Send in the clowns: Blagojevich plays to cheap seats in 'media circus'

It's only January, but Whoopi Goldberg of "The View" got off what is likely to be the understatement of the year when she told Gov. Rod Blagojevich Monday, "This is turning into a bit of a media circus."

Honey, welcome to the three-ring traveling fantasmagoria that is Illinois politics. On Monday morning on network TV the clowns just kept pouring out of the car, led of course by Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Blagojevich ran from the Illinois Senate impeachment proceedings Monday and into the welcoming arms of the major network morning news shows. He made live appearances on ABC's "Good Morning America" and "The View," as well as on NBC's "Today Show" in a taped interview with Amy Robach. Later on, he appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live."

Across the spectrum, he kept repeating his various mantras: that "the fix is in," that the impeachment is a "kangaroo court" offering no opportunity to defend himself, that the taped transcripts of his recorded conversations allegedly trying to auction Barack Obama's Senate seat and indulging in other forms of pay-to-play politics were taken "out of context" and that it was all political payback for his populist agenda of bleeding-heart good deeds.

Just asking, but why is it Illinois governors have to be fighting for their scandalous political lives before they do anything remotely progressive, such as expand health care or halt the death penalty?

Through it all, he came off as remarkably sympathetic. The man could charm a money belt off a lobbyist, and no doubt has many times. Reporters couldn't ruffle him - not these morning-news reporters, anyway, although a couple of them tried.

Barbara Walters came off best on "The View." She didn't share the stage with him, but interviewed him at arm's length from a remote location via TV, and she flashed her old hard-news claws.

"Here's your chance," she said. "No lawyers. You're talking to the public. Please answer that part of it, otherwise, why are you wasting time on these programs? Did you say these things?"

"Whatever these tapes are," Blagojevich replied, "they're going to come out and they'll speak for themselves."

Blagojevich never actually denied making the statements attributed to him by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, not with Walters, and not in the "Good Morning America" interview with Diane Sawyer, either.

"I know you've been railing against the process," Sawyer began, but then asked him point blank if the charges were true. "Absolutely not," Blagojevich answered. When she quoted passages from the transcripts, he could only say, "I can't get into the specifics of the case."

Even at that, Sawyer soon slipped into the circus herself when she got Blagojevich to admit he had briefly "considered" Oprah Winfrey to fill Obama's seat. She only belatedly realized she had conceded him the initiative to blather on, and it wasn't until she asked him about how his wife, Patti, was doing that she got him back on the defensive.

Otherwise, the morning news shows did not distinguish themselves with their intrepid journalism. Robach's interview, conducted at Blagojevich's home, went all touchy-feely when he ushered her into the room used for fundraising - and bugged by the feds. Joy Behar of "The View" tried to turn the circus to her advantage by egging Blagojevich on to do his imitation of Richard Nixon, but that was after Sherri Shepherd made the most obsequious remark of the day, saying, "We just hope that justice prevails."

That allowed Blagojevich to finish strong, as he did with Sawyer, insisting, "I won't allow them to run me out without a fight" - that is, a fight on the run, in the media, rather than in the actual impeachment hearings in the state Senate.

Speaking of which, while Blagojevich was considered newsworthy enough to be the top get as an interview on the morning news shows, none of Chicago's local broadcast stations considered the actual impeachment newsworthy enough to be carried live on the air. The major network affiliates all farmed it out to their Web sites or their auxiliary digital channels. Sure, the opening hearing dealt largely in procedural matters, but this was the impeachment of the governor. Isn't that more of a soap opera than "General Hospital," more of an all-or-nothing game than "Deal or No Deal," more of a legal battle than "Judge David Young" and even more scandalous than "Maury Povich?"

"We're making the entire trial available on our digital channel, 7-2," said Jennifer Graves, WLS Channel 7's vice president of news, "and it's also available on our Web site."

Asked if that didn't concede the media dominance to Blagojevich, she replied, "I feel that in our newscasts we have covered every angle and will continue to cover every angle."

I guess there just weren't enough clowns to attract the requisite attention, which is probably giving the state Senate more credit than it deserves. So it looks as if we'll all have to let the media circus play out until this Blagojevich sideshow is over and he gets on to his rightful calling as an Elvis impersonator.