Obama, Walters, TV and the Symbolic Presidency
There is nothing like network ego, is there? Look who gets tops billing in tonight’s big interview on ABC with President-elect Barack Obama in the show’s title A Barbara Walters Special: Barack and Michelle Obama. ABC News released a couple of teaser interview bites with Obama ripping the auto executives who showed up in private jets to bang their tin cups in Congress, and I will include those parts of the interview below. It is good stuff, and the nation has been waiting to hear what Obama thinks of the addiction to excess and privilege that such self-absorbed CEOs have shown despite their failures. On a lighter note, he also talks about trying to keep his BlackBerry -- and even here, he makes a serious point.
This interview tonight is a big deal, and I will be writing about it here at Z on TV after it airs from 10 to 11 p.m.
The interview matters because of the holiday timing and the rhythms of media and American life. It matters, too, because of what Walters represents in the public imagination. And most of all, it matters because it is part of pattern of Obama appearing to undersatnd and starting to use the Symbolic Presidency as well as Ronald Reagan or John Kennedy.
Obama’s grasp of the all-important power of symbols in shaping a nation’s sense of itself is part of what has led me to write about him since August as potentially the last great TV President. He understands that those symbols are circulated to a mass audience and become part of shared consciousness and then collective memory mainly through the media – in this case TV. That’s what I’ll be writing about tonight after the interview airs.
Here’s what Obama told Walters about the auto executives and his fight to keep his BlackBerry.
BARBARA WALTER: How did you feel when you read about the three heads of the auto companies taking privates jets to Washington?
BARACK OBAMA: Well, I thought maybe they're a little tone deaf to what's happening in America right now. And this has been a chronic problem, not just for the auto industry, I mean, we're sort of focused on them. But I think it's been a problem for the captains of industry generally. When people are pulling down hundred million dollar bonuses on Wall Street, and taking enormous risks with other people's money, that indicates a sense that you don't have any perspective on what's happening to ordinary Americans. When the auto makers are getting paid far more than their counterparts at Toyota, or at Honda, and yet they're losing money a lot faster than Japanese auto makers are, that tell me that they're not seeing what's going on out there, and one of the things I hope my presidency helps to usher in is a, a return to an ethic of responsibility.
That if you're placed in a position of power, then you've got responsibilities to your workers. You've got a responsibility to your community. Your share holders. That if -- there's got to be a point where you say, 'You know what, I have enough, and now I'm in this position of responsibility, let me make sure that I'm doing right by people, and, and acting in a way that is responsible.' And that's true, by the way, for members of congress, that's true for the president, that's true for cabinet members, that's true for parents. I want all of us to start thinking a little bit more, not just about what's good for me, but let's start thinking about what's good for our children, what's good for our country. The more we do that, the better off we're going to be.
WALTERS: Should bank executives -- it's almost Christmas time -- forgo their bonuses?
OBAMA: I think they should. That's an example of taking responsibility. I think that if you are already worth tens of millions of dollars, and you are having to lay off workers, the least you can do is say, I'm willing to make some sacrifice as well, because I recognize that there are people who are a lot less well off, who are going through some pretty tough times.
WALTERS: How are you going to get along without your BlackBerry?OBAMA: (Laughs). This is a problem. I, you know, one of the things that I'm going to have to work through is how to break through the isolation and the bubble that exists around the president. And I'm in the process of negotiating with the Secret Service, with lawyers, with White House staff.
WALTERS: You might have a BlackBerry?
OBAMA: Well, I'm, I'm negotiating to figure out how can I get information from outside of the ten or 12 people who surround my office in the White House. Because, one of the worst things I think that could happen to a president is losing touch with what people are going through day to day.
(Above: ABC Photo of Barbara Walters with Barack and Michelle Obama by George Burns)
Comments
I was thinking about your comment about Barbara Walters and what " she represents in the public imagination"? I personally see her as an interviewer that only gets big names and gets high ratings because of the notoriety of her interviewees. In the public imagination, perhaps those in the audience who are older and remember her as an evening newscaster view her more as a competitive and compelling figure, whereas I see her as an affluent figure in a comfortable position that only takes the interviews she wants, rather than pursuing more of a variety of personalities. I feel she is a part of the elite in the news world, but more ceremonial than relevant.
Posted by: Anonymous | November 30, 2008 10:01 PM