The Larry Kane Report

I have to give credit to celebrity gossip sites. They take the alleged facts and do a pretty efficient smear job on some really decent people. The latest episode involves Philadelphia’s own super star Will Smith. Will is smart, gracious , respectful and a model of decency. So it would be fitting that some quotes in a Scottish newspaper would be spread throughout the ‘he said, she said” gossip sites in an attempt to turn Will into something that he is not.

The internet is abused by some slanderous writers who don’t give a hoot about the facts.

Here’s the latest.

The Daily Record of Scotland offered this quote from Smith, which was part of a larger interview: “Even Hitler didn’t wake up going, ‘let me do the most evil thing I can do today’… I think he woke up in the morning and using a twisted, backwards logic, he set out to do what he thought was good.’”

The writer of the article suggested that Will thinks everyone is basically good.

The various gossip sites made it appear that Will Smith said that Hitler was a “good person.” He did not say that.

Here’s how Smith replied:

“It is an awful and disgusting lie…It speaks to the dangerous power of an ignorant person with a pen. I am incensed and infuriated to have to respond to such ludicrous misinterpretation.”

He added, in a written statement, “Adolf Hitler was a vile, heinous vicious killer responsible for one of the greatest acts of evil committed on this planet.”

I am glad he responded so quickly and definitively. Stories like this spread so fast that they ARE misinterpreted. Will Smith is not a bigot. Will Smith is no Mel Gibson.

This kind of smear gives our business a bad name.

Over the years, even as a working reporter, I have learned to be wary of irresponsible people in the news business with an ax to grind. They are out there, and they are dangerous.

Be careful what you read. And consider the source.

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Driving through the heavy traffic of the last few weeks, watching shoppers go to and fro, and seeing the mostly cheerful demeanor of people in the midst of it, I couldn’t help but think about where our value system is and isn’t during this special time of the year.

I generally don’t preach values, but as the holiday season becomes prelude to a fast-paced Presidential campaign, I think that it very interesting that most individual Americans have a finer value system, a sense of what is right and wrong, than the majority of our Presidential candidates.

Most Americans change their minds, but not as often as this pack of candidates. They believe that giving is much better than receiving, yet some of our candidates view our nation, as one candidate recently described it, as a “nanny state.” Most of our citizens would like to see the less fortunate is better shape than they are. Although they know that government can do the entire job, they believe that individuals can make a difference in other people’s lives.

The candidates generally are divisive with each other. And their is a difference, by the way, between going on the attack, and playing dirty tricks. How many times will the Clinton forces casually mention Obama’s early drug use, and how many times will Clinton’s opponents refer to the scandals of her husband’s Presidency. The Huckabee campaign plays it positive by embracing religion, even at a time when most Americans say they hope religion stays out of politics. New York Rudy wants to look tougher on immigrants, even with his record of governing the City of New York’s massive immigrant population. Mitt Romney has so many dimensions of thought that the voters, attracted to him, beg for clarity. Maybe all this vague and changeable politics makes John McCain suddenly attractive, and Barack Obama a surging candidate.

The other candidates, including Hillary Clinton, and especially Hillary Clinton, should be viewed as serious Presidential material. Joe Biden has all the strength of character to do the job.

But, it’s my perspective at this apex of the holiday season, that personal values and convictions are more important to the mass of Americans than anything else, even more important, in some cases, than issues.

Maybe that is why many voters are bewildered, confused and concerned, because the candidates don’t seem to measure up to their own standards. Do all the candidates really represent the core values of Americans?

That question is why Michael Bloomberg may be getting ready to make a run for it.

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Philadelphia Magazine has pulled off a coup - an exclusive cover story interview with Eagles coach Andy Reid and his wife Tammy. Much to the chagrin of sports writers who cover Reid, the coach has decided to open up now, and to the magazine, about the problems of his imprisoned sons who face a variety of legal challenges.

Besides being football-challenged in this current season, the Reids have been tarred and feathered in the media and on the talk shows for seeming to be indifferent to the storm around them. They were even lectured-to by the judge in the case, which I felt was a bit over the top.

