Sidebars

The Interview By Bob Sanders

The journalistic process of interviewing people to gain information is often tricky.  Pursuit time alone can be an enormous challenge as was the case when British television personality David Frost pursued former President Richard Nixon for questioning about Watergate.

Frost’s chase of Nixon began in 1968 when he conducted a softball interview of the successful Presidential candidate who, having taken office, invited Frost to the White House.  That initial step is not mentioned in Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard’s just released film adaption of the Tony winning stage play.  The play and film have as genesis Frost’s 1977 TV interviews of the disgraced Nixon who wanted two things from the five sessions totaling 29 hours: better understanding by the American people regarding what he did and money. Frost’s efforts enabled the BBC has-been to resurrect his career.

Nearly all of what the public knows about interviewing has been gained by way of the edited television interview, warts and all.  As a result, the public has a sense of understanding about the TV result and very little about the print approach.  Sorry, David Halberstam.  They never got to “see” you in action.  Never saw your persistence, your coming back, sometimes often, to the meat of your curiosity as you took what was often the object of your disaffection through a process of questions that came from different angles making for what would have been bad TV.  Attention span, unfortunately, is of enormous importance in TV success or failure.    

Two of the very best TV interviewers today are Brian Lamb and Charlie Rose.  They’re good because they know how to ask questions.  They keep them short and simple and then get out of the way. 

Lamb is a wonder functioning as Chairman and CEO of C-SPAN, a non-profit broadcasting enterprise whose underwriting is from fees charged cable and satellite properties.  With C-SPAN since he invented it in 1979, Lamb has overseen telecasts of House and Senate proceedings plus various shows reflecting his love of books (“Booknotes” was his for 16 years) and people.  He currently can be seen Mondays at 6 a.m. (EST) on hour-long “Q&A”  One of his extended interviews on the sponsor-less channels (there are three) was of New Yorker media critic Ken Auletta and, interspersed by call-ins, was a particular delight of three hours.  Imagine!

Rose, who joined CBS News in 1984 and quickly won an Emmy for an interview of Charles Manson, left in 1990 for FOX and a staggeringly vapid show called “Personalities.”  Rose left after six weeks because of the tabloid format winding up at WNET, New York’s PBS outlet where he has been since 1993--all but the first two years in syndication.

A good example of Rose’s unique skills can be found in his December 16 interviews of Howard and Frank Langella who plays Nixon in Frost/Nixon.   Available on the internet, it is Rose’s persistency in getting the actor to explain how he got into Nixon’s soul that is quite exciting.  So deep into Nixon was Langella that he suggested a line that made the final edit: “No one can know what it’s like to be President.”

New to the interview is William Shatner, best-known as the portrayer of Capt. James T. Kirk in  the “Star Trek” TV series and movies and, most recently, as an eccentric attorney on “Boston Legal” and as Price Line’s “The Negotiator” whose TV commercial torment of wusses and namby-pambies helps bring deals to travelers.  Shatner is one of those actors who simply won’t go away, whose down-and-nearly-out period covered something like 30 years, and who has a decided knack for re-inventing himself. 

Shatner’s recently begun 30-minute interviews, titled “Shatner’s Raw Nerve,” is for lack of a better word, intimate.  As opposed to traditional TV interviews with host and subject distanced from each other by a table, Shatner and guest are presented in love seats placed in opposite directions.  Back-to-back sessions play Tuesdays at 10 p.m. (EST) on Arts & Entertainment.

A curious fellow, Shatner often asks questions of impertinence digging into actress Valerie Bertenelli’s religion, Tim Allen’s problems with drugs or Leonard Nimoy’s shoemaker grandfather who could always tell how the actor’s career was going by the condition of the actor’s leather.  It’s rather strange to report that Shatner’s lack of interview experience is the best part of it.  On the downside is the actor’s ego; we simply learn too much about Shatner although, to be fair, he’s more interesting than the guests or at least the ones seen thus far. 

While Shatner is comfortable with entertainers, he must get guests from fields other than show business.  “Shatner’s Raw Nerve” has potential yet to be realized. 

                                                            #          #          #          #               

Legacy Search By Bob Sanders

 As George W. Bush desperately searches much too late in the game for a legacy of some kind that in the final analysis can only be described in terms of abject failure, an Iraqi television journalist may have shown us the way.

