Gore Vidal skewers Dimbleby

[M0b1u5]

Worst video quality EVER. OP, you suck.

[Alexdurrant7]

Gore Vidal was being utterly ridiculous. What happened to the intelligent, eloquent, straight-headed Vidal we saw just 10 years ago?

[Mashangie]

"I know who you are, Mr Vidal"

Seriously idiotic, rude, presumptious, illiterate comment by Dimblebly and Vidal's was totally appropriate: "you're one up on me."

Well, if Dimblepee had a functioning brain, he would have said within his own: "I know OF you."

Anyone still watching Question Time? It's soooooo stupid!

[Nintendomanwill]

@Mashangie

What are you talking about? Dimbleby was being uncharacteristically deferential to that SLIGHTLY senile commentator (and I accept that Vidal was on a high due to naive elation at the first black President) or have you never had difficulties speaking to slightly past it old people? All I'm saying is, easy with the criticism. And 'illiterate' is more a baffling criticism than a melodramatic one. Look me in the eye and tell me that Vidal wasn't being awkward.

[sumitgill]

So why is this such an excellent showcase of Gore Vidal? He seems like a genuine jackass.

[wackid89]

Gores real grumpy these days. I think he thinks it's pretty much all fucked.

[monsterminds2]

gore vidal is a legend!

[wog7]

One of the best clips on Youtube.

[dragonhead44]

Hasn't anybody else realised that Gore Vidal was verry...verrrrry drunk?

[ateach52]

I used to think Vidal was brilliant, but this interview clearly shows he's become a prig and that he's way past his shelf-life! What a miserable git he was! Don't think the BBC will want to interview HIM again!

[rickrik00]

my lawd, he's turned into Bette Davis!

[threecundies]

Dimleby showed considerable generosity in putting up with this cantankerous contradictory and rude curmudgeon. Gore Vidal may once have been entertaining and provocative, (I used to enjoy reading his prose, even if I didn't agree with much of it) but now he is simply just like a cranky old uncle who people tolerate because of his age. Put him in the corner of the room and give him a Victorian ear trumpet.

[Taramriel]

Why should Gore Vidal have to suffer the stupidity of anyone? He shouldn't. Therfore, so what if the man is impatient. He's far more intelligent that Dimbleby and we all know it. Either way he made some damn fine points. What the Hell was Dimbleby thinking when he was disbelieving about Republican dirty tactics, even that status quo loving goon should realise that.

[liontigershark]

He wasn't disbelieving, he was doing his job and that is to clearly represent the opinions of a man, who is a seasoned expert, to the masses. Vidal knows this and attempted to belittle a truely great correspondent for no reason other than he couldn't be bothered to answer and ended up looking like an old man who is losing the plot, or at best, a drunk. Do you know anything about Dimbleby you haven't read on Wikipedia?

[RhettButler41]

I have met Dimble and Vidal.  Therefore, fuck off :-) There's a good boy.

[liontigershark]

so I imagine you are incredibly good friends of theirs and know an awful lot about them both then, yeah.

[Nintendomanwill]

@RhettButler41

Wow, you're an arsehole.

I clicked on this video expecting to see an amusing debate and found a stilted and unpleasant repartee between a leftist ideologue and a placid reporter. The title was misleading. That pissed me off. But then I looked at the comments and saw a debate about who was morally righteous in this random failure of a potentially coherent interview. Now, if this wasn't enough I found character assassinations on both sides of the argument and random insults. WTF

[gmerymurray]

Either you are actually the real David Dimbleby, or are presumably the sole & founding member of the David Dimbleby Appreciation Socity; a more conspicuous Establishment tool & stooge is hard to think off, and as Chomsky famously said to another BBC man, Andrew Marr , "I don't say you're self-censoring. I'm sure you believe everything you're saying. But what I'm saying is, if you believed something different you wouldn't be sitting where you're sitting." (The Big Idea, BBC2, February 14, 1996)

[liontigershark]

Excellent. All you've done is express your dislike of the BBC (which I also struggle to believe has no central agenda) and not address the point that Vidal is just being plain grumpy. Are you and RhettButler41 friends? You should be. Manners cost nothing. Surely we all have to agree on that at least.

