Talk:Andy Rooney

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[edit] Keith and The Girl

Shouldn't there be some mention of the Keith and The Girl podcast mentioning Andy Rooney's 60 minutes segments every week or so? They regularly talk about his pieces. Loveshams 07:41, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 'liberal bias'

This line was changed. It is now "He has admitted on Larry King Live to having politically progressive views.". The line was "He has admitted on Larry King Live to having a liberal bias." I suspect someone changed it thinking it was POV. No, I saw that episode, he admitted having a liberal bias, those were almost his exact words. His 'progressive' views were already well known, he didnt have to admit anything we didnt already know. If I dont hear a counter arguement I am going to change it. user:Pzg_Ratzinger

EDIT: Found it from CNN transcripts, added it back and sourced


Seeing as "progressive" is a recent newspeak term I doubt that it applies to Rooney. His statement that he has a "liberal bias" is far more truthful than the whitewash of "progressive views" . And have to see the guy? He is about as open to progress as Uncle Joe!

[edit] Dead?

The article states that Rooney died yesterday (Aug.28). I have found nothing corroberating this online and was wondering if we should delete it until someone can cite a source. Any thoughts?

[edit] When the "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney" segment began

Article should state this.

[edit] Rooney's religious beliefs

Rooney is popularly thought to be an atheist based on a series of comments he made regarding Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ. In public comments, he has described himself as an agnostic. He has admitted on Larry King Live to having a liberal bias.

If he said that he was agnostic then I'm guessing he's agnostic. The atheist bit is unneccesary and probably used by someone who doesn't understand the differences in agnosticism/atheism. -User:Kugamazog

Rooney has also said that he's an atheist. See [1]. 23:27, 5 February 2007 (UTC)

He's an intelligent guy, so of course he's an atheist. But I see no real point in mentioning this in the article. You don't see very often in biographies on Wikipedia that people are christians. Maybe being christian is seen as a "default" setting? // Jens Persson (217.211.10.14 (talk) 13:04, 29 March 2008 (UTC))

[edit] Da Ali G Show

I believe we should add a segmenet on here concerning a very short interview he had with Ali G (Sacha Baron Cohen) in which he made rather silly comments, including trying to correct Cohen's use of the word "racialist," even when Cohen already commented on the differences between American and British English. --70.186.192.13 01:39, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

I agree!

One note on the differences between American and British English. In American English, "the media has" is correct. "the media have" can also be used, but is rarer.

No it's not. "Media" is plural.

-

I dont understand why this line is included in the trivia section ; In anger, Rooney also claimed that the press could never print election results before the election took place. He isnt claiming anything, he is stating an obvious, logical fact. Unless I am missing the joke (?) I think that line should be removed from the section, as it doesn't make sense.
Perhaps note also in the trivia section that Andy Rooney is the first person to pull Ali up on his terrible grammar, as all of Ali's previous interviewees over a 5 year+ period have just smiled and accepted Ali's mangled English.. As I think this illustrates nicely Andy's professional, investigative and 'I-dont-buy-any-BS' attitude. But also, I think, it should be noted that he does offer to loan Ali G a book on the English language, as this shows that he wasn't just being a prick (for lack of a more encyclopedic appropriate descriptor) in his criticism of Ali's syntax. And lastly, Andy Rooney's page here at wikipedia deserves to be larger than it is.. as he is a deeply respected journalist with a career spanning six decades and has done a large amount of good in his life fighting corruption and evil. Dirk Diggler Jnr 01:59, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

I couldn't disagree more. He was being a prick when correcting his english since ebonics is considered by at the very least to be a dialect of american english by the african american communities that rooney revealed at best to have complete contempt for and at worst to be completely ignorant of. [User:A Hung[ydefined]]

The trivia section, to me, doesn't seem like it holds an awful lot of trivia.--DarthKobold 04:53, 21 May 2006 (UTC)

This section seems quite slanted.

"It has been said that Rooney's appearance on the show is perhaps the best example of this." It has been said? It has been said by whom? This is an old Fox News trick, stating opinions while attributing them to people who only supposedly exist.

How do we know Ali G was making a "thinly-veiled reference to the 1948 US presidential election"? He first talks about a plane crash. Then he mentions putting out the election results "a few days early." The 1948 election featured a paper jumping the gun and putting out election results one day early. I see no reason to assume this is in reference to the 1948 election, and find it much more likely that this example was chosen because this interview aired during an election year, just a few months before the election, if there is in fact any particular reason this example was chosen at all.

Rooney does not "imply" that the word "racialist" does not exist. Rooney said "it's 'racist' not 'racialist.'" Though racialist is a real word, the context in which Ali G used it was not correct. From the very page on racialism which is linked: "While the term racism often refers to individual attitudes and institutional discrimination, racialism usually implies the existence of a social or political movement that promotes a theory of racism." There is nothing in what Rooney said to imply that he's promoting a social or political movement; Rooney's "rudeness" being connected to Ali G claiming to be black would, in fact, be racism, not racialism.

