This is freaking ridiculous. The guy is a total scumbag and he’s out there “JETTING” around crying about how unfair this is to him. And not only that, the people interviewing him are not nearly antagonistic enough. Nearly “identifying” with his plight.
What is wrong with our media? If I had him on the air, it’d only be so I could tell him face-to-face what a crook he is and I hope he spends his jail-time with a angry hair-transplant inmate named Bubba.
The focus was an Illinois horse track operator whose industry stood to benefit from a bill on Blagojevich’s desk.
The governor was prepared to sign it, but he first sent emissaries to demand a $100,000 political contribution.
Blagojevich is boycotting the trial, jetting instead to New York for a blizzard of television interviews in which he contends he is being treated unfairly.
The final taped conversation about the racetrack bill was made on Dec. 4, five days before Blagojevich’s arrest on public corruption charges. He later signed the bill, which routed casino receipts to the ailing horse racing industry.
He’ll be on Rachel Maddow tonight. I feel like she’ll at least have some good questions for him rather than the usual lob, smile, and nod he’s getting everywhere else.
I’m betting that he arranged ahead of time which questions would be asked. And the media agreed because he’ll bring in ratings even if they do nothing but lob the agreed-upon softballs to him.
The more I hear him talk, the more I realize that we need more people like him in the public eye. He’s a total sociopath and ravingly incompetent about it. It’s an awesome combination.
Nothing is wrong with our media. They are doing what they are supposed to do, get you to watch the Carl’s Jr commercials. If you think particularly tv is about more than that, you are sadly mistaken.
He’s about to address the Illinois Senate. Looks like CNN, FOX and MSNBC are all showing it live. They even gave us some “OJ in the white Bronco” helicopter coverage of him driving there. If nothing else, this should be entertaining.
He’s been going twenty minutes without pausing to breathe. He occasionally glances down at notes, but this is not a prepared speech. He may be saying nothing but lies, I don’t know IL politics, but this is one impressive riff.
Blagojevich is part of a major news story so it shouldn’t be surprising that the media wants to have him on to talk about. There’s also the whole “innocent until proven guilty” thing we supposedly still believe in that says he has a right to state his side of things. To the degree that an accused person may try to manipulate the public through the media is simply a price we pay for letting the media talk about this stuff.
He was given an opportunity to state his side of things, and he blew it off. He just didn’t show up. So picture me playing the world’s smallest violin in sympathy for Mr. “They didn’t give me a chance to speak in my own defense” Blagojevich. I mean, seriously–if I were charged with a crime and refused to show up for my trial, do you think the judge would say 'Well, we can’t convict him unless he tells his side of things, and he’s not talking, so case dismissed!" Because I’m pretty sure that’s not how it would go down.
