- NEW YORK(AP) -- Andy
Rooney certainly knows how to stir the passion in his viewers.
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- The "60 Minutes" curmudgeon said Sunday he
received 30,000 pieces of mail and e-mail in response to his Feb. 22 commentary,
in which he called "The Passion of the Christ" filmmaker Mel
Gibson a "wacko."
-
- It's the biggest viewer response ever to a segment on
the CBS newsmagazine, which has been on the air since 1968, a spokesman
said.
-
- Rooney also called Rev. Pat Robertson a "wacko"
for saying he had a conversation with God, but not many people noticed
that, he said. Most of his mail concerned Gibson.
-
- "I think the mail was a good indication of how bitterly
divided our country is right now," Rooney said on his Sunday "60
Minutes" commentary. "I hope I'm not contributing to that--even
though I'm right and everyone else is wrong."
-
- He read some of the mail on the air, including one letter
that called him an "asinine, bottom-dwelling, numb-skulled, low-life,
slimy, sickening, gutless, spineless, ignorant, pot-licking, cowardly pathetic
little weasel."
-
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- Editor's note - Rooney appeared
on IMUS in the morning, the nationally popular syndicated radio program
of Don Imus, and stated that he would not be seeing "The Passion"
because he didn't want to blow nine or ten dollars just for a few laughs.
Had Rooney said such a thing about "Shindler's List", would Mr.
Rooney still have a job at CBS? Of course not.
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