ment of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Specifically, his office handled the event in a way that guaranteed it would be boring television.The federal prosecutors for northern Illinois, who had until Tuesday to turn Blagojevich into the proverbial ham sandwich so they could indict him, sent out a massive e-mail that contained their press release.
THEY ALSO MADE available on their website a copy of the indictment itself. That might sound like a government being open and free with information. But it means just under 100 pages that one has to go through on a web site.
This is an example of how the medium of the printed word has some advantages over the written word on a computer screen. It would have been so much easier to skip right to the “bottom line” point of the indictment had people had access to physical copies of it.
And printing up a copy on one’s own printer is costly, as well as time-consuming.
This may not sound like a big deal (after all, a prosecutor wanting to say as little as possible is the status quo). But it differs from the usual routine by which “the feds” make a production for television out of their criminal prosecutions.
WHEN THE U.S. attorney’s office, the FBI and other federal officials try to hold a press conference, the usual process is to schedule a 2 p.m. event.
Why 2 p.m.?
It is early enough in the day that the television news outfits that send cameras and crews out there can process the footage they get in time for the early newscasts (about 4 p.m., for some stations).
Any later in the afternoon, and there would be TV geeks upset that the story did not make the early version of the newscast (which is what the feds want).
BUT ANY EARLIER in the day, and there would be time for some enterprising television news broadcaster to try to get some alternative opinion, perhaps an educational perspective that would better let people understand the case.
In short, someone other than the U.S. attorney making it sound like his people have “saved society” from yet another menace.
There are times when it appears that Blagojevich ought to take lessons in political “spin” from his prosecutors, who are as determined to portray him as the ultimate political criminal just like he appears on TV talk shows and goes to Disney World in an attempt to make himself seem like an average guy.
We didn’t get any of this. Just a few written pages that will do fine for someone who deals with the printed word in reporting the news.
BUT THE ACTUAL indictment of Blagojevich will not get any moving pictures of Fitzgerald trying to top his Dec. 9 performance when the original criminal complaint against the then-sitting governor was announced.
Considering that many legal scholars and political observers thought Fitzgerald went over the top with his rhetoric, this change in procedure likely was deliberate.
But it means that some people will wind up perceiving Thursday’s indictment as being less significant than the criminal complaint issued some four months ago. In reality, it’s just the opposite.
Had the federal prosecutors been unable to get an indictment against Blagojevich (in short, if he had had more substance than a ham sandwich), it would have severely weakened their ability to pursue a criminal case against Milorod.
IF THEY HAD not come down with an indictment by Tuesday, asking for another extension would have merely given Blagojevich more rhetorical ammunition to use in his “war” of trying to convince the general public that he’s the victim of an overzealous prosecution.
But the prosecutors got their indictment. From a legal standpoint, an indictment without a big staged press conference counts just as much as one where the prosecutor “plays God.”
It’s just that all the television types were desperate for television footage. They wanted an encore performance of the Fitzgerald who said Blagojevich was, “in the middle of a political corruption crime spree” and had engaged in conduct that would "make Abraham Lincoln roll over in his grave."
Instead, they got to read.
FITZGERALD ALSO LIKELY was a disappointment to the Blagojevich bashers who have spent the past six years disgusted at the thought of him as Illinois governor. They wanted a public spectacle that could add to the glee they experience every time they think of Milorod suffering in emotional and physical agony.
They got dry rhetoric, rather than a verbal assault on Blagojevich’s character.
If it means that this helps raise the level of the Blagojevich prosecution to something serious and less of a political freak show, then Fitzgerald did the right thing. Because we all know Blagojevich will do enough on his own to turn this legal process into a sideshow.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: The U.S. Attorney’s office for northern Illinois made their indictment and statement (http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/) available for public consumption at their web site.
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