The thing about the "acceptability of ebonics" also doesn't make sense. How is it "accepted," and what reason is there to assume Andy Rooney accepts it? The article on ebonics says it's an American dialect; the Ali G character is from England. -- DondleAtkinson 12:57, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I again deleted the statement about Ali G. in the trivia section. It may be funny to watch, but it is not really that important. All that was posted in relation to this Ali G. bit (the 1948 election, the word racialist, ebonics) was just to justify that this silly interview should be mentioned here.

I think we should take another look at whether the Ali G appearance deserves mention. I think it's notable, and here's why: Da Ali G show consists almost entirely of efforts to expose prejudice or ignorance of one kind or another by begging the question: To what extent will people accept the idiocy and such of an urban youth, a middle eastern man, or an gay Austrian fashion reporter.
In this case, Rooney is one of a very few people who would not accept that Ali G could be so stupid. Amongst huge names in politics and other areas, Rooney is one of a very few who "passed the test" so to speak. For a lot of people who take seriously the sociological implications of Da Ali G show, the Rooney interview is very important.
I know I personally gained a great deal of respect for Mr. Rooney. Even though he is a bit impatient and could have been nicer, I still admire the fact that he did not simply assume, like most other guests, that urban youth were that stupid and ignorant. RadicalHarmony 15:58, 2 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] supposed comment

I would like to see some better citations before working the following incident into the biography, but I think it bears mentioning if both sides can be found and cited. Below is copied from a 'this day in history' thingy used in lots of places:


Feb 8 1990

After "60 Minutes" commentator Andy Rooney expresses his view that "blacks have watered down genes because the less intelligent ones are the ones that have the most children", he is suspended for a month by CBS. Rooney claims the remarks are fabricated.

66.191.6.169 22:05, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Cynic?

I think that it should also be noted that Rooney has a very cynical point of view.

[edit] Image

Any chance we could get a different image? This one is kind of fuzzy and, in my view, misrepresentative of his appearance.--Lord of the Ping 04:50, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Trust me, it could be worse. User:BricksFromEurope is currently trying to replace it with this monstrosity, and is in danger of breaking the 3RR doing so. GeeJo (t)⁄(c) • 20:51, 29 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Trivia

In the trivia section there is this line: "Andy Rooney has willed his eyebrows to the Smithsonian where they will be displayed next to Fonzie's leather jacket." Is there a source for this?--Lord of the Ping 04:54, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] YouTube links

This article is one of thousands on Wikipedia that have a link to YouTube in it. Based on the External links policy, most of these should probably be removed. I'm putting this message here, on this talk page, to request the regular editors take a look at the link and make sure it doesn't violate policy. In short: 1. 99% of the time YouTube should not be used as a source. 2. We must not link to material that violates someones copyright. If you are not sure if the link on this article should be removed or you would like to help spread this message contact us on this page. Thanks, ---J.S (t|c) 05:21, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Irish-American

Given that the epithet 'Irish-American' is highly debatable (and often suspicious) for all those who were not born in Ireland or who do not have one or more Irish-born parents or grandparents, and also given Rooney's very clear statement on the subject...

  • "I'm proud of my Irish heritage, but I'm not Irish. I'm not even Irish-American. I am American, period." [2]) (My bold)

...I have deleted the 'Irish-American' categories. 86.17.247.135 17:49, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Off The Topic

The guy seems like a huge jerk. Just H 17:57, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

You're right, that IS off-topic. --cslarsen 11:04, 22 January 2007 (UTC)
But oh, so true. --211.28.175.126 14:05, 14 August 2007 (UTC)

What did Andy Rooney's father do for a living? Andy mentioned that his father did well during the Great Depression. I am always curious as to what sort of business does well during a great depression. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.213.224.51 (talk) 23:19, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Humorist?

Don't you have to be funny to be considered a "humorist?"--Sand Squid 18:50, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Spelling of surname

In the Ali G interview, he spells his surname as "Runey". Was he just counter-trolling Ali G? What's the scoop?
138.243.129.4 02:23, 26 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Imus citation

I think that bit about what he said on Imus about the word Negro needs a citation...I'm a little skeptical of it.

[edit] Approval of microchip implants

Rooney has stated the following on 60 Minutes:

"I wouldn't mind having something planted permanently in my arm that would identify me."

An excerpt containing the quote is included in ZEITGEIST, The Movie at Google Video. This, perhaps unexpected, endorsement of the RFID chip and future implants to enable radio-tracking of the populace may not be pertinent to the current article, however, I would think it merits inclusion in a future Andy Rooney article at Wikiquote. __meco 08:06, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Andy-rooney on 60 minutes.jpg

Image:Andy-rooney on 60 minutes.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 04:11, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Erstwhile trivia section

It looks like someone took a sneaky route to remove well-sourced content form the article, by first categorizing it as trivia, then pedantically removing the trivia section as unencyclopedic. Or perhaps it was unintended. Whatever the case, it's clearly a list of biographical facts not trivia. 71.154.206.87 (talk) 04:27, 3 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Near senile?

Article states Rooney is near senile with no reference or substantiation. Please prove or omit. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.89.192.125 (talk) 19:03, 12 May 2008 (UTC)