The journalist, Muntadar al-Zaidi, chose a Bush news conference during the recent legacy tour in Baghdad to hurl shoes and abuse before being wrestled to the floor by what the British Broadcasting Corporation described as “security guards.”  My somewhat shaky yet hopeful assumption is that the security guards were members of the Secret Service and not Blackwater employees.  Showing the soles of shoes to someone is de rigueur in displaying contempt in Arab culture and al-Zaidi expressed his further displeasure with Bush by shouting: “This is a kiss farewell, you dog.”  Battered by Iraqi police, al Zaidi is now regarded as a hero in the Muslim world.

While most of us are inclined to treat the shoeing of Bush as something of little significance, I do wonder about the reaction time of the Secret Service agents guarding the President at the news conference.  It took something like 2.5 seconds to complete the brogans toss not counting the time it takes to unlace shoes, a rather unusual undertaking at a news conference.  In truth, one of the journalists beat the Secret Service to the protective punch.  Bush, if nothing else, knows how to duck size 10 reminders of his shortcomings.  A companion thought is that if Maxwell Smart’s people could come up with a telephone shoe, some Presidential enemy could invent something of greater harm.  Perhaps Bush’s guardians were taking 10 or 15 somewhere while fighting off legacy tour boredom?

While the lame duckster leaves office January 20^th, the Secret Service will continue to protect him by law for at least 10 years and the betting is that contempt for him here and abroad will extend the time frame.

It also appears that Bush and master of murk and fellow war criminal Vice-President Dick Cheney will escape prison largely due to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi simply not having Republican stomachs for impeachment--always a nasty though exhilarating business.  Many feel that reluctance is based upon well-founded charges that far too many Democrats bought into White House duplicity during eight years of remarkable Bush arrogance and duplicity. 

Perhaps the President’s visit to Baghdad has created a legacy although not exactly the one he was seeking.  Just maybe, the Baghdad journalist has come up with a brilliant idea.   

If Bush can’t be sent to prison for war crimes, maybe those who care should show up at his future public appearances throwing at him reminders of his horrible Presidency.  Things like hanging chads emblematic of his 2000 election infamously awarded him by our Supreme Court.  By limiting our ammunition to the physically harmless, we’ll rule out Ouija boards that helped make him The Decider plus broom sticks associated with beatings at Abu Ghraib Prison although water, as in water boarding at Guantanamo, would be O.K. as would rose petals never tossed at the feet of our soldiers as they “completed” the invasion of Iraq.   And, please, no heavy stuff like the insufficient floor boards in armored vehicles.  Black mold from Building 18 at Walter Reed Hospital would be a go in addition to miniature sand bags commemorating the disaster that was Katrina.   “You’re doing a great job, Brownie.”    

Even heaving dictionaries and copies of Roget’s Thesaurus at him would be a bit dangerous and a waste of words as we recall what he did to the English language with such observations as: “We need an energy bill that encourages consumption;” “if the terriers and bariffs are torn down, this economy will grow” and “the problem with the French is they don’t have a word for entrepreneur.”  While Yogi Berra may lead the Verbally Maladroit League, let’s remember the former New York Yankee has been at it far longer than our President.  And let’s give thanks that our new President will be speaking complete sentences built around subjects, verbs and direct objects.

Bush, with a reading level approximately that of Sarah Palin, has been challenged by books since childhood.  Because the still President (and we’re counting the days) once spent more than five minutes in an elementary school classroom reading “The Pet Goat” after being told that the second World Trade Center tower had been hit and the country under attack, we might observe the occasion by flinging copies of slim children’s books (nothing more advanced than third grade) at him. 

Something quite British should be included as we pay homage to Bush’s eccentric moments at Group 8 Summits, some of which were captured by microphones thought to be off.  Bush’s verbal grotesqueries in St. Petersburg in 2006, in which his observations to British Prime Minister Tony Blair (“Yo Blair”) and others came off as a fraternity boy haltingly explaining the Middle East and the rest of the world, were stunningly vapid.  He topped that two years later when he said to his fellow G-8ers:   “Goodbye from the world’s biggest polluters.”  Dubya sure has a way with words.

 Blair, whose association with Bush prompted his leaving office, needs our support so let’s organize a Cadre of the Caring (call them the Trifle Men & Women) who will dump the magnificent and just dessert upon Bush at occasions of significance such as the opening of the George W. Bush Library, created because there has to be a place for his book.   

