I am old enough to remember the staged question at a Bush/Gore debate in 2000: “when you laughed about an execution the last debate you didn’t mean to sound callous, did you?”
W wasn’t as dependent on TOTUS but he was calling his stooges in the wrong order – or was reading out loud stage directions at press conferences. And who can forget Jeff Gannon?
But now that we finally have the 11 dimensional chess player in the White House – shouldn’t he be able to answer unprepared question from his otherwise supine media?
Politico - which had been left to starve for attention lately – tells us the story:
In what appeared to be a coordinated exchange, President Obama called on the Huffington Post’s Nico Pitney near the start of his press conference and requested a question directly about Iran.
“Nico, I know you and all across the Internet, we’ve been seeing a lot of reports coming out of Iran,” Obama said, addressing Pitney. “I know there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet. Do you have a question?”
Pitney, as if ignoring what Obama had just said, said: “I wanted to use this opportunity to ask you a question directly from an Iranian.”
Oh, come on guys! You had your phone conference ahead of time – you could have used a little bit of rehearsal. Rules are simple – Obama names a “random” reporter, the preset question is asked. Obama shouldn’t have to foreshadow the question – or if he did, reporter should just follow up. Get it? All this could have been set in that conversation
“Huffington Post’s Nico Pitney says the WH called him this morning and invited him to ask his Iran questions at the news conference.”
One Politico reader comments
At least someone can see through all this transparency.
Update
I see Dana Milbank at WaPo too on this story as well, and with a fetching title no less
Stay Tuned for More of ‘The Obama Show’
Millbank seems to have been in the room and ads some personal impressions
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.
To which I wonder: why were the reporters amazed again? haven’t they seen all this with W? Haven’t they perpetuated and enhanced it since the establishment decided Jr.jr was to be “elected”?
Millbank notices the obvious
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.”
Indeed, considering that the press conference was called for some stern lecturing to Iran, the irony is thick.
And I am confused about the “but”. Was some entertainment value Millbank perceived that somewhat stood for the free press? Or rather he made the point that there was no press there at all, just impersonators?
Because in that case, the question would be – where is the free press?
And considering other pre-arranged questions we find out, it makes one wonder if any of the questions were spontaneous
he was not the only prearranged questioner at yesterday’s show. Later, Obama passed over the usual suspects to call on Macarena Vidal of the Spanish-language EFE news agency. The White House called Vidal in advance to see whether she was coming and arranged for her to sit in a seat usually assigned to a financial trade publication. She asked about Chile and Colombia.
As is the clue Millbank provides for Politico’s first coverage of this
“Mr. President!” yelled Mike Allen of Politico. “May I ask about Afghanistan? No questions about Iraq or Afghanistan?”Sorry: Those weren’t prearranged.
Good point. And no, Dana – it’s not Days of Our Lives. It’s propaganda. Any entertainment value you may have experienced, it can only come from the MSM nostalgia for the days when they were actually reporting stuff.
Believe me, we are not amused.
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11 comments
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June 24, 2009 at 8:47 am
janicen
It’s nice to see that Millbank is starting to wipe some of the kool-aid dust out of his eyes. Obama used the mainstream press to get elected, now he’s throwing them under the bus in favor of some more maleable, smaller minions. I don’t think Millbank and the rest of the MSM would be as upset if they got the special phone call and invitation to sit up front, but now that someone else is being courted by the administration, the MSM is feeling like a one-night-stand waiting for a callback. Used and abused.
June 24, 2009 at 8:56 am
sister of ye
What Obama is doing, on this and other matters, doesn’t surprise me. What does surprise me is that he and his minions aren’t even trying to be subtle about it. Maybe that’s his “transparency” – we’re being open about feeding you bullsh*t and that we expect you to call it chocolate mousse.
When he breaks a campaign promise, he doesn’t even try an excuse like, “when we got into office, we received more info that forced us to see the situation differently.” Nope, it’s just, “okay, we lied, live with it.”
June 24, 2009 at 8:58 am
janicen
LOL. I just read a comment on the WaPo article which said, “This is just a lovers’ spat. They’ll be having make-up sex soon.” Well said.
June 24, 2009 at 9:56 am
kenoshaMarge
Re: “This is just a lover’s spat”.
Perhaps many/most of the media will get back in line. But then the media also likes to tear folks down. Obama and his minions seem to believe like the Democratic Party that they can pretty much do what they want to cause, where else ya gonna go?
I suspect they have this media thing wrong. Even the dimmest of bulbs will figure out sooner of later that it’s all a farce. And it will likely be later cause it would be difficult to find dimmer bulbs than Obots. On par with the Bushbots and that’s pretty dim.
June 24, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Butters
“it would be difficult to find dimmer bulbs than Obots. On par with the Bushbots”
Especially when so many of the Obots where also Bushbots in 2000 and 2004!
June 24, 2009 at 11:06 am
cj
No wonder he sounded so fluent in Chilean politics. ROFL, I was almost semi-impressed.
June 24, 2009 at 11:10 am
edgeoforever
Lovers’spat indeed. Like Vanity fair pointing out Obama is using Huffpo like W used Faux
http://edgeoforever.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/the-karmic-turn-of-vanity-fair/
June 24, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Butters
Obama just could not stand the thought of some “set-up” stooge reporter getting any of the thunder of the press conference.
Oh, and don’t let anyone forget, Mr. Pretendident is a cigarette smoker still! (Another lie the “free” press has hoisted upon us.)
http://annienyc.blogspot.com/2009/06/and-by-way-obama-is-still-smoker.html
Obama, still a smoker…
June 25, 2009 at 4:32 am
edgeoforever
Right you are…Instead of just saying the man’s name as the script said, he had to recite his answer too…
As for the smoking – it’s mostly an indication of self discipline, strength.
I quit smoking in a week once I decided to, while my ex ended up smoking while chewing tobacco gum.
June 25, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Butters
Great!
Good for you.
Your ex was smoking and chewing nicotine gum at the same time! YIKE!
July 2, 2009 at 3:31 pm
huh
does anyone really care anymore? if you are a lib-Dem then it is entertainment. if you are not, there is nothing you really can do about it anyway. 7.5 more years. Let’s hope there still is a USA by then…..