Context? Truth? In the end, it's really your call
How interesting that when he decided to begin telling us all "the truth" about his activities that led to federal charges and an impeachment case, Gov. Rod Blagojevich turned to The View in New York City. What, one wonders, would Whoopi Goldberg do or say that - oh, say - ABC 7's Chuck Goudie or our own John Patterson wouldn't? Well, I can tell you one difference between The View and the Daily Herald is that John Patterson, no matter how tempted he might be, would never reach out and tousle the governor's hair - as View co-host Joy Behar did.
More to the point, though, Blagojevich's key contention on his New York City talking tour was a familiar one for people caught saying something embarrassing in public: His remarks were taken out of context. So, again, did Larry King or Diane Sawyer manage to get the governor to lay out the full context with some question he hasn't been asked or wouldn't be asked back home? Clearly not. In fact, other than revealing that he was considering Oprah Winfrey as a Senate nominee, I'm not sure we heard anything new at all in the governor's two-day whirlwind media extravaganza.
It's not surprising to find that he is frustrated by the reporting here in Chicago and in Illinois. He told a news conference last Friday that the only way for the truth to come out about his situation is for the editorial boards of the state's newspapers to get behind him and tell people - as Patterson told Daily Herald readers exclusively five days after Blagojevich's arrest - that he's been the only thing standing between lawmakers and a tax increase.
Yet, the governor didn't call our editorial board to seek the chance to tell his side of things. I assure you we would have welcomed him. I expect the Chicago Tribune's editorial board likewise would have been all but giddy at the opportunity to have him explain face-to-face the context that would demonstrate he wasn't trying to get one of their editorial writers fired in exchange for the state's help selling Wrigley Field. For their part, our reporters have put in countless calls to him, his staff and his attorneys seeking an interview.
Yet, rather than speak to those of us who have watched this case from the beginning and who might be able to provide some additional context, he seemed to think there was more credibility in being interviewed by people who have followed the case from afar. It was an interesting appeal to populism, but considering that he was still the subject of David Letterman's Top Ten List Tuesday night, it apparently didn't diminish his status as a national laughingstock quite as much as the governor might have hoped.
I don't mean to understate the public relations fix in which Blagojevich finds himself. He has to be careful about what he says to avoid hurting himself in his criminal trial, yet he also needs somehow to defend himself in his political case. But it is worth noting that his approach underscored something critics of "the media" don't often consider - that "the media" is not exactly the single-celled monolith it is often made out to be but in fact a multifaceted group of entities with sometimes subtle, sometimes substantial differences both in personality and authority.
Today, interestingly, by taking the podium in his defense before the Senate impeachment vote, he will speak to them all at once. Perhaps we'll all get a glimpse then of this greater context that will lead to "the truth." But I'm eager to point out that the Daily Herald, like other media in the governor's home state, will be providing a wealth of further interviews and, wherever possible, posing deeper questions, so that ultimately, neither us nor the governor nor the Senate nor Barbara Walters nor Jay Leno will be determining what the truth is. That will be up to you.