Armed with video clips of talking pigs and the bobbing heads of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, political pundit Arianna Huffington huffed at corporate scandals, government corruption and SUVs in a satire-driven speech Wednesday night, sponsored by the Duke University Union's Major Speakers Committee.
"Every day I wake up and find 12 stories in the paper that outrage me," Huffington said. "I've almost given up Starbucks - I get my adrenaline rush by reading the Wall Street Journal every day."
Huffington writes a syndicated column and is the author of nine books, including the newly released Pigs at the Trough. Speaking before about 300 people in Page Auditorium, she emphasized the need for a proactive public in effecting political change.
Throughout the presentation, she sprinkled two-minute videos using animated pigs and news clips to poke fun at lobbyists with political family connections, corporate tax dodgers and environmental apathy, drawing laughter and applause from the audience.
"We only need a minority to get engaged, a critical mass," she said. "Each person that joins the social justice movement could be the one to make that strategic minority."
Last year, Huffington helped launch The Detroit Project, an environmental group that lobbies against SUVs. The organization created two advertisements that argued gasoline sales help fund terrorism, mocking similar anti-drug ads.
But the ads drew heavy fire, Huffington said, and many television stations would not run them. "So much for the First Amendment," she said.
Nevertheless, Huffington said The Detroit Project's ads led to state anti-SUV legislation, exemplifying how satire and popular resistance can make a difference.
Sparing few, Huffington's criticism cut across party lines, targeting liberals, conservatives, the mainstream media and the American public.
"We're really living in two Americas," she said. "There's 'upstairs America' and 'downstairs America.' ...In 1980, the average CEO was making 42 times as much as the average worker. Now that's gone up to 571 times as much."
Just to sustain interest in key issues has been a nation-wide struggle, Huffington said. "Remember Kosovo?" she asked. "The news from Kosovo is now buried somewhere in the newspapers.... The problem is finding what page front-page news is on."
Recent presidents are at fault, she said, for substituting real progress in domestic affairs with irrelevant, "feel-good" gestures, such as Bush's hydrogen car research funding and former President Bill Clinton's advocacy of school uniforms. She praised "bloggers" and other alternative media for sticking to pertinent issues more often.
"We need to begin to produce some real leadership in the nation because it has atrophied," Huffington said.
Many audience members praised the speech.
"I always appreciate it when something quite serious is offered with humor," said Durham resident Nicole Rowan. "It's intense to hear so much negativity, and it can become overwhelming."
Sophomore Matt Tolnick praised the Union's ability to bring Huffington to campus. "What she talked about was pretty relevant and valuable for students today," he said.
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