Thursday, Jan. 25, 2001 | 10:22 a.m.
Brian Greenspun is the editor of the Las Vegas Sun.
PEOPLE IN AMERICA don't need encouragement from Brian Williams to destroy their own television sets. They are perfectly capable of acting like children without any help from the media.
I remain one of the handful of citizens who choose to watch the news shows on cable rather than the game shows on broadcast television. Perhaps that's why I walk around overly concerned about too much that I can't do much about rather than join those merrier souls who can give lightning-quick answers to slowed down questions designed to keep even the most tenuous of high school grads interested through the commercial breaks.
I was reverting to form Wednesday night while Brian Williams -- a decent newscaster in a sea of television talk show indecency -- was trying to goad his guests on various subjects having to do with the president. I should say former president, as in William Jefferson Clinton, because there was little to be gleaned about the current occupant of the people's White House, George W. Bush. It seems that the "news" is still focused on the man who left that office five days ago, as are the panelists who make their bread only when ratings rise sufficiently to warrant a return invitation. In short, President Bush, so far, is boring, and former President Clinton is not.
Last night's topics ranged from pardons to preachers to place settings, with the greatest amount of time devoted by Williams to the fact that President and Hillary Rodham Clinton's friends showered them with last-minute gifts to make their homecomings a bit warmer. The usual cast of characters were present -- one defending them, one attacking them and one or two who actually made some sense of the whole thing.
Mind you, MSNBC could have devoted the hourlong news effort to determining the quality of President Bush's choice for attorney general, an effort that might have earned it a kudos or two for righteous reporting. Instead, we were regaled with the opinions of three men, none of whom probably ever had to move into a new home without glassware or even a warm blanket, about what was right or wrong with the Clintons receiving charity.
The story, in case you missed it, has been floating around for six weeks that Clinton friends chipped in and helped provide furniture, silverware and other household items that they needed to make their new houses homes once they left 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. They did so before Hillary became Senator Hillary so as to avoid those nasty ethics rules that say senators cannot take gifts over some paltry amount. Naturally, those who have always found reason to attack the former president and first lady have been given a new lease on a lifelong passion of finding fault where none lies and wrongdoing where none has been done.
I know about what I speak on this one because my wife and I are happy contributors to one of the Clinton abodes. I don't know which one -- in fact, when we were given the opportunity to help there was only one house in suburban New York -- but sometime in the future I hope to be a guest, using not my fingers but some very elegant flatware made possible by their Las Vegas friends. So instead of asking people who wouldn't know how to respond to a friend in need and only know how to provoke ratings angst, Brian Williams should have asked me. Or to be precise, my wife.
The truth, of course, is that Myra looked upon this as another buying opportunity, much like she does the dozens of weddings, bar mitzvahs and baby showers that we look forward to celebrating with friends and loved ones each year. True to form, she informed me what we bought them long after the purchase had been made knowing full well that I would react the way I usually do. "That's nice. Couldn't we do more?"
First, let me make something very clear. Who cares whether the Clintons' friends helped furnish their new homes? Is there some insinuation that the only person in that family left in public office, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, is going to sell her office for a place setting of flatware? Or a sofa? And even worse, is there someone other than a most cynical fool who believes that any of us would attempt to buy or even think we could buy a favor from Hillary for the price of a knife and fork?
Isn't it easier and more sensible to believe that what happened is exactly what did happen? That friends were helping friends. Just like we do for our neighbors, for our relatives and, frankly, for strangers who usually need more help than we can give, we were merely doing what we thought was right and proper under the circumstances.
It is interesting that the people making the most noise are the folks who have no trouble paying their bills and making their house payments. They don't know what it is to owe more money than they have. In the Clintons' case, it wasn't until Hillary made an $8 million book deal that the rest of the world didn't believe them to be well upside down in the assets and liabilities columns. Rather than nitpick a few "housewarming gifts," the value of which don't mean very much to the people on the giving end, wouldn't we be better off as a nation questioning why the effort needed to be made in the first place?
Brian Williams asked another well-known president, Jed Bartlett from the "West Wing," what he thought about the gifts. Bartlett's alter ego, Martin Sheen, suggested that whatever President Clinton was paid by the taxpayers was well below the good that he did for us, and since he was certain they hadn't run off with tax-paid items, then whatever gifts they received were deminimus in nature and, my words, absurd to even discuss on a legitimate news show. That's when Brian invited the people who wanted to jump through their television sets to come back this evening for round two when there would be more from the "other side." I am thinking about tuning in tonight just to see the kind of people who would be so foolish as to jump through their televisions, as if that would show a level of caring that this democracy needs to flourish for another 200 years. On se cond thought, I think I'll look for something a bit more substantive, like how our new president finds compassion in a man ! like John Ashcroft.
I'll tell you what a good news show could cover. What about this preoccupation in America to try to financially destroy the opposition political leaders so that when they do leave office they will be at the mercy of their friends and neighbors to help set their table? What pleasure should we take, as Americans, in driving our elected leadership -- regardless of political party -- so deep into a financial hole that they become beholden to their friends in a way that would threaten the dignity of even the mightiest among us?
Those are the kinds of meaty issues that Brian Williams should be discussing. Spending time discussing inexpensive gifts from friends is beneath not only Williams' dignity but also the worth MSNBC should be placing on the viewers who tune in each night to learn something of real value.
Ready, set, jump.
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