Death Penalty Debate (1/8): Ed Koch, Victor Navasky, John O'Sullivan, Christopher Hitchens (1997)

April 7, 1997 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.... Watch the full debate: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/10/death-penalty-debate-christopher....

Edward Irving "Ed" Koch (born December 12, 1924) is an American lawyer, politician, and political commentator who was a United States Congressman from 1969 to 1977, and a three-term Mayor of New York City, from 1978 to 1989. He also gained fame as a judge on the television show The People's Court from 1997 to 1999.

Victor Saul Navasky (born July 5, 1932) is a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He was editor of The Nation from 1978 until 1995, and its publisher and editorial director 1995 to 2005. In November 2005 he became the publisher emeritus. Before coming to The Nation he was an editor at The New York Times Magazine and wrote a monthly column about the publishing business ("In Cold Print") for the Times Book Review.

Navasky was born in New York City. He is a graduate of Swarthmore College (1954), where he was Phi Beta Kappa with high honors in the social sciences, and Yale Law School (1959). While at Yale, he co-founded and edited the political satire magazine Monocle.

In 1946, when he was in the eighth grade, he helped to raise money for the Irgun Zvai Leumi -- by passing a contribution basket at performances of Ben Hecht 's play, A Flag is Born.

In 1994, while on a year's leave of absence from The Nation, he served first as a fellow at the Institute of Politics at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and then as a senior fellow at the Freedom Forum Media Studies Center at Columbia University. When he returned to The Nation, he lead a group of investors in buying the magazine, and became its publisher.

Navasky has also served as a Guggenheim Fellow, a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation and Ferris Visiting Professor of Journalism at Princeton University. He has taught at a number of colleges and universities and has contributed articles and reviews to numerous magazines and journals of opinion.

In addition to his Nation responsibilities, Navasky is also Director of the George T. Delacorte Center for Magazine Journalism at Columbia University, a member of the Board of Independent Diplomat, and a regular commentator on the public radio program Marketplace. In 2005, Navasky was named chairman of the Columbia Journalism Review (CJR). This appointment engendered some controversy since Navasky's name was left off the masthead, which some saw as an effort to hide the fact that despite the magazine's purported lack of political bias, a "major left-wing polemicist is calling the shots at CJR without any mention on the masthead."

In 2005, Navasky received the George Polk Book Award given annually by Long Island University to honor contributions to journalistic integrity and investigative reporting.

Navasky, who has three children, lives in New York City with his wife, Anne. He serves on the boards of the Authors Guild, International PEN and the Committee to Protect Journalists.

John O'Sullivan (born April 25, 1942) is a British conservative political commentator and journalist and currently the executive editor of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

John O'Sullivan was born in Liverpool. He was educated at St Mary's College, Crosby and received his higher education at the University of London. He stood unsuccessfully as a Conservative candidate in the 1970 British general election. He is Editor-at-Large of the opinion magazine National Review and a Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute. Prior to this, he was the Editor-in-Chief of United Press International, Editor-in-Chief of the international affairs magazine, The National Interest, and a Special Adviser to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. He was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1991 New Year's Honours List.

He is the founder and co-chairman of the New Atlantic Initiative, an international organization dedicated to reinvigorating and expanding the Atlantic community of democracies. The organization was created at the Congress of Prague in May 1996 by President Václav Havel and Lady Margaret Thatcher.

O'Sullivan has published articles in Encounter, Commentary, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Policy Review, The Times Literary Supplement, The American Spectator, The Spectator, The American Conservative, Quadrant, The Hibernian and other journals, and is the author of The President, the Pope, and the Prime Minister (November 2006). He also lectures on British and American politics.

He is known for O'Sullivan's First Law (a.k.a. O'Sullivan's Law), paraphrased by George Will as stating that any institution that is not libertarian and classically liberal will, over time, become collectivist and statist.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• death
• penalty
• debate
• christopher
• hitchens
• ed
• koch
• victor
• navasky
• john
• o'sullivan
• execution
• video
• in
• saudi
• arabia
• documentary
• china
• mistake
• world
• cup
• amnesty
• international
• america
• abolition
• audio
• argument
• by
• stoning
• hanging
• legal
• injection
• electric
• chair
• firing
• squad
• band
• supreme
• court
• arabic
• boxing
• diy
• religion
• talking
• television series
• interview

[pcspeaker]

Hitchens starts at 7:30

[StephenM02]

Update to all: if you are looking for 2/8 put this after the youtube site URL /user/thefilmarchive#p/search/­4/NP7-OVcvStE

[Stephen15Donnelly]

@wigisnotaname Don't suppose you've taken into account those who have been wrongly convicted of crimes and have subsequently been executed only to then be proven innocent by new evidence brought to light. If you are proved innocent when incarcerated you may have had some time taken from you but at least you can be free. What chance is there of returning to freedom for one who is dead? Moreover, if we can only respond to brutality with crueler brutality then there is no justice.

[wigisnotaname]

I think Hitchen's is an excellent speaker, and I agree with his views on the evil's of religion. HOWEVER, on this I do not. There is no deterrent for criminals in this country to go to Jail. Especially here in the U.K, I have heard of people from oversea who try to get into jails in this country. There needs to a fear. I also don't like Hitchen's line, "The government is going to kill the killers." Because at the same level, we put criminals in jail. Isn't that kidnapping the kidnappers?

[TheGersroolz]

@Eralun Don't have a prob with the English, don't have a prob with any nationality but, you are a fanny! Ned, LOL, I was referring to steamers like you as Ned's many many years ago, so once again, ya non educated delinquent GTF! Good night fanny baws! Where do they get balloons like you from? God only knows!

[Eralun]

@TheGersroolz I'm not sure if your not a wee bit blazed, but either way yes I think I've summed you up pretty well, especially if you drink Irn Bru. Next you're going to tell me about the evil things the English have done, and how they are stealing all our oil ect ect. I really don't wana know about it ned

[TheGersroolz]

@Eralun Ya Fanny!

[TheGersroolz]

@Eralun You don't have a Barr's Irn Bru about me, so you have no way of summing me up, however you may convince yourself otherwise! So as we say up in Scotia, GTF!

[Eralun]

@TheGersroolz I'm sorry, but when you say "the so called UK" it kinda sums you up.

[TheGersroolz]

@ExistentialHazard Mmmmm, certainly there are murderers who should be shot out of sight but, the state carrying out executions is more to do with a vintictive retribution & hold on power than any form of deterent. I'd go as far as to say here in the so called UK, the state don't give a toss about murders as long as working class people are doin each other in, & not affecting the possessing class & the yahoos! Some auld pervert in a wig givin out lectures in Court, its pure f**kin pish!

[huwrj]

It's CHRISTOPHER

[ClamCrunchy]

@MadFNMax You assume that people are responsible for their actions.