It was a fascinating day of TV watching yesterday.
As in the old days of rock radio, it was, "All Blago, all the time!" as our Governor, aided by his public relations firm, made the rounds of the New York based television shows to proclaim his innocence and castigate the Illinois senators who have ripped away his rights so they can railroad him out of office, essentially for being a man of the people.
Preposterous allegations, of course, but Blago stayed with the message, resisting all attempts to get him to waver.
The attempts were pretty lackluster.
Barbara Walters, for all her vaunted skill as an interviewer, stumbled over her questions like I did in my first month as a TV intern. The women of The View proved, as always, a bunch of nitwits with Whoopi leading the pack, questioning why the Illinois Senate is taking away Blago's rights (an argument sort of echoed by Geraldo Rivera on Fox awhile later as he and Whoopi cooed and hugged). Neither of them have apparently read the rules of the impeachment trial. But then again, why let facts mess up some perfectly good posturing?
And Larry King let Blago get away with claiming that Supreme Court rules bar him from speaking out about the allegations against him. Huh? The rules of good sense, maybe, but the Supreme Court has nothing to do with it. As a lawyer and former prosecutor, Blago knows someone accused of a crime can say anything they wish. I wish he'd tried that "Supreme Court" argument on Nancy Grace.
A caller came up with the best question of the evening on Larry King. She asked Blago if his media tour is an attempt to influence a future jury pool.
What I haven't heard anyone say about Blago's media blitz is this:
He's a megalomaniac. He loves and courts attention. While his lawyer (who quit, probably in disgust) Ed Genson told him to keep his trap shut, Blago wanted to make his last gasp as Governor the best it could be. He'll be busted down to private citizen by Friday but, by golly, he's having a ball getting his face in front of a national audience first.
Unfortunately for you, Governor, the nation's TV viewers have a miniscule attention span.
Fortunately for us, the people who are prosecuting you do not.
No comments:
Post a Comment