Sooner than we expected, we’re going to begin delivering on our promise to note those too-rare occasions when the MSM does some surprisingly solid reporting. On a day when most of the MSM is in paroxysms of sycophantic joy, ABC’s Brian Ross was willing to play something of the skunk at the inaugural party.
At the end of Good Morning America’s first half-hour, ABC’s chief investigative correspondent Ross presented his report on the 216 high-rolling donors who contributed millions of dollars to the committee organizing this most-expensive-ever inaugural. There was footage right out of central casting of well-coiffed ladies in furs, and questions about what the high-rollers might be expecting in return for their largesse.
Co-anchor Robin Roberts introduced the segment.
ROBIN ROBERTS: And the celebration, the pageantry, does come at a cost. The cost, the estimate for the inauguration, somewhere in the neighborhood of $150 million. And some of that money, coming from wealthy donors. So are they expecting something in return? Our chief investigative correspondent, Brian Ross, has more on that. Good morning, Brian.
BRIAN ROSS: Good morning, Robin. Well, in this “we are one” inaugural, some seem more equal than others [shades of!]. They are the 216 wealthy Americans who have raised tens of millions of dollars to help pay for the extra pomp that goes along with the publicly paid-for ceremony. Even in the middle of a brutal recession, there’s been no shortage of wealthy Americans ready to pay for the most expensive inaugural ever.
Cut to a representative of the good government group Public Citizen.
CRAIG HOLMAN: What the inauguration allows big donors to do, is it’s the last chance to throw money at the feet of the new president.”
ROSS: So many of the wealthy arrived in private jets, that Dulles airport had to turn one runway into a parking lot. At Sunday’s free concert on the Mall, the president-elect pledged to remember the common man.
Cut to clip of Pres.-elect Obama: “yours are the voices I will take with me, every day, when I walk into that Oval Office.”
ROSS: But at the concert, it was the elite 216 big donors who had special tickets for the very front. Everyone else waited hours in line, in the cold.
Cut to clip of security guard in the street, herding the hoi polloi: “If you do not have a ticket, the general population line is right there.”
ROSS: At night, the 216 donors have been showing up in their limousines and fur coats. Treated like royalty, as long as they’re on the list of big donors.
Cut to clip of the quintessential monied lady, explaining in virtual parody of a cultured accent: “It’s capitalism in America. Everything is dependent on money. You know that.”
ROSS: And among the big donors, the president of the troubled Swiss bank UBS, Robert Wolf. And the vice-chairman of Citigroup, Louis Sussman, whose bank has just received $45 billion in federal bail-out money from taxpayers.
Back to Public Citizen.
HOLMAN: We’re talking about an industry that’s right in the middle of a bailout program. They want a seat at the table, with the Obama administration.
ROSS: And what could be better than some private time with the new White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who showed up for a private dinner at a nightclub, to thank the big donors for all they had done to make the Obama inaugural such an extravagant success?
Back in the studio, Ross had some sobering words.
ROSS: When he announced he was running for president, Barack Obama railed against those who write a check and get access. Now we’ll soon find out if that was campaign rhetoric, or an honest pledge to go against the sytem of money and power that has long ruled Washington.
ROBERTS: Find out about that accountability he was talking about.
ROSS: We’ll find out.
So good on Brian Ross, recipient of FinkelBlog’s inaugural kudos.
