credit, the general manager of the Lexington NBC station made national headlines by expressing his outrage about the "skit." He demanded an apology.

He recognized Conan's insensitivity, but he did not take the step he needed to take -- yank Conan's show off his station.

He could dump Conan and not lose money. Conan comes on after most people are in bed. If they replaced Conan with re-runs of "Lost In Space" or infomercials, they would keep the same number of viewers.

Given the choice between Conan and Christie Brinkley, I would take Christie any day. I would also take Chuck Norris and the guy who sells Ginsu knives.

I don't think of Chuck or the knife guy as sensitive, but they would not insult a city and state that are going through h ell.

Average citizens need to call for Conan's head. I'm not counting on the FCC to do anything. The FCC is not interested unless it involves sex or Janet Jackson.

There are many things people can do. Call or write the Lexington station. Call or write NBC. Call or write Conan. Boycott any advertiser who advertises on Conan. I am going to do all of the above.

Kentucky is in a state of mourning, but it also should be defiant. Someday, in some other place, there will be another airline crash. If Conan is made to atone, some unfunny funnyman will think twice about rubbing salt in the wounds of the grieving.

By standing up to Conan, we are saying "We won't be fooled again."


Don McNay is chairman of the board of McNay Settlement Group and didn't want to be fooled the first time. You can write to him at don@donmcnay.com or read other things he has written at www.donmcnay.com. His award-winning column is syndicated on the CNHI News Service. He is on the board of directors for the National Society of Newspaper Columnists.

Actually it's anger about the loss, not anger at a host of a TV show who is completely irrelevant to the issue.

I'm pretty sure that's called a slippery slope argument. i.e. It's in complete opposition to a sound, LOGICAL argument.

Perhaps this guy should complain about an issue that is "actually relevant".

I'm not seeing the logic behind that, but then again there's no hint of logic in this article.

I agree that not everyone thinks Conan is funny. But I think whoever is in charge of appointing spokespeople for the world should be fired.

And I bet it's partly because the closest he'll ever get to a woman is through a plasma screen.

Chuck Norris and infomercials are also pre-taped (as was the Emmy sketch), and Walker Texas Ranger, much like a comedy bit, is fictional. You can't justify saying something that aired on an episode of Walker Texas Ranger was in any way intended to be related or should be linked to something that happened in the world the day the episode aired. Much like you can't justify saying that about the Emmy sketch, especially when it was clearly a spoof on "Lost" and not complete randomness.

I'm sure there are 1 or 2 other people out there who'd agree that is a good way to spend one's time.
I think more people could get behind a "Why Don McNay should not be on the board of directors for the National Society of Newspaper Columnists" campaign.

That doesn't even make sense, but that's not surprising since nothing else in this article did.

Again, that's a little scary considering how illogical this article was.

Yeah, this has to be major repressed/displaced anger about something Conan did a LONG time ago. An article like this cannot be sparked by that Emmy sketch alone! It's so immature/weird to start a whole campaign to protest a comedian just because you don't like his humor though. wtf? Just change the channel.

I wish I was actually good with Photoshop at times like these, but this is the best I could make as a loving tribute to dear old Don. I think maybe I should email it to him.



(from http://www.donmcnay.com/content/view/29/37/ )

I cant even begin to express what an idiot this man is.
The point was made somewhere else that this man is not annoyed with the people in charge at the airtraffic control who allowed only one controller to work after 2 hours sleep! They didnt do it maliciously but it certainly was at least part of the cause. Im sure the families he has talked to who are actually involved not this self appointed white knight and champion of the people who has found people who are connected to the crash, but doesnt seem to have any involvement himself apart from the fact that he seems to enjoy sticking his nose where it really doesnt belong.
Should this man not direct his outrage at people who caused the crash instead of going on some kind of self appointed holy crusade against a popular talk show host who pretaped a send up of a popular tvshow.
Does he actually think that people are going to listen to his idiotic arguments that is completely lacking in logic.
I take personal issue with this line:

