In 1986, at the peak of the PMRC’s prohibitionist campaign against all pop music it judged to be insufficiently banal, Frank Zappa appeared on CNN’s Crossfire to talk about obscenity and censorship with three other panelists. One of those three other panelists was Mr. Douchebag of Liberty himself, co-host Robert Novak, who has learned a thing or two about obscenity in recent days.
Zappa is so great in this. The clip is about 20 minutes long, and the whole thing is worth watching.
Novak is actually the good cop in this exchange. The bad cop role is played with great gusto by a pharisaical right-winger—is there any other kind?—named John Lofton.
Zappa appeared on Crossfire again the following year, but that clip isn’t quite as rewarding.
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