[gmerymurray]

So what if Vidal was grumpy ? Maybe he had a shit day & the last thing he needed was to be forced to spell out the bleeding obvious that he had just referred to, & by a nobody he had never heard of at that; his attitude to DD could only go downhill after this bad start, as his next tell you the facts of life comment confirms; ie Im being interviewed by an idiot who cannot even realise that Obamas life is at risk from vested interests, yet thinks he knows about US politics.

[Nintendomanwill]

Because the One True Faith is in fact, securing property rights and social co-operation, not allowing irresponsible politicians to divide us in emnity and unite us in slavery which is what happens with a world of immigration barriers, tariffs, violent trade unions and social engineering.

Blame the political support for immigration barriers on the NHS and free-at-the-point-of-service public provisions that allow non contribuants to take. Without this, immigration could ONLY grow the economy.

[Nintendomanwill]

@gmerymurray

Wow, a Chomskyite accusing someone of deference to a media figure? You know that you leftists are the 'Establishment tools and stooges' right?

Oh dear, you don't. Want to know why the One True Faith politics of various flavours of big government doesn't work?

[fnem69]

DD the architypical corporate mouthpiece - together wih his dad and the younger brother - are entrusted with the systematic disinformation through omission and contextualisation - an oppotunity to put down GV and by definition, discredit claims of massive vote riggin in 00 and 04 was too much for this intellectual midget to forego and he ended up shafting himself up the rectum, should never punch above your weight DD, out there, you're a very little fish in a big pond!

[GiorgePiquionne]

Who downvoted this? You're fucking right.

[gmerymurray]

Apart from mishearing 1st question, GV was on fine form, & his toleration for suffering fools gladly was characteristically minimal. His reference to eruptions, was an obvious reference to the assassination threats; DD didnt know what GV was talking about, which annoyed GV, which is why he came out kicking DD in the balls with his last comment, which translated means you are pissing in the wind if you think you are actually discussing what US politics are really all about.

[liontigershark]

It isn't necessarily a case of DD not knowing what GV was referring to, more that he has to have GV verbalise what he means otherwise it's left to speculation. If the two were to have a conversation privately I'm sure the flavour would have been a little different and I'm under no illusion that GV is the more intelligent of the two. He wasn't suffering a fool, he was offered an opportunity through a highly credible medium and let himself down by acting like the grumpy old man he has become.

[MattBellamy1]

I love Vidal as much as anyone, but there's no question he's slowed down quite a bit. He's 83 years old now and while he can still talk eloquently, he had difficulty hearing and comprehending what Dimbleby was saying. That's just a "fact of life" as he put it. It's the same reason McCain isn't the man he once was. People are living longer, but their minds still fail.

[RationalEmotive]

Comparing the decay of a McCain to the physical decline of Gore Vidal?

I am sorry, we must have more self-respect than that.

If you re-watch the clip it makes perfect sense what Vidal says and how he reacts. I mean just people on tv are always trying to talk like O'Reilly and be someone they are not does not mean that talking on tv as you would in a personal conversation is a strong mark of integrity and honesty. Gore Vidal doesn't tell a lie!

[sebsese]

waht are you talkning about? he's att his absolute prime! no patiens for stupidity, either you get it or you dont!

[utubey99]

sad to see someone as sharp as Vidal once was, reduced to such a shambling wreck. poor old fart clearly couldn't follow the conversation. my grandad used to get grumpy like this when he first woke from his afternoon nap. sorry Gore, but it is time to start cutting back on these appearances... let us remember you as you were in your prime. great to see Dimbleby's discomfort though.

[Guedingen]

Many thanks - for whatever reason he gets very impatient with British interviewers