PBS NOW - 2006 03 03 - Thank You For Smoking

" David Brancaccio interviews political novelist and satirist Christopher Buckley about life inside the Washington spin machine. As the film adaptation of his novel THANK YOU FOR SMOKING is about to be released in theaters, Brancaccio gets Buckley's uniquely humorous perspective on what his fictional look at the world of a tobacco lobbyist can tell us about how Washington really operates. "I think in a way the hardest part of writing satire in America is competing withthe day's headlines," he says. "It is sometimes tough competing with reality in America.It's a dirty, lousy, rotten job, and I guess someone's got to try." Buckley, a former speech writer for then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, is an award-winning author of eleven books and was named "one of the funniest writers in the English language" by Tom Wolfe." == runtime = 23mins xvid.544x416.861kbps.mp3.103.vbr Federal funding for CPB/PBS is going to be cut significantly over the next two years, so if you watch any of these programs, please support your local PBS Station by making a contribution or by purchasing their DVDs