Posted on 06/24/2009 5:45:35 AM PDT by dennisw
President Obama preempted soaps (but) viewers shouldn't have been disappointed: The president had arranged some prepackaged entertainment for them.
After the obligatory first question from the Associated Press, Obama treated the overflowing White House briefing room to a surprise. "I know Nico Pitney is here from the Huffington Post," he announced.
Obama knew this because White House aides had called Pitney the day before to invite him, and they had escorted him into the room. They told him the president was likely to call on him, with the understanding that he would ask a question about Iran that had been submitted online by an Iranian. "I know that there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet," Obama went on. "Do you have a question?"
Pitney recognized his prompt. "That's right," he said, standing in the aisle and wearing a temporary White House press pass. "I wanted to use this opportunity to ask you a question directly from an Iranian."
Pitney asked his arranged question. Reporters looked at one another in amazement at the stagecraft they were witnessing. White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel grinned at the surprised TV correspondents in the first row.
The use of planted questioners is a no-no at presidential news conferences, because it sends a message to the world -- Iran included -- that the American press isn't as free as advertised. But yesterday wasn't so much a news conference as it was a taping of a new daytime drama, "The Obama Show." Missed yesterday's show? Don't worry: On Wednesday, ABC News will be broadcasting "Good Morning America" from the South Lawn (guest stars: the president and first lady), "World News Tonight" from the Blue Room, and a prime-time feature with Obama from the East Room.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Dana nailed the insanity of the WH press corp. Don’t they see how disrespected they are by OB and his team???
Read the whole article.
Pretty funny. But half of it is a reporter getting upset at how 0bongo manipulates his news coverage. Dana Milbank probably still loves 0bongo’s policies
Kudos to Milbank for telling it like it is. Finally, a journalist with guts.
Was pretty certain the questions were KNOWN because Obama was reading from notes most of the time.
WAPO is just jealous that obi didn’t invite them to set up their printing presses in the WH so they could print and distribute the news from there.
Dana Milbank was not a pubbie shill but rather went the extra mile to be critical of the Bush administration. This is a very welcome indicator that more are seeing fraud in the White House press.
0bungle trying to look hip and with it by having the HuffPost give him a question for an Iranian blogger
Does 0bungle have a twitter page yet?
“White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel grinned at the surprised TV correspondents in the first row.”
I keep saying it guys, and y’all keep denying the possibility, but here it is again—The WH press, and the MSM, will eventually turn on Obama. It is coming, and maybe faster than even I thought. It’s going to be a good show.
zerO at his press dinner last week referred to them as man-whores sharing his bed. ha ha ha
THAT is the level of respect he has for them.
This is from the Washington Post? But wait, didn’t they invent President O? How can they be shocked at the relentless PR campaign?
[The use of planted questioners is a no-no at presidential news conferences, because it sends a message to the world — Iran included — that the American press isn’t as free as advertised.]
Here is the kicker and Republicans should make an issue of this. A big issue. This is supposed to be the most transparent administration ever.
I hope you are right, b4its2late.
I've worked with journalists. Most of 'em aren't very bright.
SLAP!
“White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel grinned at the surprised TV correspondents in the first row.”
Josef Goebbels would be in awe of Emanuel
I agree, the press will turn on him because he can’t help himself by stepping on some of them for his own needs, i.e. using ABC-( I am sure NBC is feeling snubbed, after all the leg tingling going on!)
But what is REALLY pathetic is this- He actually had to plant someone on his side from Huffpo. Are you kidding me? What the hell? He has had the media in his pocket for a very long time. What makes him think he had to plant someone? I think the string is getting pulled and the fabric will soon be coming apart.
Remember...The media is just as self-serving and narcissitic as he is. They are ALL selfish whining liberals. Hell hath no fury then a whiney baby liberal not getting their praise and accolades- The media and Obama.
Soon I will get the popcorn.
“Joel, you look like a smart kid. I’m going to tell you something I’m sure you’ll understand. You’re having fun now, right? Right, Joel? The time of your life. In a sluggish economy, never ever **** with another man’s livelihood. Now, if you’re smart, and I hope you are, you’re not gonna make me come back here.”
—Joe Pantoliano as Guido the killer pimp, “Risky Business”
I woiuld be embarrased to be known through out the world as a lackey to a WH that can’t fight its way out of a paper bag and full of con artists and cheap hucksters.
Saying stuff like that about Rahm only fuels his ego.
Ican’t wait — you’ve given me motive to keep living.
not very bright AND not very informed.
Month 5 and the cracks in the regime are showing. Long term the press corp doesn’t like the role of capon.
Isn’t Dana a member of the WH press corp?
A fine Cohiba cigar, and a bottle of good Scotch whisky, will provide even more reasons to stay around...
They were outraged that somebody without a degree from one of the MSM's approved list of journalism schools had even been allowed into their inner sanctum, not to mention that he was allowed to ax a question. I mean, "How dare the Bush Regime do this!"
They rooted through Gannon's past, digging up everything they could, and making up stuff along the way as well ("he's really Johnny Gosch!"), destroying his life and promising career with their scorched earth muck raking.
I wondered yesterday if anyone in the MSM would note the hypocrisy.