One can easily acquire a fear that Bush has reached the point when the plague of perfect gauche storms offer him no way of escape.  I have in mind a photographer who this year shot the President in a Thanksgiving mood pardoning a turkey.  Pardons of turkeys are a wearisome warm-up to amnesties granted by Presidents predisposed to honor clout.   Staring at the camera wearing his what, me worry? look of befuddlement, Bush was photographed as the turkey appeared to be violating him.  A rumor that, unfortunately, never metastasized into truth emerged suggesting that Bush’s sense of humor prompted a comment that “I did not have sex with that chicken.”  Maybe those of us who dislike the President so much should throw turkey feathers at him as a reminder of the occasion.

Critics of George Bush’s intelligence have gained greater understanding through the President’s suggestion that “they misunderestimate me.”  Easily the most scoffed at President ever, Bush has been a target like no other.  Among the many derogatory novelty items for sale these days are the George Bush Toilet Brush and George Bush Toilet Paper complete with his photo and the best of his staggeringly stupid comments printed for posterity.  While we’re at it, let’s bring back TeePeeing utilizing Bush toilet paper.  Let’s also return to those carefree days of yesteryear by tying dirty old shoes together and winging them up on power lines thus reminding us of the eight years of ineptitude.

While Bush’s legacy is weighted heavily by Iraq, there is the matter of his taking our country from a Federal surplus of $236 billion to an indebtedness of more than $10 ½ trillion.  In recognition of his incompetence, the showering of Monopoly money at him during public appearances would be apropos. 

No, there will never be another George Bush, truly a man with a gift of gaffe.  The country couldn’t survive another and we are currently in the sorriest mess imaginable that he, not soon enough, will leave behind.

                                                            #          #          #          #   

 

        

 

Blagogate by Bob Sanders

One of my favorite scenes in “Casablanca” occurs when Capt. Renault, played by the estimable Claude Rains, makes an ironic remark regarding the possibility of gambling at Rick’s Place.  “I’m shocked, shocked to find gambling is going on in here.”

 I have pretty much the same attitude toward Blagogate, the latest quite valid suggestion that Illinois governors have a decided inclination to treat the office with roughly the same kind of respect given the late Rodney Dangerfield.  I’m shocked, shocked that Gov. Rod Blagojevich would threaten the Chicago Tribune while attempting to sell Barack Obama’s resigned Senatorial seat. 

A former Tribune employee, I’m fascinated that Blago would demand the firing of the editorial board including Deputy Editorial Page editor John McCormick.  As print journalism’s good ship  sinks deeper in the swirling waters of economic stress, the choice of Blogo’s target tells us much.  Columnist Mike Royko, were he still around, would have been furious, furious at such an oversight.  Royko would have been all over Blago--probably longer than the five years attention given him by U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald.  Severe critics used to demand the heads of star columnists and avenging editors.  But, a Deputy Editorial Page Editor? 

It was Fitzgerald who, having suggested “Lincoln would be rolling in his grave,” referred to Blago and his chief of staff, John Harris, as having committed a “political corruption crime spree.”  Blago owes his gubernatorial opportunity to scandal-tainted former governor George Ryan, now in prison having been sentenced to 6 1/2 years on federal corruption charges.  Blago ran for office in 2003 on a pledge to fight corruption.  The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Ryan’s stunning fall from grace was due to his quashing of investigations into the sale of drivers licenses, a scheme that netted a political crony $3 million and a lot of grief for the governor.  Tradition is a very real consideration when it comes to linkage between criminality charges and Illinois governors.  Three of them, including Ryan, have gone to prison during the past 35 years.  Dan Walker (1973-77) got nailed for fraudulent business practices after he left office while Otto Kerner (1961-68) took bribes in the form of racetrack stock.  Another, William Stratton (1953-61), was indicted for illegally using campaign funds.  He was acquitted of the charges.

Paul Powell, living frugally in a hotel apartment in Springfield, never achieved a governorship during a 42-year undefeated career capped by election as secretary of state.  Powell, referred to as “Mr. Downstate Democrat,” gained a colorful reputation by accompanying the creation of political deals with the phrase, “I can smell the meat a’cookin.”   After death in 1970, his living quarters revealed an estate of $2 million including $800,000 in shoe-boxes and brief cases. 