Does he really think that on that day specifically Conan sat down with his writers and decided to write and record that sketch to maliciously poke fun at the families that day? Really?
Or does the idea of people being able to pretape thingsand then air them later just not compute through his neanderthal skull.
Also he says that Conan is the one who decided to put this on air. Does really think Conan wields that much power that he does have to do exactly what the network execs say?
If thats what he does believe then why is Conan so unpopular? I wouldnt think someone who is as "unfunny" and "unpopular" as Conan seems to be would be able to decide what went on air.
Also I would like to point out that Conan is not a one man show making machine, so to direct your entire tirade against one man is foolish. He has a team of writers, so why is Conan the only one to blame? Not that I see this as a situation to blame anyone.
Yes I agree that the timing was unfortunate, but I highly doubt it was malicious. The team at Late Night are not like that. It was a joke about Lost. Does this man watch no tv at all?
This "controversy" even managed to make the news in Ireland. I showed the actual clip to my parents and they were shocked. Their exact words were "thats what all the fuss was about!?" They couldnt believe people had kicked up such a fuss over something so trivial! Neither can I.
Fine everyone has the right to an opinion. Im not saying you arent aloud to be outraged but he chose the most arbitrary thing to be outraged at! Is this really the best thing you could find to scream blue murder about? Never mind the controller who turned his back on the plane, or the person who said he should work alone after only 2 hours sleep. Lets have a childish tantrum about a pretaped segment, by a well known comedian, that is obviously just a joke about LOST! Yeah thats who we should take out all our anger on!!!!
I'm suprised this man even uses a computer. I would think he would be scared that the little elves who carry the internets might run off with his thoughts!
Oh and on the Jon Stewart point, Conan gets higher ratings than Stewart so he is better known so that argument holds absolutely no weight. Yet another obvious lack of logic.
So to that man please go. Read. Anything! When you have a logical and sensible argument I would be more than willing to listen but at the moment you are acting like a spoilt child throwing a tantrum, calling for the head of an innocent man on a spike. Grow a spine and get a life. Noone is boycotting Conan over a pretaped segment, and if that is the way you argue I highly doubt Conan will lose much sleep over losign your viewership. I doubt he'll even notice 1 person in 2.5 million disappearing.
Dont worry you're really not that important!

Im sorry I may have gone a little overboard there but that man is really an idiot!

Oh 1 final point, had this "journalist" actually watched the rest of the opening sketch instead of switching off it off and forming an uninformed decision, an extremely irresponsible thing for a journalist to do, he may have actually understood the context of the scene on the plane and he would not have been so furious.
This is an example irresponsicle journalism and if we use the same logic, if you can call it that, that he used to judge Conan then this is very good basis to boycott his writing and ask for his resignation.

Agreed, if his argument showed any signs of being rational rather than just an ignorant pile of slander, I might not think he was such a darsh.

Don't journalists have a code of ethics? Yes, they do: http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp.

I think Don needs a copy since "seeking truth and providing a fair and comprehensive account of events and issues" is clearly something he's failing to do (and that's only from the preamble).

Wow, this guy really is an idiot. I already sent him e-mail, hopefully he'll get a couple of millions of angry messages.

I agree!!! This man is an idiot! The skit was just a parody about Lost and if he had been bothered to watch the whole skit he would have noticed that it is a parody about popular TV shows. What an idiot!!! And Conan and the other writes had been planning the skit ages before the crash. It's not only up to Conan to decide what they are going to show on the Emmys. I hate that man! He could do some research first!
And this was the first time I even heard about the crash! And he says that the accident was "the most destructive airplane fatality in recent history"! I think it is horrible if an airplane crashes. And it's okey to mourn. But why is this man randomly blaming people who have nothing to do with this crash like Conan!?!
I'm going to send him some very angry letters!

He is what I would call a journalistic hack!!!! I just left a comment on that site and later Im going to put my post above in an email to him. I just need to change the tense to refer to him personally!
JACKASS!!!!

