Last week, Politico ran a story about Rahm Emanuel's narcisistic television show on CNN, Chicagoland. Hadas Gold's [no relation to Ari Gold] article accused Rahm and his team of colluding with CNN.
Gold asserted that Rahm and his staff would read over scripts, direct camera angles, and oversee music selection in order to yield an artistic result that painted the Mayor and his administration in a good light. So yes, while much of Chicago burned, Rahm was busy looking at himself on "Final Cut."
More than 700 emails show that the production team, led by executive producer Marc Levin, worked with the mayor's team to develop storylines, arrange specific scenes and review news releases for what was billed as an unscripted documentary series.So why try to pass it off as "news?" Shouldn't it be on TMZ rather than CNN? Like a story about Aaron Schock's not being able to find a gal? In any case, no one can accuse Rahm and CNN of being the first to pull this.
In one email asking for more access to Emanuel, Levin wrote they were seeking more time with the mayor not to show his weaknesses "but instead to show the best of who he is and what he is doing."
"I know we still have time to round out the Mayor's story and present him as the star he really is," Levin wrote.
Producers also asked Emanuel's team to set up certain interactions and sent the team CNN's news releases about the series for review before they went out.
In an interview with the Tribune, Levin acknowledged that to get any sort of access to the mayor, they had "to do a certain dance."
"Everything the mayor does is stage-managed. Everything. That is the way he operates, so I'm not going to dispute that," Levin said. "I would be the first to acknowledge that you don't get into Chicago… and get access without having to do a certain dance."
During much of his administration, former Newark Mayor/now New Jersey Senator Cory Booker had a television show produced about himself--after he had a documentary produced about himself-- entitled Brick City. Like Rahm's Chicagoland, this series was meant to show Booker as a reformer; it was pure propaganda in the most classic form.
It sought to show Booker-- ironically with Rahm's current Police Director who then ran Newark's failed department-- fighting against gangs, drugs, and prostitution.
Yet, what Brick City did not show was Cory in New York City, Los Angeles, or on college campuses, where he was most of the time. Similarly, Chicagoland does not show Rahm on his monthly fundraising trips to Hollywood or on his monthly strategy sessions back in Washington DC.
So, the point then, of this post, is not to point out the similar narcisistic traits in both Rahm Emanuel and Cory Booker. No, it is to show the strategy used by Corporatist mayors and failed, "Third Way," Democratic Politicians.
These individuals have nothing going for them or their political careers. Not one ounce of a genuine cause occupies their bodies.
They use the banking money they raise to pay Hollywood directors to consult on camera angles and narratives. They are not one with the people, because they are never with the people. These individuals have to rely on Chicagoland, and Brick City, because the people in their city's know the truth, and the only way to silence the outcries is to go on national television saying otherwise.
Remember Third Way/Blue Dog Democrat Harold Ford Jr? After he failed and was booted from Tennessee, where did he go? Well, first, Merrill Lynch, and then, MSNBC. The voters did not relate to him, because who in the world-- or in Knoxville or Chattanooga-- would relate to a young, priveledged man who was funded by Wall Street while many homes were being foreclosed upon by the institutions that funded him?
These conservative shills are sell outs, and just as they deceive voters every four years they deceive themselves too, by convincing themselves that they have the talent to be national TV stars. It's rather pathetic, as both Newark and Chicago need something much bolder than a CNN original series.