 What is captivatingly crass about Blago’s 76 pages of criminal charges (Blago Crime?) is how he managed to involve so much of what the rest of the country knows or thinks it knows about Chicago.  It’s not easy to be charged with corruption built around the selling of President-elect Obama’s Senate seat including: an attempted $50,000 shakedown of Children’s Memorial Hospital while $8 million in state funding was held up; the Chicago Tribune and its bankrupt parent, the Tribune Company, made so one day prior to Blagogate revelations; Blago’s wife Patricia; a highway contractor; the Chicago Cubs and Tribune Company owner Sam Zell whose reputation suggests he plays Ebenezer Scrooge during the entire year while famously expressing hatred for the journalists who toil for him.  Somehow, the Art Institute and the Chicago Symphony were not tarnished and nothing, so far, reportedly has been thrown into the Chicago River.

Somewhat minor players in the Blagodrama are the governor’s wife and Zell.  Patricia Blagojevich, a realtor, whose wire-tapped vocabulary on bleep-filled Federal Blogotapes is just as coarse as her husband’s, had her name advanced as a possible participant on paid corporate boards where she might earn $150,000 a year in exchange for the Senate appointment.  Other avenues of tradeoffs bubbled to the surface as the Feds investigated the governor.    

Gov. Blago even explored the down-the-road possibility of gaining employment with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).  So vast is its organization of more than 2 million members that it includes the Exotic Dancers Union (one chapter is the Lusty Lady Peep Show in San Francisco) and Wrigley Field vendors.  One has to wonder what Gov. Blago’s vision was as he contemplated post governorship employment by throwing in with the SEIU.   Had he put his hooks into Wrigley Field, would Bleacher Bums have been forced to negotiate for beer and hot dogs?  The mind whirls at what further might have come from Blagothink.   

Zell, a billionaire who made his money in real estate, was pulled into play by Blagocrony Harris who became aware of a Zell scheme to sell the Cubs with the assistance of the Illinois Finance Authority (IFA).   Such assistance was to be dependent on the Chicago Tribune’s willingness to fire its editorial board, critical of the governor.  The Tribune failed to comply and you thought “Days of Our Lives” has sudden plot turns?

I’m shocked, shocked yet, somehow, it figures.

                                                            #          #          #          #

      

  

    

  

Sarah, an American Treasure by Bob Sanders

Readers of this space may be surprised, even alarmed, at what could very well be interpreted as a herculean Sarah Palin flip flop by me.  Yes, thoughtful reader, I’m suggesting that we have to better understand John McCain’s defeated running mate described by humorist Dick Cavett as the “Wild Wordsmith of Wasilla.”

I think it’s time to recognize Sarah Palin for what she is: A national treasure waiting to have her vast skills utilized.  First, however, we must thoroughly examine the English language serial killer’s negative aspects.  I have particular reference to what appeared to be her lack of sensitivity directed toward a flock of turkeys whose over-her-shoulder slaughter on television was accompanied by rollicking observations about “lots of levity going on.”  Palin’s vocal motoring was high on splintered syntax that ran out of gas only when the camera stopped rolling.    

The fiasco de turkey came on the heels of a series of exclusive interviews during which Palin took on frightening reminders of Freddie Kruger, the Halloween cinema killer who simply wouldn’t go away largely because of unfaltering stick-to-itiveness delivered in eight films.  Freddie just wouldn’t take a hike and his perseverance has linked his cinematic efforts as memorably to Halloween as “It’s a Wonderful Life” to Christmas.  Palin, like Freddie, has spunk--an attribute that resonated with Americans during those countless exclusive interviews.  Palin was as omnipresent on TV as pitchman Billy Mays although I think she missed the McLaughlin Group.

Somehow, I fear we are missing the good in Sarah Palin.  While this year’s statistics won’t be totaled for some time, there is evidence the consumption of turkey may be on a downward trend because of Palin’s actions.  Tofurkey, a Thanksgiving alternative created in 1995 in Hood River, OR, is part of a burgeoning $586 million attitudinal change before Palin struck.  Further, 11 per cent of Americans now eat out on Thanksgiving Day as this country changes (there’s that word, again) ethnically.  Asians, for example, simply do not know how to cook a turkey, a fact well-established before Sarah cast a pall on turkey consumption.

Perhaps it’s time to come to some conclusions about her in terms of our national interests and how this Nation can best utilize her unique talents.  These are such unusual times that George Bush will soon receive something called the 1^st International Medal of Peace.   Such happenings bring to mind the suggestion that reality makes satire obsolete. 

