Ugly and Soft

The Carolina Tarheels had made it to the Sweet 16 on Friday in a very uneven game. They won it but it wasn't pretty. In contrast to that, earlier today they played a very good game against Georgetown. At least it was well played by the Tarheels until the last 5 minutes or so of regulation play. They they just couldn't get any points and Georgetown was able to come up from behind and tie--forcing overtime, which just hasn't worked well for the Tarheels all season long. This was no exception. The Tarheels collapsed in overtime. Georgetown scored something like 12 points in the 5 minutes and the Tarheels went scoreless until the last 7 seconds. A 3-pointer that was far too little and far, far too late. End of the season for the Heels. It was sweet while it lasted and there's always next year -- and for such a young team, that's a promise that will be kept.

That was the "ugly" that was referred to in the title. The "soft" was 60 Minutes. Have you ever seen 3 segments that were so lacking in hard questions?

To tell you the truth, I still found all 3 segments interesting but they were all essentially PR pieces for the people being profiled. First US Presidential candidate John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth discussed his ambitions and what her diagnosis of Stage 4 cancer would mean for them in terms of their life together, his run for office, and their kids.

It was an interesting piece but as soon as I saw Katie Couric was going to run the segment it became obvious that it was going to be soft sell. My personal belief, for whatever it's worth, is that Elizabeth Edwards is doing the right thing. Being able to throw yourself into a cause when you're given a diagnosis that is so dire might well be the perfect thing to do. Few people have the resources to be able to do that--but I bet it's a lot more satisfying than just sitting at home worrying about the cancer growing within. I was impressed at how well they both were able to spin their answers to Couric's questions into acceptable political concepts and slogans.

The other two segments were about Dennis Kozlowski, once the high-flying CEO of Tyco who earned over $100 million a year and Hassan Butt, a former terrorist recruiter from London, England. Butt, who was born and raised in London, grew to regret his role in helping to create terrorist cells after the bombings in England, and is now trying to change the linkage between violence and Islamic religion. Kozlowski, on the other hand, despite being caught red-handed with his hand in the cookie jar, agreed to do the puff piece on 60 Minutes only if he didn't have to address any specifics. He was quite unrepentant and seems to believe that he's just misunderstood. LOL

To be honest, Kozlowski was probably worth every dollar he made, but even now he sees nothing wrong with a centi-millionaire using corporate funds to pay for everything from small items like his health club fees and pool cleaner to interest free loans to buy multimillion dollar houses and paintings. According to Kozlowski he was going to eventually pay it all back. Nice of him, huh?

Of course that sort of thing is commonly done at that level. Koz was just one of the worst examples. Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, has GE pay for almost all of his expenses--even now that he's retired--so in a way the fault here lies at the feet of the members of corporate Boards that rubber stamp these excessive forms of lavish corporate expense accounts for their top executives.