While watching that particular segment, what I do not like about Charlie Rose presented itself to me in full color. Watching his show is like going along on a golf outing with your work superiors. During the outing you’ll hear little snippets of this and that, but those snippets will be accompanied by knowing glances exchanged back and forth among the superiors. You’re invited, but it’s clear as crystal that you are not included. If the stature of guests at his on-the-air cocktail party are any indication, the show’s cache among those who set the course for this country – most of them white, male and based in either New York or Washington – is troubling.
But not as troubling as William Daley. Amidst a lot of that straight white guy chuckling, Charlie and his buds talked about what “Rham” is up to back in Chicago, how “David” will be going back to Chicago soon for the “election cycle” (“David” is David Axelrod, and “the election cycle” is what the cool kids now call what used to be known more commonly as “the election”) and how “Bill” is proof perfect to the financial industry that Obama is not really a liberal ideologue. (Somehow, the bankers have hallucinated Obama as such, revealing a level of simplified stupidity and a flair for tantrum throwing that makes me wonder how they can possibly manage money, and the answer to that, of course, is that they cannot.)
The next day I listened to Amy Goodman. Based on my limited and narrow exposure, I cannot think of a single person in the media who is qualified to take a seat once occupied by Bill Moyers, but the one person who comes closest, I believe, is Amy Goodman. She seems infinitely more informed and far more skilled at asking questions than Charlie Rose, so of course she’s been relegated to community radio stations and cable television channels.
The guests on her show, as you might imagine, had a different take on William Daley. Her hour-long program covered one thing after another that I believe should be of grave concern to anyone who does not want the White House to become the D.C. satellite office of J.P. Morgan Chase and others.
But here are two that I found particularly appalling. The first is that William Daley actively opposed creating a federal department to watch out for the financial interests of consumers. Thanks to the tactical ineptness of Obama, his advisors and Democrats in general, Elizabeth Warren wasn’t ever officially confirmed to lead the new department, meaning she doesn’t have much in the way of real power. So, in the future, when choices need to be made between consumers and the banks, and “Bill” is there running the show, who wins?
The second issue Amy Goodman covered is that “Bill” opposed healthcare reform. That must be something of a twofer for our president. While so-called liberals are busy offing one another while those the more naïve among us are counting on them to confront continue to get richer by the day, not only will Wall Street bask in the glow of an extension of special treatment protocols, the health insurance industry will as well. And best of all, Obama will be lauded by the Charlie Rose Club for the deep, deep reverence he has for those with different ideas. So much so, in fact, that he seeks out situations and people who will create and sustain a “philosophically diverse” intellectual environment.
