Ralph Nader On The Passing Of Phil Donahue (1935-2024) – OpEd
Phil Donahue – for years the number one rated network television daily talk show host – was the greatestdefenderandenablerof our Constitution’s First Amendment right of free speech in 20thcentury America.
Given the frequency of his programs and the size of his live television audiences, he gave early national voice to most of the leaders of social justice movements of the 1960s. When they were considered too controversial to be interviewed by other national media,Phil Donahueinvited them for a full hourenablingthem to reach his TV audience of 10 million or more people. His guests included pioneers for civil rights, consumer justice, environmental protection, and workplace safety. He interviewed outspoken poverty fighters, war resisters, women liberation advocates, student rebels, gay rights defenders, aggrieved communities, and their victims. His was far more than an entertainment show with flamboyant performers.
With his microphone in hand, Donahue would roam through his live audience to directly engage the people. It was spontaneous, authentic, unscripted. He became one of the country’s best-known national celebrities with his groundbreaking courage.
Moreover, so deep was his belief in giving voice to all, that he was ready to offer his stage to persons with views he strongly disagreed. He hadJerry Falwellon his show over two dozen times. That was Phil’s way ofdefendingthe most profound meaning of the First Amendment – that of protecting free speech for opinions you may find abhorrent.
There has been no one like him on national network TV talk shows since he ended the Donahue Show in 1996. Not remotely.
Coming back with a show on MSNBC in 2002, his insistence on giving voice to those against the war inIraq, as well as boosters of that Bush/Cheney criminal war of aggression, led to GE-NBC firing him.
History should remember him for these immense contributions and for putting forces in motion that continue to this day for a more just country and world.