Tonight, John Ziegler discussed David Foster Wallace's Atlantic Monthly article "Host" on his show. He said that he wanted to interview Wallace, invited him several times, but Wallace claimed that he was too shy, didn't want to come on the show, that he doesn't like doing interviews. The analogy that Wallace apparently gave was that he would never play three sets of tennis with John McEnroe after writing an essay on him. Ziegler hinted that Wallace may be a tad insane--even called him gutless--and said that his last conversation with Wallace did not end well so the chances are slim that he'll ever be on the John Ziegler Show.
It seems that Ziegler was not all that unhappy with the article although he admits that there were some glaring misrepresentations and errors. He plans on going over the piece in several segments over the next few weeks. On tonight's segment, he and his show's news anchor, Leah Brandon, gave their initial impressions. Brandon said that Wallace did a pretty good job of describing Ziegler; however, she has no memory of ever being asked to call him Zig or Mr. Z.
I just happened to have KFI on tonight, so I doubt I'll be able to follow up on this.
By the way, Ziegler has posted a link to the article if you haven't yet grabbed a copy. Update: Ziegler was forced to remove the article. Oddly enough, the directive came from the Atlantic Monthly AND Clear Channel.
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