Bieber, Mitchell And Davos

Andrea Mitchell Reports on msnbcThursday afternoon. TV on. MSNBC.

Used to watch them a lot more.

Andrea Mitchell was interviewing a congresswoman or former congresswoman who was in Davos, Switzerland. The World Economic Summit is happening there. Jon Stewart calls it the ‘money prom!’

Then, without warning, Mitchell stopped the interview for Breaking News.

Justin Bieber being arraigned. Live video. Justin in jail scrubs.

There are certain moments in life which are gut-checks. Make the right decision regardless of the cost.

I’m not saying disregard Bieber, but it could wait. Few already watching the weighty interview in progress gave a damn about Justin Bieber. Cutting away was the wrong choice.

I feel bad for Andrea Mitchell. She is the public face of what was a producer’s choice.

Addendum: Mediaite has the actual video.

More On The AIG Bonuses

This is not about actual dollars as much as it’s about principle and pride.

I just watched Andrea Mitchell interview Pennsylvania’s Arlen Spector about the AIG bonuses. Senator Spector says the contracts are unenforceable because they violate public policy.

“In order to be enforceable, a contract cannot violate “public policy”. For example, if the subject matter of a contract is illegal, you cannot enforce the contract. A contract for the sale of illegal drugs, for example, violates public policy and is not enforceable.” – expertlaw.com

OK–sounds good to me.

There has been some talk that this $165 million is a small amount in the general scheme of things. “Like pissing in the ocean,” comes to mind. I don’t disagree, but that’s beside the point.

This is not about actual dollars as much as it’s about principle and pride. It is wrong to reward disaster–and AGI’s situation is a worldwide financial disaster. Beyond that, we taxpayers are being played as fools.

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As noted in the comments, this entry originally had a typo crucial to the actual meaning. My apologies.

Politics

Are you into politics much? We ran a poll on-the-air Tuesday and only 3% of our voting viewers said they were obsessed with politics. If I’m not in the 3%, I’m close.

Maybe it’s not so much I’m into politics as I watch a lot of news, especially the cable news networks. I see them when I get up and again when I come home.

Tonight I turned on MSNBC and came upon a post-Michigan primary roundtable hosted by Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews. They were chatting it up with NBC’s political director and Andrea Mitchell.

At one point they all began to salivate. OK, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but they were excited. Leaving Michigan, no candidate has gotten an insurmountable lead. It’s possible one, or both, of the political conventions will be contested.

I’m not sure that’s happened in my lifetime, a convention convened without a candidate already anointed.

For the last few decades, political conventions have been stage managed and homogenized. In an open convention, political warfare would take place. It might be riveting. Think of it as a reality show.

It also might allow a fatally wounded (in the electable sense) candidate to be chosen.

This coming presidential election promises to be one of the most interesting in a very long time. The current national political tilting away from Republicans could be short lived if Democrats fight too much this summer Denver.