Citizen Smith, a progressive Democratic talk show on WICC 600, a local AM radio station, spent the afternoon in Barone Campus Center right next to Jazzman’s Caf.
While at Fairfield, he talked with faculty, students, and the First Selectman of Fairfield, Ken Flatto.
Citizen Smith was brought to Fairfield by the efforts of Nancy Habetz and the public relations staff, according to Dr. Donald W. Greenberg. Greenberg does a part of Citizen Smith’s show on Thursday nights.
“I appear every week from 6 to 7 on Thursday nights. We discuss national politics. I’ve been doing this since around November,” said Greenberg.
Citizen Smith had mentioned that he wanted to do a show before Super Tuesday at a college campus. Greenberg mentioned Fairfield and told Citizen Smith that he could help him get in contact with the school.
“I just set up the phone call. Nancy Habetz did all the work,” said Greenberg.
Citizen Smith and the school reached an agreement for him to do his show. They then made the announcement public with help from Greenberg. Citizen Smith’s show attracted quite a few different members of Fairfield’s community.
Dr. John Orman of the politics department and Dr. James Simon of the English department were the two faculty members that appeared on the show. Emily McAdam, the president of the College Republicans and Kristina Riordan, the president of the College Democrats, were also guests.
Then Citizen Smith had Ken Flatto, the First Selectman of Fairfield, on the show. They discussed the primary elections in Connecticut and how Flatto feels that the Democratic Party is very excited about them. They then talked about local politics about the new schools in Fairfield and the new train depot near BJ’s in Black Rock. Flatto was on for approximately 25 minutes.
At the end of show, Citizen Smith brought on the Fairfield University debate team. Five members came on the show, Eileen Arnold ’05, Janet Battey ’06, Meredith Darts ’07, Josh Rogers ’06, and Lauren DiGiovine ’07. They and Citizen Smith discussed some national issues, ranging from reinstating the draft, to the Patriot Act and the drinking age.
The debate team as a whole wasn’t for reinstating the draft while Citizen Smith was for it. Rogers was a very loud opponent of the draft because he believes that America needs better intelligence in the war on terrorism not a large standing army that in his opinion would be useless. Citizen Smith is in favor of having mandatory two-year service in the army.
The Patriot Act was a source of agreement for Citizen Smith and the debate team. Both felt that it was a severe infringement on our civil liberties and privacy.
The drinking age issue was a favorite of the crowd in Jazzman’s. A few students yelled in agreement when Citizen Smith said that it didn’t make sense that the drinking age was 21. The debate team all agreed with his point that if 18 year olds can vote and join the military they should be able to drink. But Citizen Smith wondered since the law makes no sense why it still exists. The debate team seemed to think it was because the politicians knew that no one it affects votes so they don’t get any benefit from pushing the issue.
The show ended with Citizen Smith urging the Fairfield student body to go out and vote.
The show was broadcast live on Monday in its usual time slot of 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. The show’s format is mainly a call-in and guest driven talk show. It is the #1 radio talk show of the 35-64 demographic, according to Citizen Smith.
Student reaction to the show was positive.
“I thought it was pretty cool that we had a talk show broadcasting live from the BCC. I only caught a few minutes of it but it seemed to be pretty interesting and engaging,” said Mike Barry ’05.
Citizen Smith said that he had a good time doing the show here and hinted that he would be willing to come back if the school wanted him to return.
Greenberg agreed. “If he wants to and the school wants him to, then I think it would be great. However, if it does happen, it probably won’t be until next year,” said Greenberg.
Leave a Reply