Just as Monty Python’s John Cleese achieved world-wide attention as the British government’s Minister of Silly 0Walks, maybe Barack Obama should consider the creation of a new cabinet position: Secretary of the Department of Levity.  As this dangerous world continues to be beset by forces of tsunami significance, let’s send the plucky Sarah into play as a standard bearer of this country’s ability to overcome severe challenges through humor. 

Since we haven’t heard from Sarah the past couple of days and considering the attention span problems of this country’s citizens, maybe the President-elect could re-introduce Sarah as the U.S. Secretary of Levity by way of, say, publication of the best of her wit and wisdom.  With Obama’s cabinet taking on a decided Clintonian look, the inclusion of an Evangelical would prove how large is the Progressive tent.               

Admittedly, there are those among us who might be fearful that Palin bring dishonor to well-established White House traditions.  Fear not.  There is little likelihood Sarah would turn an   Easter egg hunt into a bunny shoot although a recent Supreme Court ruling rescinded a handgun ban in the District of Columbia.    The decision was a bit confusing since shotguns were already allowed.  Sarah, who shoots wolves from helicopters, may have some cogent thoughts.      

Perhaps Palin would be even more effective on the road as a good will ambassador.  The presumption is that Joe Biden’s role as vice-president will be greatly reduced from that of predecessor Dick Cheney’s shadowy perception of the job.  As Secretary of Levity, Palin could take on some of the more traditional responsibilities of the vice-presidency and lessen Biden’s workload.  Further, Palin could bring attention to mirthful American individualists such as the daunting Tom Owen, known as “The Human Speed Bump,” who allowed eight four-wheel vehicles weighing 30,000 lbs. to run over him in a successful Arizona State Fair attempt to break the Guinness Book of Records.  Sarah, the very spirit of blitheness, could be there when Owen attempts to smash his own record, a development somehow, someway, thoroughly predictable.        

Then, there are the Redneck Games in Macon, GA whose highlight this year was described as a “muddy wedding.”  Not that good things are necessarily worth repeating but Palin’s pregnant daughter, Bristol, and presumed future son-in-law, Levi Johnston, could tie the knot at the annual festival with ribbon cutting ceremonies presided over by Sarah.

One event it’s good to see making a comeback has been the lawn chair flight created by Larry Walters who, with the aid of helium balloons, space sat in a lawn chair while attaining an altitude of 16,000 ft.  That was in 1982 and he had no recorded imitators until this year when, one day apart, both an Oregonian gas station owner and a Brazilian Roman Catholic priest went skyward via Walters’ inspiration.  The gas station owner lived and shortly after became an interstate lawn chair traveler by wafting over to Idaho thus saving what was then $4.00 a gallon for gas.   The priest was lost at sea. 

With the pronounced possibility that lawn chair travel may be on its way back, the Secretary of Levity could have some balloon fun--long associated, along with leaping out of cakes, with happy times as we fend off those stomach-churning Wall Street /Main Street roller-coaster days ahead.  An angle to pursue might very well be an approach to Royal Doulton resulting in what would be a re-make of a figurine classic, The Balloon Lady, in the likeness of Sarah.  Hardly buoyed by history’s total recall, it will be imperative for the President to keep a short leash on Palin’s roguish tendencies.  America may not be ready for the Sarah McMooseberger.      

 But let’s not limit Sarah, an established internationalist as a result of seeing Russia from her home, to events of good cheer in this country.  Why not involve her in the lengthy organ performance of John Cage’s music in Halberstadt, Germany?  Titled “As Slow as Possible,” the pipe organ music, whose score is of eight pages, has been played continuously in St. Burchardi Church since 200l.   The music is scheduled to last 639 years until 2640 assuming the organ and church last that long.  We can always use some good will in Germany and Sarah would be perfect--perhaps talking to the choir--as Cage’s inspiration drones on.  Who knows?  Maybe the Palin imprint on such an event would be so significant it could be turned into a family event with succeeding members of the Alaskan clan turning up  to talk and talk and talk as we work our way to 2640.                 

There is precedent of a sort for Palin becoming Secretary of Levity though not in any way comparable to the importance of a cabinet post.  High Point (NC) University, a pretty free-wheeling opportunity for higher learning, comes complete with a concierge desk, free snacks, live music in the cafeteria and it’s all because, as a wire service story recently explained, the school has a Director of WOW!

Sarah Palin as Secretary of Levity.  WOW! You betcha!

                                                            #          #          #          #