There is a tremendous significance in the Reid interviews. What they have been apparently facing in the last several years is a problem faced by at least several hundred thousand American families. Addiction, at its highest levels, is ripping apart families at their roots. Parents go through so many stages of it - acceptance, resistance, assistance, and in some cases, tough love scenarios. The difference between the Reids and the rest of America is the fact that the coach is well known, very public, and a lightning rod for angry sports fans.

As a reporter, and a citizen, I have seen up close what alcohol and drug addiction can do to otherwise normal and caring people. Few of us can understand how difficult it is for addicts to find a solution, and how agonizing it is for their loved ones to cope and at the same time remain supportive and caring during a time of trial.

You may have your opinions about Andy Reid. I know the man as well as you do. But the facts remain that the Reid family apparently has been ripped apart by this ordeal.

Try and put yourself in their place. It is the holiday season two of your children will spend it behind bars. That has got to be unfathomable.

The coach said they were doing this interview to help other parents who face crises of addiction with their children. Sharing their ordeal and explaining their crisis will be less than a public excuse for the madness, but more as an attempt at helping others to cope with similar nightmares.

Will it work? That is hard to say, but it helps one other family, the article will have served its purpose.

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A few months ago, in the depths of his campaign, I suggested that, in the end, Senator John McCain might be the last man standing in Campaign 08 for the Republicans. At that time, I was the subject of much laughter and ridicule. It is true, political forecasting is a form of fool’s gold. 

But right now, much to even my surprise, the most courageous candidate in the Republican field is looking pretty good. McCain is within striking distance of Mitt Romney in New Hampshire, and surging in South Carolina.

This game, the primary game, has always been about the process of elimination. Michael Nutter roared to the top in Philadelphia after the other candidates all faltered in the middle of the campaign. Right now, Mike Huckabee is the apparent leader, but his baggage is heavy duty, including charges that he interfered with an Arkansas investigation of his son. Mitt Romney wanders the slippery slope of trying to please everyone, and Rudy Guiliani just seems to be fading somewhat.

So, who is left? Ron Paul. He could be a spoiler in close primaries. But he won’t win it.

McCain, quietly standing by his principles, may shoot to the front of the pack quickly as Republicans go into seek mode, hoping their dial will stop at a potential winner.

On the Democratic side, watch for a strong finish by Joe Biden in Iowa. The most experienced of all the Democratic candidates is a good bet to challenge John Edwards for third place in Iowa. Joe Biden is a great personal campaigner. Iowa is all about the one-on-one relationship between caucus member and candidate.

Watch Biden run.

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I’m uneasy about the story of Iran. We have been lulled into a pacifist sense of insecurity. The enemies are watching.

First, the CIA trouble.

The CIA seems to be in a pickle. Tapes of possible torture tactics were destroyed. If they were destroyed to protect agent’s identities, so be it. But if they were destroyed to cover up horrific scenes that might cause pain and suffering at a later date to American forces, we have a much different story.

And there is also the fear of mis-information and serious lying going on in the American intelligence establishment. The National Intelligence Estimate played down the Iranian threat, insisting that the Islamo-Fascists in Iran stopped work on a bomb in 2003 . This report embarrassed the President who was insisting there was a nuclear threat from Iran.

Now we are in a position of mistrust and distrust. Who is telling the truth? These spy masters were the ones who justified a threat of mass destruction as the reason for the Iraq debacle. Did they lie? Are they offering a pack of lies now to keep us off the tracks of Iran for fear that they will be blamed for another mess? Or, perhaps Iran will use this confusing report as subterfuge to startup another bomb program.

I’m not an intelligence expert. But as a citizen and observer, I am troubled by the apparent duplicity of our intelligence experts. Maybe we need better spies or a higher level of intelligence.

In the meantime, I’m confused by the White House policy on Iran, the failure of members of Congress to ask the right questions, and the quagmire of conflicting information on threats, real or imagined, to our country.

We seem to be treading water in a sea of anxiety and uncertainty. Can we find a direction before it is too late?  I don’t trust the militants in Iran. And no “intelligence estimate” should put us asleep at the wheel.

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