I already sent him an angry letter!

I just finished my email. Sending it now. I swear that man is an idiot of the highest order!
Seriously!

I never trust the media. That can sound really crackpottish, but this is a prime example of something that get world coverage, meanwhile we have real issue like the war, blaten rasism and classism in New Orleans, and an incompetent presidency but this is the Bull that gets covered. The media is only out for ratings. Watch PBS and listen to NPR they are the only people who have any shred of integrety. That man who write that article needs to be shot in the head execution style. Okay maybe I went a little over board, but you know where I;m coming from.

Is it wrong that I agree with the shooting? Nah I just think he shouldnt be aloud to write if thats the way he writes. I atleast get some sort of fair news in Ireland but while in NY I watched The Daily Show and The Colbert Report for news. At least it makes me smile!

why are people this stupid even allowed to write columns for the public?
i sent him my angry letter too

I have NO idea!!!!! Its idiotic at best!
But if we use his logic his complete idiocy is fair basis for his head on a aspike!

I think we should write maybe not an angry letter, maybe just a letter stating our thoughts and feelings. (Or at least the ones who want to participate) Let's use freedom of speech and the press to its advantage. We should make our own newspaper about Conan full of rebuttals because we all know if Conan and/or NBC say anything about the Kentucky incident, it will be regrets, all apologies ( Hey! That's a Nirvana song! Whoo hoo! yay Nirvana! anyways...) It's more than being apologetic, it's unfairness. Let's say something about it outside these boards. And boycotting Conan will only bring more negative attention to those people who are hurt from or devestated by the crash.

I just want to send the dude this book: http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Logic-H...TF8&s=books
or something similar and tell him to read that and his code of ethics before writing another article.

Oh if I knew where to send it I most definitly would! How much are you betting he wont reply to any of our emails! I wrote him an entire essay! lol

Okay, I just noticed that in my first fury it was me who hoped he would get many angry letters. Well, I think he deserves every email from the calm ones to the most furious ones.

I agree with that, I sent him quite an restrained email. He replied, I think it's okay if I put the letter here:


Thank you for writing. I was very hard on him and perhaps too hard. I wrote the column the same day that I saw the program.

I still think it would have been easy to have pull the skit or least give some warning to the local television station. The local station manager called for an apology from NBC and received it.

Although I don?t watch Conan on a regular basis, many people must. I have had an incredible number of emails about the column. Most are very angry with me only a few agreeing with my call for boycott.

I think Conan is safe. He may have lost fans in Kentucky but he obviously has them around the world.

Thank you again for writing.

Don


Well, at least he admits to being very hard on Conan. He should do that in his next column, too.

Gee, if ya would've researched it like a responsible professional journalist, maybe you'd know Conan has ~2.5 million viewers a night in the US. @ss.


I'm surprised Don emailed you back. Now I might have to email him... mwahahaha! But I think I want to complain more about him writing a fallacy-laden argument than about the actual topic.

This guy is clearly misplacing his anger and is caught up in his emotions so much that he can't even make a logical and credible argument through journalism.

What a joke.

That's a good idea!


And he hasn't replied to my email yet!

i got the same reply as suomikettu!!! the guy's an idiot.

LMAO. Don't you love copy/paste? Chances are he got so many d amn emails he can't possibly read all of them anyway.

D.amn then I highly doubt that he read my two page long outraged essay. It's basically the same as my posts up here though slightly altered. I took out most of the personal insults... as many as I felt I could lose. Im going to see has he replied yet. Hmmm mwhats the bets I get the exact same thing if anything at all!! This man is an idiot and should atleast write a public retraction!

Yup I got the exact same response.
So glad to see he's taking note of our letters, really paying attention to us and responding in turn. Yet another example of reaponsible jounalism here.

I love how he doesn't think Conan fans talk amongst each other so we wouldn't notice he's sending the exact same "apology" email to all of us.

