Christopher Hitchens on C-Span from 1988

manicstreetpreacher posts the YouTube videos of an angry, young, socialist Christopher Hitchens on C-Span in the days of Reagan and Iran-Contra creaming some conservative slime ball as only he knows how.  Some things never change…

This appearance by the Hitch on C-Span 20 years ago, when he would have been about 40 years old, has recently been posted on YouTube.  Hitchens, who was in those days writer of a column called “The Minority Report” for The Nation magazine, appears on a news discussion programme with some guy called Wladyslaw Placzynski, then editor of The American Spectator.  They discuss the issues of the day: Iran-Contra, the upcoming presidential election, and Reverend Jesse Jackson’s recent visits to Castro’s Cuba to secure the release of prisoners.

It is of great historical interest to Hitchens fans.  He openly smokes in the studio and has already built up his trademark gravel-voice induced by several years of punishing his throat with the Rothmans.

And as is still very much the case to this day, Hitchens shows his superior knowledge and take on world affairs delivered with wit, incisiveness and an unparalleled skill with the English language while making jabs at future foes, not least of whom is Henry Kissinger.  The only major differences are the fringe, the slender frame and the socialist political stance.

Make sure you listen carefully to the beginning of part three where the Hitch pastes Placzynski (who has to be one of the worst public speakers I have ever heard in my life!) for an attempted slur against his journalism.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Part 9

Tags: america, c-span, christopher hitchens, election, fidel castro, iran-contra, jesse jackson, politics, president, ronald reagan, the american spectator, the minority report, the nation, Wladyslaw Placzynski