I wonder if Jonathan Karl thinks he did a good job of questioning Mitt Romney about the controversy surrounding his departure from Bain Capital. I hope Mr. Karl is currently hitting himself in the face with a 2×4 in some sort of ritual penance for dropping the ball.
The first question is like something out of tee-ball. Karl notes that someone in the Obama campaign mentioned that he might have committed a felony, but he doesn’t explain why, and then he just offers Romney a chance to rebut the charge. That’s pathetic, and it doesn’t help inform his viewers about the issue at all. It just makes it sound like an unsubstantiated allegation had been made.
His second question is to ask whether the president should apologize for the behavior of his staff. How’s that for hard-hitting?
With his third question he actually makes a go at being a journalist. He asks Romney if he can avoid being responsible for the actions of Bain Capital when he was the owner, the CEO, and the chairman of the board. But, when Romney insists that he bears zero responsibility for Bain’s action despite his positions, Karl meekly follows up by saying, “So you bear no responsibility?”
And then look at his next question and ask yourself if Sarah Palin could do worse:
KARL: So you don’t disavow what happened at the company, that they may have done things that were wrong, not wrong that you had nothing to do with. would there be something with being associated with Bain Capitol during those years?
It’s as if Mr. Karl is too focused on the warm puddle in his underpants to perform basic syntax. What is he even saying?
After Romney’s nonsensical response, Karl pivots away from confrontation to ask for some meta:
KARL: So what happened here? This campaign, your private sector experience many thought was going to be your greatest asset in the campaign and so far it has been the thing you have been attacked for most relentlessly.
That’s just more tee-ball.
And then Karl drops the subject entirely to inquire about rumors that Condi Rice might be on the VP short-list (which Romney won’t respond to) and to ask a question about Chinese-made uniforms our Olympians will be wearing.
He should have inquired whether Romney would be willing to change his Depend Adult Undergarment for him.
What kind of interview was that?
Do some homework for Chrissakes. Make the man explain why he isn’t a felon and point out that no one in their right mind thinks a man can be the 100% owner of a company and bear no responsibility for what that company does for four consecutive years.
That is fucking classic. Jawdropping. Wow. Just when you don’t think corporate media can get any more obsequious or incoherent, they move the goalposts again.
So far the goalposts have migrated off the field, outside the stadium, beyond the parking lots, down the highway, across the industrial development, and are now lying miles away in a municipal landfill. The game, of course, has followed.
Yes, it’s functionally illiterate. He should be fired.
But he’s an Emmy Winner!
you’re awesome BooMan.
it was ridiculous. I know bloggers that would have done an actual interview, and I’m not talking about the ones that show up on tv. just regular bloggers.
There are high school newspaper journalists who would have done a better job.
By putting his proveable lie on the table again it gives the David Corn’s of the world the target to keep the column of lies building. Corn was noticeably absent Friday and from the talk on CURRENT there is a large Mother Jones effort afoot to flesh out even more.
Strangely, Mitt didn’t counter any of this with I’ll be putting 1 or 2 more years of tax returns out to answer some of these questions. Clearly he will wait until after the Convention when it’s too late to go back.
Even Cheney never said ‘trust me, I’m a Republican’ but that’s what Mitt is saying. The question that is embiggin’n is when is Mitt going to answer any question with more than, ‘trust me, I’m a Republican’?
Karl did do some homework. His homework revealed that Mitt Romney is still pretty close to the president in the polls, and has lots of money, and has friends with even more money, so he may yet be elected president; Karl’s research also revealed that Republicans who are elected president are vindictive toward journalists who treat them with anything other than kid gloves. So if Karl hopes for any access to the president in a Romney administration, he’d better ask Romney to bend over, and then he’d better give him a big wet kiss.
There is something very strange about this whole Bain post 1999 stuff.
In the first place, $100K is not a lot for a board member of something like Bain. They are there for the express purpose of knowing who to contact given a specific problem. They DON’T have anything to do with the running of the company. The payment for nothing is nothing to write home about.
There are examples of vulture capitalism prior to the 1999 deadline, you don’t really need the examples after that date to make the point. I don’t understand the compelling desire to go post 1999. In addition, Romney was the OWNER of the company. Anything that company does can be used against him … the owner is the owner. He holds the ultimate responsibility.
Something fishy is going on here. Obama and Co. have never quibbled over legalities before (it doesn’t matter what your definition of “is” is). Something big is in the offing. I wish I knew what it is.
I hope there is something big to follow, or all of this will be buried in definitions and distinctions until it’s a big cloud. Stormy one, but still–
It’s not that he was paid $100,000. Instead $100,000 is all he has to declare and that is apparently PER company which at a minimum is 13 that he was actively involved with according to his own disclosure forms. Of the 77 firms he disclosed all but 13 he footnoted as having a ‘passive’ relationship.
Of course it’s hard to imagine that transactions after 1999 were undertaken by signatory partners without the blessing of the Board, ummm CEO, President & sole shareholder, Willard. I’d love to see that Board Resolution designating how the managing partner(s) were alloted power, or not.
That is what is known the the media as a Wall Street media interview, genus Disney.
I fear that if you keep reading and watching this sort of mainstream crap, you will do something violent to your head and the walls of your cabin. Either quit paying attention to this garbage, diversify your information sources, or move to a place with cheap sheetrock and 36″-centered studs so you won’t injure yourself.
You’re much too valuable around here.
I just don’t know how on the one hand you can say facts don’t matter and on the other you say Obama is LYING.
Sounds like you’re trying to con us, Mr. Eight Figures of Unspecified Income and Assets.
This isn’t particularly surprising. Jonathon Karl is also the guy who did a puff piece on Paul Ryan where he allowed him to lie about a budget program he wanted to cut. The guy does no homework because his gimmick is sucking up to right wingers.