Once again, I say:

And once again I agree!
What a douche!

haha!! you guys are the best!!! LateNightGoddess, i love your "art work"!!! any chance you could put it somewhere where he'd see it?

hahaha! That would be hilarious!!! I so want to take that and just post it all over the internet!
He really is that much of a douche!

Thanks. haha. I was thinking quite fondly of Don when I made it, you can probably tell. Well when I originally posted it I said I could email it to him! However I was kidding. It's a little too immature for me to send it to him or post it on his discussion board. I mainly made it to amuse myself. But if anyone else wants to send it to him, go ahead.

He didn't response to my email. What an idiot!

This may be kind of late but I just sent him my angry letter. I will see if he sends me the same reply. I also emphasized that I am from the Philippines so he would realize that CONAN IS POPULAR WORLDWIDE.

Ok, I have exactly three minutes before my internet connection here at the library kicks me off so I best make this quick.

If this guy wants to talk about people who are "relevant" he needs to look in the mirror. Last time I checked he is not Ebert, he is not Tom Shales, he's not even Brian Williams.
What a complete and utter jerk. Like it was Conan's fault that he filmed this 5 weeks before hand.
Argh, time up!

jesus that guy is a douche...boycott conan?...thats retarted. some ppl just dont understand that he did film five weeks ahead and that the effing footage didnt even show a plane crash and it had nothing to do with that plane that crashed!... ppl made a movie and a on tv movie about 911, ppl made a movie about the titanic sinking and ppl have made movies about other disaters that happend and those ppl that are barking up conans as.s dont they think movies like that hurt the ppl that lost someone or was apart of those events were hurt or upset over it..? then these ppl get made over 1 little clip....i dont know some ppl say i need to grow up or stop being an such a jackass about things well i think i can say that to this boycott conan douche think movies like that hurt the ppl that lost someone or was apart of those
think movies like that hurt the ppl that lost someone or was apart of those

Aww... poor Sev's on a timer. I agree, who is this guy to have any authority on who is or is not "relevant" when he is really only relevant in the area of douchebaggery?

I don't post items alot on Message Boards here on the time... but I just HAD to comment on this.

I feel Conan had the hardest going on him. Back in 1993 he had to recover Late Night from one of the funniest commedians of all time: David Letterman. (Just go with me here, I know you all think Conan's better now ).

However, after mass critisim Conan got better and is going to host the Tonight Show. Conan and his show never won an Emmy and now they have this on their back. The point is that we should give Late Night more recognision. They got all of these attacks all this time but they grow each day better and better and are soon going to replace the King of Late Night: Jay Leno. We should always recognise Late Night with Conan O'Brien for all this and their show I think should be a role model for all of Television and NBC. They deserve more credit then they get. Period.

And heck, no matter what happens we all will love Conan still. I think that's rather obvious

Beautifully put. I could not have put it more eloquently myself.
I think we all agree with you on that.
Conan (and all the team at Late Night) we love you!

OKKK!!! I just emailed the guy and I tried hard to refrain from being mad and tried to make points on how while I really do feel sorry for the pain their state went through, I don't think he has given enough chance and attention to Conan.

He doesn't want me to post my and his responce on here becuase its copyrighted and he liked on how I didn't try to curse or go mad... go fig.

He gave me I think a good 'applogy responce letter' and I think he really is sorry. I think we have to give him a break on this. YES I know he said something wrong to Conan. YES I know he went crazy for no reason. But hey, when it was 9-11 and the Twin Towers fell and if you saw a clip on the Emmys with a building falling as part of the intro, wouldn't we all be mad on spot?

I think some people on this board will kill me for saying this... but I guess we should just move on, we still love Conan like heck and that's all that matters right?

Wait, so he's been reading this board?
Too late, somebody already posted his generic email response.


I agree that Conan/Late Night is only really recognized by the masses when they do something controversial and so it's usually deconstructive criticism that they get, and they're not cheered for the good work they do on an everyday basis. In that way, they're much like every other employee in US society.