Vp Issue 9: "Janeane Garofalo: The Truth About Hacks and Dogs"

[Originally published in Vp issue 9 interview by Kelly McCartney and (2005)

How are the dogs?

They're fine. The youngest one is on a nightly mission to destroy as much of my apartment as he can.

This is Lou? He's still a puppy right?

Yeah, Lou Dog. He's under a year, so he's behaving as he shoudl be in addition to that he seems to have excessive energy and body strength because he's a pit bull. He can do things that are shocking. And also the shee tenacity and diligence which it would take for him to destroy certain things, which he accomplishes, is amazing.

Speaking of tenacity, you take on so much with the issues you talk about. How do you shake it off everyday?

Millions of people get as upset as I do, just not all of them have a radio show. It's something that is so endlessly frustrating. The audaciousness of the policies put forth by the Bush administration and their apologists in the mainstream media. And it's the same level of anger and consternation that I would feel if a person that I dealt with on a day-to-day basis at work or at home lied to me, took my money, put me in danger, treated me like a chump. That's essentially what the Bush administration does.... It's like having someone empty your purse and then take that money and use it for something you absolutely disagree with and then lie to you about it day after day after day.... To have so many people lie to your face about it, not just from the administration, butpeople behind the anchor desks in corporate media.

The hacks that are masquerading as journalists.

The corporate, allegedly journalistic hacks that serve the neo-con establishment.

Bill Moyers gave a speech recently that broke down the beliefs about the Rapture coming—they don't care about the environment or the children, because we're not going to need it.

So you have people who are psychologically impaired because they're laboring under a delusion of a cult making decisions that affect your life. You wouldn't let a psychotic in other ways into government positions. So why do they get to have dominion?

In an episode of The West Wing they made a point that in a time of crisis, everyone should hope that the person in charge is more thoughtful, more informed, and more intelligent than they are. We have nowhere near that.

It's a dysfunctional relationship with our media