I was surprised to see this in the column from Dana Milbank, of all MSM people:
During the eight years of the Bush administration, liberal outlets such as the Huffington Post often accused the White House of planting questioners in news conferences to ask preplanned questions. But here was Obama fielding a preplanned question asked by a planted questioner -- from the Huffington Post.
Not much, but it's a start. Will wonders never cease...
Yep. bttt
"....In a comment yesterday, I speculated that the new Gallup numbers (Rasmussen too) suggest that Obama has entered the "cracking stage" of his presidency. If so, we are in for an exceedingly bumpy ride, as his magical aura crumbles and people's primitive anxiety starts to become unhinged (or "uncontained," to use the technical term).
Thus far, Obama has only aggravated all of the problems that got him elected. As that reality begins to sink in, the effect will be analogous to suddenly weening someone from a powerful anti-anxiety medication. Psychiatric drugs can have subtle effects. Only when someone discontinues a drug do they realize all it was doing. And Obama was a particularly potent intoxicant. The withdrawal effects will be significant.
Anyway, **here is a post from last January that goes into the dynamics of the four part presidential cycle of strong --> cracking --> collapse --> sacrifice. Is deMause correct about this cycle? I don't know. But I don't really want to be here when it happens. [[[ **SEE BELOW ]]]
It also reminds me of Terence McKenna's crackpot theory of the cosmic timewave, which is scheduled to end in December 2012. He said that in the years immediately leading up to then, history would be compressed into a kind of singularity. It would be as if all of human history would be collapsed to point, and replayed in a matter of months.
Looked at in this way, what we are seeing in Iran is an archetypal replay of a story that has been enacted numberless times in the past, only in an exquisitely pure form. The evil of the mullahs is about as pure as it gets -- if "purity" is the right word. Likewise, the cluelessness of Obama -- cleansed of any particles of truth or light by his postmodern indoctrination -- is as pure as Neville Chamberlain's or Jimmy Carter's. Not a good combination." ~ HERE
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** The King is Dea... Wait, Not So Fast!
Excerpt:
"..Although we focus on the moonstream media and their political action wing, the Democrat party, there is probably not enough blame placed on that grazing multitude known as the American public. For if the public were only more sophisticated, they wouldn’t fall for the arguments presented by the left, which rely upon a high degree of emotionality matched by a low degree of logic. Political analysts implicitly assume that people’s attitudes and opinions are the result of rational reflection, but in fact, it has been estimated that fewer than ten percent of the American public are reliably in Piaget’s highest cognitive developmental stage of formal operations thinking. And even then, one cannot escape the cosmic law of bullshit in --> bullshit out.
According to psychohistorian Lloyd deMause, “Most of what is in history books is stark raving mad -- the maddest of all being the historian’s belief that it is sane.” He believes that large groups are almost always driven more by fantasy than reality. Different nations and groups have different “group fantasies” which are designed not to negotiate with reality but to contain fears and anxieties. For example, the further back in history one travels, the more one can identify group fantasies that clearly have no basis in fact and are driven by irrational anxiety and fear -- witch hunts, senseless wars, racial scapegoating. But so long as one can detach from the madness and survey the contemporary psycho-political scene with even-hovering attention, one can see it just as clearly in the present. ....
"...The important point is that the fantasy precedes the reality, and will look for conditions in external reality to support it, identical to the manner in which the paranoid mind operates. According to deMause, the state of the group fantasy is what national opinion polls actually capture. That is, they take a snapshot of the “mood of the country,” which mostly consists of “gut feelings” that have varying degrees of connection to actual conditions, and more to do with the shifting nature of the group fantasy.
Remember, the bulk of the population is not thinking logically, so it doesn’t matter how many cognitively mature individuals there are at the margins of a poll. That the economic downturn was largely caused by Democrat regulation (the Community Reinvestment Act), that we have won the war in Iraq, and that President Bush kept us safe for seven years, are inconsequential. In contrast, FDR was able to sustain a unifying group fantasy despite economic polices that aggravated and extended the Great Depression for years.
Likewise, job one for Obama will be to forge and sustain a unifying fantasy, not to deal with reality. .....[snip]
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Ping
How long before the WH press realizes the best way to get noticed is how well they can get under 0bama’s skin?
Of course that would entail removal of their credentials. Anyway, the WH press job can be done by anyone sleeping on a park bench.
bttt
I'm betting Milbank will find out first hand what the welfare system is all about. No one insults the Dear Leader and lives to tell about it.
Glancing out the window now to see if the pigs are flying. The WP publishes a column critical of Obama’s press manipulation? Never would of thunk it. Better late than never.
One has to wonder why Mr. Obama’s handlers cannot allow him to go unscripted. Is it merely to control the message? Or is it to hide his incompetence?
This is the best explanation for Obama's election that I have ever read. Thanks for posting these excerpts.
while I share y’alls hope that Obama will start a downward cycle with the press and the public.... I just don’t agree. Obama is a rock star with charisma and a PR machine second to none....the press will never turn on Obama
Washington Post printed this??? Dana Milbank wrote it??? OMG, what is happening? Is our media starting to see Dear Leader for what he is?
Oooops... I killed the thread.
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