I caught up with Susan Harrington of How’s Your News as she and her camera crew roamed around the convention floor Wednesday.
- Ana McKenzie
- Harrington interviewing Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick.
How’s Your News, a short-lived show on MTV produced by South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, starred Harrington and other mentally challenged reporters who went around the country interviewing actors and politicians. It inspired a well-reviewed documentary in 2003. MTV axed the show in 2009 for budgetary reasons, but Harrington and some of her colleagues have continued to film. Her Boston-based team touched down in Charlotte this week fresh from Republican National Convention, where she interviewed party big wigs like Rudy Giuliani.
The show’s shtick is genius. In the age of YouTube, how could a politician deny someone with disabilities an interview? But what makes the show so great is that its cast is totally in on the game, Stephen Colbert-style. Cast members are witty and charming, and Harrington is the star.
She likes to play a game where she compares the people she’s interviewed to cookies. Mitt Romney is without a doubt oatmeal raisin. Bill Clinton is a Fig Newton. Jesse Jackson, whom she called really intense, is peanut butter and chocolate chip.
She told me I was a ginger snap, and I told her she was a snickerdoodle. She smiled, gave me her card and walked off to catch Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick as he quickly made his way across the convention floor. He stopped for her.
Check out Harrington’s interview with Parker and Stone below.
This article appears in Sep 5-11, 2012.
i have meet gov he a great man ,i never compaire these great people to cookies that silly i dont get that ,it so importent what they are doing an we need all the help an repscet as people with disibilty .from them .let not make us as group look like an of the imange out there