THREE quick mini media reviews:
ONE: I caught most of Alberto Gonzales’ “testimony” on NPR while driving north last Thursday. As a product of the Watergate era and more televised Nixon press conferences than I care to remember, (the ones with the sweaty upper lip were the best), plus a few impromptu Spiro Agnew vs. inquisitors, Edwin Meese, James G. Watt and Ollie North circuses, I thought I had seen every possible variation on clumsy prevarication in high public officials … until Gonzales took his oath.
It was astonishing. It was so bad in fact that I couldn’t trust my own instincts. So I tuned back in at 8 Thursday night for NPR’s hour-long analysis with Nina Totenberg, not one to normally engage in hyperbole. Both Totenberg and her sources confirmed my gut reaction. A disaster of historic proportions. Unprepared, unprofessional and unabashedly clueless.
Formal reviews poured in the next day. But being the type who regularly thinks darker motivations for public perforemances often go unreported in the mainstream press, (because they can’t be verified by two or more on-record sources), I shifted to hardened cynic mode and asked myself if Gonzales, who we know had “prepared” for his testimony, belly-flopped on purpose. I mean, he’s obviously covering up for someone higher up, and we can all guess who. But did he perform spectacularly badly on purpose?
[Close Up: Eyes darting furiously, searching for a rational with a semblance of logic.] Could Gonzales’ performance be part of a distraction campaign? Yeah! That’s it! Distraction! He’s so pathetically inept he temporarily draws attention away from all the other colossal blunders and scandals of the Bush administration, taking all the focus and heat at least for another couple weeks, giving his mentors time to cobble together fallback Strategy “R” before throwing him under the bus.
OK, lets give that a 20% probability. With an 80% likelihood that Gonzales really is as entirely clueless and overwhelmed as he seems, and just another example of a “loyal Bushie” caught in the headlights. (By the way. I don’t recommend reading Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s, “Imperial Life in the Emerald City” while following either the US Attorney’s story or anything about Alberto Gonzales, Monica Goodling, or, God forbid, Rachel Paulose.)
TWO: With the action at my favorite northern Wisconsin roadhouse winding down early Saturday night — the three hard-smokin’ gals cleaned up on the penny slots and bought their gentlemen callers a round of $1.50 beers — I decided to tune in “Saturday Night Live”, assuming they couldn’t resist a Gonzales skit.
Ok, so I remembered Scarlett Johansson was hosting. Shoot me. But the answer on Gonzales was, “no”. They opened instead with Jason Sudeikis as Bush doing a press conference honing down the terms by which he’d allow “senior White House officials” to testify before the Judiciary Committee. Sudeikis does a better Bush than Seth Meyers, but for sheer spacey pugnacity no one can compare with Will Ferrell’s 15-watt George W.
Later, Meyers and Amy Poehler did a bit called, “Really?” in the middle of their “Weekend Update” shtick. For a satirical skit show that too often pulls punches that might earn it a little more smart crede AND a bigger laugh, the bit was remarkable for the undisguised contempt and derision it threw up at Bushworld. If by now anyone needed some kind of pop indicator of the irreversible implosion of this administration, they could hear it that one little skit.
Obviously, with the exception of the Star Tribune’s political section, everyone paying attention has concluded that this US Attorneys story is prima facie example of the essential corruption at the heart of the Bush/neo-conservative governing philosophy.
To put a sharper point on disgust and contempt, the Robert Smigel cartoon, (you can see it here on Crooks and Liars), was more angry than funny as it posited a Dick Cheney-ordered robot for torturing detainees. (Love the bit where the robot sodomizes “60 Minutes’ ” Steve Kroft.)
Did I mention Scarlett Johansson? Besides everything else, the woman can act. Witness: “Match Point”. (Be a Winner! Your name in print here if you’re the first to send me a link to the video Johansson did for Bob Dylan’s “Modern Times” CD. The one with the ’60s style Minnesota lake vacation imagery. I saw it once, but haven’t been able to connect since.)
THREE: Back in town Sunday night, I tuned in to “60 Minutes” having heard about a piece Anderson Cooper, on loan from CNN, had done on the “Stop Snitchin’” code being pushed by high-profile rappers and their corporate managers.
OK, its maybe six months to a year down the pike since, “Stop Snitchin’” stepped out in hip hop culture. But give “60 Minutes” credit for getting to it. (Basically the code admonishes the hip hop faithful to never assist the police in any way, not even to apprehend murderers and rapists.) Its hard to imagine a more counter-productive attitude if you’re trying to create wider sympathy for your cause, but hey, it sells.
Cooper got one rap star, “Killa’ Cam”, to sit for an interview and concede that selling the “Stop Snitchin’” idea was good for business, and that, conversely, even intimating that you had any kind of moral responsibility to help apprehend violent criminals was bad for business. Moreover — points for candor here — Killa’ Cam emphasized that no record company — including his, which is a division of Time-Warner — would never be so stupid as to step in and tell an artist to dial back on the misanthropy. That, after all, would have a negative impact on shareholder value.
In the wake of Don Imus, and the debate over the pop imagery that may have fueled Seung Cho’s rampage, it was telling that Cooper and “60 Minutes” couldn’t coax a Time Warner executive out in front of a camera.
Cooper, who hit every “60 Minutes” intonation cue in his set-up, followed a riveting piece by the under-used Lara Logan. Titled “Life in Baghdad” it was essentially the stories of two Iraqi families trying to survive our campaign of liberation. (So OK, go ahead and read, “Imperial Life in the Emerald City”. But expect your blood pressure to spike.)
One father, a beefy Tony Soprano-type, drops fresh bullet clips into his revolver to drive his kids to school every day. That is of course on the days a suicide bombing, or a raging gun battle or a security sweep doesn’t prevent them from leaving their house at all. (Had to smile at the guy cruising in a big, waddling Buick Park Avenue.)
Logan is pretty no-nonsense and ought to make more appearances on, say, “Face the Nation”. I caught her there once, and could tell her “Lets cut the bullshit” tone and line of questioning was a tad too raw for Bob Schieffer and his administration guests. Here’s a clip of one of Logan’s better pieces.
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