I caught the tail end of a news/current affairs programme on TV the other day in which a guy was interviewing someone who appeared to be a banker.
They were discussing bankers’ bonuses and, in response to the interviewer’s question about the size of such bonuses, the interviewee trotted out the old saw that if good people weren’t paid high rewards then they would leave for pastures new. The interviewer raised his voice and almost shouted something like ‘but you don’t have any good people!’.
If anyone could point me in the direction of this footage that would be excellent.
I had to find it for myself. This may be seen as a bump, but I’m alarmed at the chutzpah of the interviewer. Sounds like one of those types I have quit watching like Chris Matthews or Bill O’Reilly (sorry, he pissed me off before I ever watched him) or Joe Scarborough. Any of those types who see themselves as part of every issue and every story.
No help on the video if it was one of these guys or their clones.
I was more impressed than alarmed. I’ve heard this good people/high rewards argument many times before and I’ve been waiting for an interviewer to latch on to it. Of course, in reality the argument will hold sway in some circumstances but I feel the interviewer was expressing the views and frustrations of the many people who have been let down by the banking industry as a whole.
Not having seen the particular interview, I was just guessing at the tone and the setting. If the interviewer had been a Jon Stewart type I would have laughed and thought him astute and clever. If it were a Brokaw or Charlie Rose type I would have been ready for the interviewee to spill his guts and slink off in shame. So I could imagine several reactions to the interview, other than shock at the audacity of the interviewer. It’s just that that was my first reaction to the sort of thing I see too much of that passes for journalistic integrity.