Edmund Morris Swears On 'Face The Nation' (VIDEO)

It's not often that swearing pops up on the staid Sunday talk shows, but presidential biographer Edmund Morris managed to get bleeped by the censors when he called a question "bullshit" on CBS' "Face the Nation" this Sunday.

Morris was on the show to discuss American politics and his new biography of Theodore Roosevelt. (Arianna Huffington was also on the panel.) Host Bob Schieffer asked him what he thought Roosevelt would make of today's politics. Morris, who had also rejected a similar question earlier in the show, bridled and told Schieffer the question was inappropriate:

"You keep asking these presentist questions Bob. As the immortal Marisa Tomei said in My Cousin Vinny, 'that's a bullshit question!' because you cannot pluck people out of the past and expect them to comment on what's happening today."

Schieffer, though he was likely surprised by the language, seemed to take it in his stride, and the conversation moved on.

Watch (exchange starts at around 10:16):

Comments

[Natalee]

07:17 PM on 01/07/2011

I thought it was interesting that one of the co-panelists laughed when Edmund Morris said he could legitimately call himself an African-American, given that as a Kenyan he can.

[ChrisGee]

04:21 PM on 12/01/2010

When I first heard this historian's comment, it struck me as being intellectually lazy (i.e., he did not want to think too much about the question enough to offer an answer), but it could instead reflect a philosophy about the role of the historian that is currently the standard among academic historians. The issue is whether historians should be principally chroniclers, recording events with great detail and clarity, or also interpreters of those events. Morris seems to be in the first camp, probably excruciatingly precise with the details, and garners respect among his peers for being so.

But this begs the question, what good is history if one can't use it to interpret? What is the value of learning about a historical figure and political leader like Teddy Roosevelt if one isn't willing to apply that knowledge to how that person would feel about current events? If these historical figures can't be examined with the goal of helping us address current events, what value is there from studying them???

Perhaps the role of historian as both chronicler AND interpreter is too intellectually demanding for one individual. Or perhaps this author doesn't feel comfortable doing so and we witnessed his emotional distress at being challenged to do so. If he is not willing to do so, the readers of his books will do so in his place. And that suggests that it is not A bull$#^! question, just a bull$#^! answer.

[GeeBee]

03:19 PM on 12/01/2010

Good grief - there's an English speaker at Huffpo. They wrote that Scheiffer "took it in his stride" rather than the excruciating and meaningless "took it in stride".

[studana51]

06:17 AM on 12/01/2010

The real story is he is the only person on the show (other than the host) who told the truth.

[RobinSeattle]

08:32 PM on 11/30/2010

Why is this article even in existence? Is the writer going to tell Morris' mommy that he said a bad word? What is this, third grade?

Grow up media.

[Marvin Hadley Jr]

08:09 PM on 11/30/2010

If Leslie Nielsen were on the panel, he might ask, " Professor Morris, have you ever seen a men's locker room?"

We all would enjoy the answer to that one.

[Marvin Hadley Jr]

08:07 PM on 11/30/2010

Schieffer is a class act. The professor is a AH.

[RobinSeattle]

08:36 PM on 11/30/2010

The question was inane. We laugh at Palin for saying she can see Russia from her house but yet accept Schieffer asking Morris if he can read the mind of the decomposed corpse of Teddy Roosevelt from a tv studio. That inconsistency is, as Artie Johnson once said, "very interesting, but stupid."

[voteblue4evr]

05:27 PM on 11/30/2010

Wow! He said 'bull-'$@#&'! Once again, proving that the huffington post is the most incedulous bunch of prudes around.

[Ming-Na]

01:38 PM on 11/30/2010

If we Americans are so fat, lazy and insular why stay here when you can go back to the country of your birth and give it a makeover!

[ESerafina42]

01:11 PM on 11/30/2010

Don't blame him - I've always thought it was a stupid question. A person from another time dropped into the 21st century wouldn't have enough information to offer opinions - there were no multinational corporations at the time of the Revolution, for example, and if they were brought here as a child and raised here they wouldn't be the same people.

[floridafun]

05:18 PM on 11/30/2010

i agree..i saw the full interview and enjoyed it!

[Uosdwis]

12:13 PM on 11/30/2010

"The '64 Buick Skylark didn't have positraction, Bob, it's a bullshit question!"

[MissAustenRegrets]

10:32 PM on 11/30/2010

Anyone who quotes a line from My Cousin Vinnie is awesome! How about when the little de-uh put its little de-uh lips down to the wawta...

[MillieLou]

09:39 AM on 11/30/2010

Blah, Blah, Blah. Bless his little elitist heart. "America is dumb." "America is fat." One huge difference between liberal and conservative thinking is the mind-numbing degree of negativity going on in the liberal mind. How do they stand themselves? There is no positive outlook amongst liberals: always whining, always griping, always calling Americans fat, lazy and stupid. The sky is always falling, we're all going to die really soon because the earth is going to explode, blah blah depressing (and false!) blah. This is why so many liberals are driving around in beat up little cars with the fenders falling off, living from paycheck to paycheck. They are the cars with the liberal bumper stickers. It's always someone else's fault that they fail, never their own fault. It's always their parents' fault or GW Bush's fault. The liberal outlook on life is just downright depressing.

As to what Europe and the rest of the world thinks of us, I find this whole controversy to be manufactured. Furthermore, they are dependent on us to protect their hides, and they know it. I don't much care what they think, when the fact is their outlook, philosophy and social policy are often repugnant to ME. Do you think they care about that? NO!

[mrpotatohead]

04:32 PM on 11/30/2010

Finally. I've found the positive, cheerful, happy-go-lucky conservative I've been looking for all my life.

[myjs]

04:54 PM on 11/30/2010

You just joined here to spew your venom?
3 posts today, that's it - how much are they paying you?

[agandia]

07:35 AM on 11/30/2010

Schieffer should be embarrassed

[floridafun]

05:19 PM on 11/30/2010

nah. reality must be faced.

[R.W. Sanders]

04:32 AM on 11/30/2010

Finally the repartee on political talk shows is properly identified and described.

[mlaiuppa]

01:16 AM on 11/30/2010

Why was that bleeped? They're afraid children are watching Face the Nation? They say worse stuff on prime time TV.

Grow up already. He wasn't even swearing, he was quoting.