TELEVISION
Roger Ailes: Please Give Bill Clinton His Own
Talk Show
BY
LAWRENCE K. GROSSMAN
In
a recent TV Guide column, J. Max Robins ("Robins Report")
speculated about the prospect of Bill Clinton getting his own
TV talk show. Robins, a veteran media trade reporter who writes
just about the only serious editorial stuff worth reading in that
magazine, pointed out what would seem to be the obvious. "Despite
a barrage of bad press over Pardongate, Bill Clinton still has
star power -- enough that the next chapter of his career may be
written on TV."
Oddly,
most of the TV news execs Robins quoted were convinced that Clinton
would be a big hit, but on someone else's channel. CBS News president
Andrew Heyward, whose network certainly could use a successful
new entry, said, "We don't really have a role for him here, but
I could see him on a cable news channel." An anonymous official
of CNN, now deep in the ratings doldrums, suggested, "If we're
not the place, maybe it's Fox News." CNN's Jeff Greenfield wondered,
"Is that really the role the president of the United States wants
to play?" Only Fox News chairman Roger Ailes jumped at the idea,
saying he'd "hire Bill Clinton in a second -- if I could afford
him," which tells you something about why Fox News is doing so
well these days.
Why
are so many so skittish about an ex-president, especially this
ex-president, getting his own TV show? Surely, it can't be that
the medium is too dignified for an ex-president with a somewhat
sullied reputation. After all, we've got a sitting governor of
Minnesota doing color for smash-mouth XFL football on NBC and
an ex-mayor of Cincinnati hosting one of the sleaziest TV syndicated
shows of all time.
Or
is it actually just the opposite, that television is so déclassé
these days that it would be, as Jeff Greenfield suggests, an unseemly
comedown for a former president of the United States? Is television
really a worse place to live out your post-presidential life than,
let's say, serving in the U.S. Congress, or joining the board
of a company that buys and sells other companies, or getting fat
fees for making speeches at business conventions? President John
Quincy Adams ended his days in Congress, where he did some of
his greatest and most satisfying work defending the Union against
secessionists. William Howard Taft presided over the Supreme Court
after leaving the White House and, according to some historians,
acquitted himself with rather more distinction as chief justice
than as president. Taft said he liked his post-presidential job
so much he didn't even remember he ever was president.
In
this electronic age, who better to do regular television commentaries
about issues of concern to the public than a former president
of the United States, especially a smart, articulate former president
with obvious star value? And anyway, since when is television
so fussy about its stars' personal character? When I ran NBC News,
I took a good deal of flak for inviting a discredited former president
to make his nationwide public reappearance on Meet The Press.
Richard M. Nixon's comments on world issues that Sunday were notably
insightful, riveting, timely, and well worth all the flak from
friends, family, and colleagues.
After
leaving the White House, an ex-president can talk more openly
and frankly about what's happening in the world and what needs
to be done than he could while he was still in the White House.
What better public service can television perform for its millions
of viewers than to provide a regular "bully pulpit" for the nation's
ex-presidents to offer their own firsthand views on the issues
that concern them? On Larry King Live, ABC's Ted Koppel
worried that Clinton as a TV host would probably overshadow any
guest. As anyone who watches Nightline can testify, Koppel's
own intelligence as an interviewer overshadows many a high-ranking
guest on his show. That's not a handicap. It's a plus.
One
morning recently, Bill Clinton was spotted in the front row of
the Bedford Road Elementary School auditorium watching a school
play, "Lost in New York." The students and teachers had invited
him. "I had the morning free," the forty-second president of the
United States explained. Roger Ailes can give the former president
something to do in the mornings while his wife, the senator, is
away at work. Roger says he thinks Clinton could be "the next
Oprah." Obviously, in our television-tabloid society, Oprah is
now the standard by which even presidents of the United States
are judged. We could do a lot worse.
Roger,
please invite Bill Clinton to join Fox News and talk straight
about the major issues of the day. He's bound to give Geraldo,
O'Reilly, Imus, Howard Stern, Larry King, and all the other fixtures
on Fox and on your competitors' channels a run for their money.
And if you're right that he is the next Oprah, whatever you have
to pay him will be worth the price. Besides, what you end up paying
him is sure to reap a rich harvest of free publicity.
Lawrence K. Grossman, a former president of
NBC News and PBS, is a regular columnist for CJR.
