This is written from the hip, a few minutes after watching a Charlie Rose show. I am venting for catharsis. I caught the show while channel surfing and saw that California Congresswoman Barbara Lee was the first guest so I broke down and watched her segment.
I don’t think I have ever seen usually obsequious, administrative shill Charlie so interruptive, cliche ridden, confrontative, and insistent on selling his and the neoliberal/neocon war friendly agenda not only in terms of the Afghanistan War but also pressing pressing pressing a reluctant Rep. Lee to change her position against US military intervention in Libya.
I have major issues with Charlie Rose and avoid watching him. He clearly likes to rub elbows with the patriarchs of power whether corporate, political, celebrity or military and serves them the friendliest softballs. He enjoys offering them all his little table for their agendas which little table is too little for the American “little guys and gals” with their pesky populist needs.
Rep. Barbara Lee impressed me with her positions. She was articulate and gracious and stayed calm and grounded. She did not impress me when she gave friendly lip service to Obama and his health care or to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. She also disappointed Charlie Rose doing that, since he wanted to stress to his viewers that Ms. Lee was no friend in policy to either Obama and Gates. Charlie wanted to give her a push into the official enemy of Obama camp so that it would be even clearer to his viewers. So heavy-handed and non-neutral, our crony to the patriarchal stars, Charlie. Kinda like David Brooks.
Lee is a Democrat and is trying she asserted to liberalize her troubled Democractic Party. I would imagine being a Democrat stressing one’s progressivism and speaking with clarity and empathy for humanity in general and the desperate plight of the people in her constituency, in particular, especially those in economic desperation, is not easy among the Beltway bubble people, especially super bubble person Rose.
Charlie wanted to keep on about the war. Rep. Lee kept calmly insisting that the executive branch should not be empowered to launch wars. Clearly this did not sit well with Charlie Rose. Barbara Lee expressed her disappointment that Obama’s administration was a continuation of Bush’s in terms of the wars.
Rep. Barabara Lee clearly wants the war funding to end for Afghanistan and the troops to be withdrawn. Apparently 2/3 of the country agrees with her now newscasters are reporting, but not our Charlie. Why should he? I mean he helped promote the wars on so many, many shows. Charlie Rose pushed on Afghanistan being the “just” war.
Rep. Barbara Lee said that it was up to Congress to make decisions for the war, not the generals and not the executive branch. She said that the generals either reported that the war was going well and they needed more troops and funding to succeed, or that the war was going badly and they needed more troops and funding. “Don’t you think the generals should be listened to?” asked exasperating tool Charlie, and I gotta tell you it sounded personal and sour as if he were defending his buds. So provocative and reductionistic. Lee stayed calm and unruffled, bless her.
Barbara Lee agreed that there should be a FULL exploration of the situation, that the generals should be included but in a much wider exploration with more legitimate parties heard from.
Apparently Rep. Barabara Lee has written a book in which she talks about her experience as a battered woman. I would have liked to have heard more personal stuff about this then and there. Come on, Charlie. You are hosting an interview show.
But Charlie used this to challenge her about being against the plight of Afghanistan women with the Taliban. How contradictory and hypocritical (not Charlie’s word but his meaning) this was. There was the big lie once again, after so much has happened. We went into Afghanistan to help save the women as well as to fight al Qaeda. Charlie reminded Barbara Lee al Qaeda most likely would come back to Afghanistan to use it as a safe haven once again if we withdrew. Another reason not to leave. So many old talking point chestnuts Charlie kept heaving at Ms. Lee.
Then Charlie went on to press her on why she was against a no fly zone in Libya when the people of the region so clearly needed our help, the kind of people Barbara Lee maintains she wants to help. The kind of people who are striving for democratic ideals. Charlie Rose was keeping the interview his own, not Ms. Lee's, on such a shallow, emotionally and politically manipulative plane. It was creepy. It was not an interview with Barbara Lee, but Charlie Rose’s defense of the administrative status quo using Barbara Lee’s perspective as counterpoint to illuminate old Charlie’s and Obama’s WINNING perspective. It was pure propaganda. Ugly propaganda.
Congresswoman Lee said that what is happening in the Middle East is a vast grassroots movement, and the United States stepping in would defy that and be heavy-handed and even unwelcome by the very people Charlie was asserting wanted us to help them. “We will make matters worse with an air strike,” Barbara Lee insisted.
But what if the US and NATO and the UN want to go in there and help, Charlie whined. Way to go, Charlie. Another psuedo-humanitarian garden path of doom for all sides, except patriarchal ego maniacs, media ones very definitely included.
Well, where did Ms. Lee see military intervention justified, an exasperated Charlie Rose demanded of her, as if she were anti-American not being a war mongering jingoist. Rep. Lee spoke about successful military peace-keeping missions. She mentioned being in support of Obama’s non-proliferation stance. Yadda yadda yadda to ol’ Charlie’s ears.
She then TRIED to speak about how trillions of dollars were going into wars, and this gross depletion of funding was creating crises for the American people who needed jobs and saving social programs. She mentioned the desperate disenfranchised segments of our population. Yadda yadda yadda to the ears of Charlie Rose.
The Charlie Roses. The corporate media. Enablers of American patriarchal oppression and the military industrial security complex war machine. Friends of the rich.
Public television? I don’t think so, Charlie. You are one more bully for an amoral status quo. I intend to read Lee’s book. I don’t intend to look up your show again.
[cross-posted at correntewire and sacramento for democracy]
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