An amusing exchange on CNN's "NewsNight," December 18, 2001:

Aaron Brown: Some conservatives jumped on [Taliban fighter John] Walker, saying he is a product of cultural liberalism—the California kind—helping to turn an impressionable kid against his own country. Joining us from Salinas, California, one of those conservatives, Shelby Steele of the Hoover Institution. Mr. Steele wrote a provocative article the other day in the Wall Street Journal. And here in New York, a columnist who thinks Mr. Steele is making an awfully broad generalization: Richard Cohen of the Washington Post. It's nice to have both of you here. Mr. Steele.

Shelby Steele: First of all, let me interrupt you just a minute. Is Richard Cohen a liberal?

Brown: Yeah, Richard Cohen's a liberal. I think he would say that, wouldn't he?

Richard Cohen: On this issue.

Brown: Okay. Everyone is now branded, I guess.

Steele: Great. If I'm going to be, everybody's going to be.

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