When an Interview Is Definitely a Blow-Job

/in , /by

Oh, this one merits an entire blogger ethics conference. So you’ve got the announcement for a rare public interview of a very important person.

Former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan, who helped shapethe nation’s economic and monetary policy for almost 19 years, talksabout the people he met, the issues he faced and the crises he helpedmanage during five different administrations. Greenspan discusses theworld we now live in, with a global capitalist economy that is moreflexible, resilient, open, self-directing and fast-changing than ever.Greenspan is the author of a new book, The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, to be published by The Penguin Press on September 17.

That’s nice, you might say to yourself. I’d sure like to show up and watch this interviewer really skewer Greenspan for irresponsibly talking up ARM mortgages, leading predictably to the mortgage crunch that is about to start accelerating badly. It’ll be nice to see him forced to answer for the foolishness.

Only then you read further and see who is the "interviewer" who you hoped might actually pose some tough questions to Greenspan.

He is interviewed in this rare public appearance by the person whoknows him best, his wife, Andrea Mitchell, who covers politics andforeign policy for NBC News.

You were one of the most powerful men in the fiscal world for almost half my lifetime. Yet you can’t face live questions from someone who isn’t your wife?

  1. Anonymous says:

    if i wasn’t a u.s. citizen, living in the world of the second to the last day of july 2007, i would think this was a spoof… the biggest lie of the announcement is calling it an interview when it’s really an infomercial…

    http://takeitpersonally.blogspot.com/

  3. radiofreewill says:

    â€â€¦stroke, stroke, stroke…Tell me what you want me to write…stroke, stroke, stroke…I’m a stenographer with benefits…â€

  4. ab initio says:

    I’m sure â€wifey†will not be showing American’s a graph of the real value of the dollar during â€hubby’s†term managing the currency.

    Nor discussing the serial bubbles that he aided and abetted. Nor how he provided cover to Bush to â€disappear†the budget surplus bequeathed by the Clinton/Gore administration into a sea of red ink with tax cuts for the wealthy like them.

  5. William Ockham says:

    Well, thanks a lot for that disturbing image. Pardon me while I go cleanse my mind.

  6. stagemom says:

    what’s next? laura interviewing george?
    wait, gotta go, my dog wants to interview me.
    i predict the word interview, from this day forward,
    will take on a new cute meaning in slang, as in
    â€interview†yourself.

  9. Josiah Bartlett says:

    Greenspan is a hack, a hack I say.

    He took over from Volker and inherited a strong anti-inflation regime at the FED. He took over and started raising rates, â€fine-tuning†the economy, UNTIL IT SNAPPED and caused a Wall Street meltdown.

    Properly chastised, he moved slowly during the bush1* administration. Too slowly to keep Bill Clinton from making the centerpiece of his campaign.

    Clinton and Rubin played him like the whore he is and let him take credit for the prosperity of the 90’s. Greenspan however was trying to salvage his RW credentials so he kept trying to sabotage Clintons program with comments about irrational exhuberance and raising rates to try to stall the economy.

    Then bush* was selected and old Allan started to reveal the lapdog he is. Greenspan did not hesitate to say that tax rates could be cut. When bush* slashed top rates and taxes on capital transactions (very deflationary actions), Al cut interest rates to almost ZERO to keep the economy from plunging into a recession. This also created the asset bubble that is unfolding right now initially in the sub-prime market and spreading into the higher quality markets as well.

    Did I say that Allan Greenspan is a HACK!!!

    Sorry, this just pushes my buttons.

  10. Mimikatz says:

    Oh come on! It’s called synergy in the big media world. The publisher is probably a subsidiary of GE, which owns NBC and all the little MSNBCs and CNBCs. It’s just taking advantage of integrated media. Life’s one big advertisement now, if you haven’t noticed.

  11. Gump_does_Irony says:

    Anyone remember the Harvard Business Review interview of Jack Welch conducted by HBR editor Suzy ’wet for Jack’ Wetlaufer?

  12. Sazar says:

    I think most of you are confused about this because you’re not from the NYC metro area and are unfamiliar with the setting. I live in Connecticut and often go to the 92nd Street Y for their amazing lecture series. The Y (it’s a YMHA, not YMCA, by the way) is a community center, not a media boxing ring. There are many other outlets in NYC for that. Prominent people go to the Y to speak about their lives and experiences. It’s not supposed to be an adversarial environment, though I’ve certainly seen sparks fly at a Middle East panel talk.

    You’re obsessing over the use of â€interview†when it is really just a conversation. The appeal of this particular lecture is not the expectation of watching Greenspan get grilled and caught in any â€gotcha†moments (unless he’s the type who forgets to put the seat down), but a rare chance to see him and his media wife interact on stage. No more, no less.

    I also fail to see how this has anything to do with blogger ethics. That makes zero sense. What on earth does it have to do with blogging?

  15. R.H. Green says:

    Have they done this sort of thing before? Sending a wife to interview an economist, or did NBC send a reporter on a junket?