The following heated exchange occurred yesterday between Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) and historian Douglas Brinkley, professor of history at Rice University during a Congressional hearing.
Your Pre-Thanksgiving Ethics Quiz:
Who was more uncivil and disrespectful, the professor or the Congressman?
Possible Answers:
A. Rep. Young
B. Prof. Brinkley
C. Both
D. Neither was out of line.
I think it’s a surprisingly close contest. Brinkley is obviously a pompous jerk, as he was outraged at being called by the wrong name and couldn’t wait until the Congressman had finished speaking before he interrupted him with a definite “you’re an idiot” snark to his correction. Young’s barked retort, ordering Brinkley to be silent as if Young were some kind of Medieval Duke talking to an impudent peasant was an obnoxious over-reaction, and Brinkley’s response to that was appropriate indeed: the Congressman needs to remember who he works for.
With reservations, I’ll choose A. I expect history professors to be full of themselves; that’s part of their charm. Brinkley was out of line and rude to interrupt Young, but Young’s disrespectful attitude toward a member of the public is more offensive than Brinkley’s disrespect for a member of Congress.
They both acted like jerks.
Ethics Alarms 
C. Brinkley could have waited and politly corrected him insteasd of acting like a jackass.
LOL That is a close call. They were both jerks. Like Bill said Mr. Brinkley could have scored more points not interrupting and kicking him in the stomach when he was done. And if he was interrupted while he was rebuking him, he could jumped him for forgetting who he works for.
I would have gone with A, too, but when Brinkley continued to talk over the Chairman until he was threatened with being excluded from the hearing, my vote changed to B or perhaps C. I imagine Brinkley had already been a PITA prior to the start of the video, since it seems to be in his nature. Does anyone have a link to a video that shows a broader account?
The Chairman kept his cool and acted ethically, even though he was plainly irritated by Brinkley.
I vote A, with few reservations. Trite, but true: with great power comes great responsibility.
I don’t know how many times Brinkley has testified before Congress. If it was his first time, I would chalk-up his reactions to being petty (arrogant) and ignorant (as Mark Twain said, everyone is ignorant, just on different subjects). But, I reckon that no amount of coaching prior to Brinkley’s appearance would have helped him much, if at all. I wonder how many times his lectures have been aborted by dissidents, or his office occupied in protest. Eventually, you reap what you sow. I hope for constituents’ sakes that Brinkley is never elected to Congress.
But Rep. Young should know better by now, how to handle a hostile or potentially hostile…(brain freeze! what are persons appearing in Brinkley’ seat called? Guests? Witnesses?) Young’s imperious, even contemptuous outburst diminished the dignity of his office and of the business of the panel. I didn’t recognize the Chairman; he seemed slow on the ultimatum to Brinkley (“…do you want to continue?” at 1:25). Despite Young’s outburst, it would have been better for the Chairman to gavel for order at that early moment and give Brinkley the ultimatum then, along with clear direction to avoid interrupting panel members. I did not hear Young apologize for calling Brinkley “Rice.” A simple, sincere and humble apology was in order there.
The changing countenance of the young woman seated behind Young was entertaining – left me wishing I could catch up with her to find out what were her thoughts in those moments.
If you go to span or politco.com and watch the entire session you will see all the testimonies make thier case and Mr young trashed and says in so many words the committee is a waste if time. Starts off by saying he what Mr briskly says is garbage.watch the whole thing you will see that young was hot bc it really showed he didn’t caresbout tedtimonirs of peopke there he just wanted to drill. So Mr briskly defended his self
Right. I watched it all. He said the hearings were a waste of time, and most of the time they are—I don’t see how those comments gave Brinkley the right to throw a hissy fit because Young got his name wrong, or to justify interrupting him, since he could have made the correction to preface his reply. Young said nothing insulting to Brinkley, other than getting his name wrong….after Brinkley broke in, Young went way over the line. As I said.
By the way, I’ll make simple edits on comments but I won’t re-write them. I count 26 errors or typos here, and it’s not a long post. Not the way to make an argument, and not cool.