Dick Cavett on Ayn Rand

Elon Green interviewed Dick Cavett. The famous talk show host shared this story about the silly demands made by Ayn Rand. The libertarian author would not appear on Cavett's show if all her demands were not met.

CAVETT: Oh, well, that’s so, too. You can piss away valuable hours of your life reading Ayn Rand—her wretched appeal to the young, her wretched writing, her wretched person.

She was supposed to be on my show; I was kind of sorry she wasn’t, because I was kind of laying for her. I did not succumb, as a kid, to being enthused by Ayn Rand, and that sense of power, as every kid was at one time until they outgrew it. The old bag sent over a list of fifteen conditions for appearing with me, or for appearing with anyone, I guess. One of them was, “There will be no disagreeing with Ms. Rand’s philosophy.”

GREEN: You’re kidding.

CAVETT: No! I wrote at the bottom of the list, to be sent back to her, “There will be no Ms. Rand, either.”

I find the demand of "there will be no disagreeing with Ms. Rand’s philosophy" to be hysterical.

That is the way television journalism should be done. TV journalists should ask people of all political stripes tough questions. Chuck Todd thinks his job is to bring John McCain on and have the Senator run through his laundry list of stale talking points.