The Benshi

Today I was going to summarize all the feedback on the Marc Morano interview (and there has been PLENTY), but I’m currently on the road in Colorado and haven’t had enough time to properly digest all that’s been said (btw, I’m giving the keynote address at the Arctic Workshop this evening in Winter Park). I want to do a good job of conveying all that came in for commentary so I’m going to hold off until Monday to deliver my summary. Instead, for today I want to give a little warm up to my interview with Ed Begley, Jr. coming next week and help you understand why I chose to interview him.

Ed Begley, Jr. - A celebrity who walks the walk

I remember Ed as an actor in the 1980’s on the hit show, “Thirty Something,” but first began to realize there was a different, deeper dimension to the guy in the early 90’s when I saw him at a Hollywood event for Oxfam America. He has deep and lengthy commitment to many causes, with environmentalism being the one he’s most known for. As he will explain next week, his connection with environmentalism goes waaaaay back — all the way back to the first Earth Day in 1970.

 WHY I INTERVIEWED ED

So there’s two reasons I decided to interview him. The first is the special treatment he has received from attack dog Marc Morano, both when I interviewed him in 2007 for “Sizzle” and more recently when I interviewed him two weeks ago. In both cases Marc did the same thing. In the midst of spewing his normal bile about “hypocritical Hollywood celebrities,” he suddenly stopped short, shifted gears and said there’s one guy he does respect — Ed Begley, Jr. He is the one celebrity in the environmental movement who actually “walks the walk.”

 And that’s true. Long before it was cool, Ed was driving an electric car and riding a bicycle.

KICKING ASS ON FOX NEWS

The second reason for interviewing Ed is the stunning performance he gave on Fox News last November in the wake of the Climategate mess. A friend sent me the clip. I was so impressed with what Ed did that I immediately sent him an email congratulating him for “kicking ass.” He wrote back, thanking me for the support in the midst of the tidal wave of hate emails he was receiving from the right wing army of haters.

Next Thursday you’ll get to hear from him in detail, all about how the Fox News fireworks happened, what the aftermath was, and a whole bunch of other wonderful things he has to say about his concern and involvement with environmentalism. My discussion with him was really fun, but it also prompted our transcriber (same guy who critiqued Morano on Monday) to tell me that he thinks it’s by far the best interview we’ve done so far.

So tune in next week for the Ed Begley, Jr. interview. And in the meanwhile, to get ready for it, here’s the Fox News clip from November. I think it’s pretty amazing.