Tonight I did something I don't do nearly often enough, attended a lecture. The speaker was Noam Chomsky, who for some of you will need no introduction. For the rest, he's a professor at MIT, now retired, who made his academic reputation in the 1950s and 60s with highly technical theoretical work with implications for cognitive science, computer science, and God knows what else, but is almost certainly better known nowadays as a political speaker, a relentless and unappeasable critic of U.S. foreign policy, and general all-around opinion leader for the left.

I won't try to summarize his talk (let's just say he's not a fan of the Iraq war, although there was quite a bit more), but the lecture was part of a conference just concluded at the University of Windsor that was recorded by a professional video crew. The organizers assured us that there will be a documentary made of the conference and I expect there will be no problem finding it online when the time comes. In the meantime, there's lots more just like it (BitTorrent client required; I recommend this one).

The lecture ended with the customary Q&A session which went pretty much like any of the other ones I've seen Chomsky give on video previously, but there were several highlights I took away. The first was when the questioner up on the balcony turned out to be Ken Lewenza, who proceeded to speechify and bloviate until the emcee asked, with only mild asperity, if he had an actual question; Lewenza was drowned out in a sea of laughter. The second was when Chomsky admitted, without prompting, that if he were forced to read one and only one media outlet for the rest of his life, it would be the New York Times (hilariously close to a compliment from a man who has made a second career out of accusing them of lies and distortions).

Finally, the third came when he was asked his opinion of the Daily Show/Colbert Report axis. After admitting to general mirth that he doesn't have cable TV, Chomsky, who clearly finds it a bit demeaning to give credit to a TV show, nonetheless brought down the house by noting the results of a survey which found that: (a) 25% of younger people in the U.S. nowadays are deliberately turning to Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert for news and opinion; and (b) people who watch the shows score noticeably better in their factual understanding of public affairs than those who rely on straight-up TV news (especially Faux News, although he didn't mention them in particular). If it hasn't done so already, the Chomsky seal of approval can only help cement Stewart and Colbert's reputation as Gods Among Men.

Oh, heck, it just isn't possible to watch it too often -- here it is again: