Hillary's Planted Questions and George W. Bush, Master of Political Theater
The conservative commentariat and right-wing bloggers are apoplectic at revelations that Hillary Clinton fielded questions planted by her staffers during recent campaign appearances. Confirming the worst stereotypes of the ever-calculating, risk-averse Clinton, Bush sycophant Michelle Malkin labeled Hillary a "crapweasel." And she should know. After all, from planted reporters and purchased pundits to invitation-only events in front of friends-only audiences, it is George W. Bush who perfected the art of the stage managed appearance designed to "catapult the propaganda."
From the beginning of his presidential quest, George W. Bush was protected from unscripted and potentially challenging interactions with the American people. And as his presidency has unraveled, the White House returned to his tried and true technique of reality-avoidance. As the New York Times reported on October 15:
Mr. Bush found nothing but admirers Monday when he answered questions during a town-hall-style meeting.
One man began by commending Mr. Bush "on your steadfastness and your faith." Another concluded by saying, "Thank you for being my president for the last seven years," with an emphasis on the word "my." A third expressed dismay that Mr. Bush could not run for president again.
Of course, when in doubt, the Secret Service is only too happy to oblige by ejecting - and sometimes arresting - those whose dissent creates discomfort for the President.
While his FEMA staff recently held a fake press conference, President Bush does the equivalent on a regular basis. As Dana Milbank of the Washington Post noted in the run-up to the Iraq war, "The president followed a script of names in choosing which reporters could ask him a question, and he received generally friendly questioning." As Peter Johnson wrote in USA Today on March 10, 2003:
Some notables - including Time, Newsweek, USA TODAY, The Washington Post and Hearst columnist Helen Thomas - were never called on, leading to all sorts of buzz in the press corps. Follow-up questions, a White House tradition, were non-existent.
USA TODAY White House reporter Larry McQuillan, seated in the front row, stopped raising his hand after he realized that Bush - who himself used the word "scripted" during the news conference to describe what was going on - was calling on names from a list and not deviating from it.
President Bush continues to use the "planted question" tactic to great effect. As ThinkProgress reported in September, Bush turned to Bill Sammon formerly of his echo chamber, the Washington Times, for the final question of a press conference. Sammon obliged by serving up a criticism of MoveOn for its "General Betray Us" ad for Bush to hit out of the park. "I thought the ad was disgusting," Bush said, adding, "I felt like the ad was an attack not only on General Petraeus, but on the U.S. military."
When ersatz journalists like Sammon were unavailable, the White House was quick to call on gay escort turned press corps fixture, Jeff Gannon. Among his duties for the right-wing news media group Talon News, Gannon teed up presidential softballs, including his January 26, 2005 classic:
"How are you going to work -- you've said you are going to reach out to these people [the Democratic leadership] -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"
Even with all of these safeguards in place, the president's handlers still can't be guaranteed to save him from himself. At a September 2004 campaign event, Bush mangled a statement on medical malpractice, announcing "Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their love with women all across this country." Pitching his Social Security privatization scheme to a hand-picked African-American crowd in January 2005, the President proceeded to stereotype audience, describing personal savings accounts "which can't be used to bet on the lottery, or a dice game, or the track." (The examples of President Bush's rhetorical incontinence are so numerous - and so disturbing - as to prohibit listing them all here.)
Consistent and disciplined stage management, of course, is just the beginning of elaborate facade created for George W. Bush, the Potemkin President. From rented reporters, purchased pundits, and rigged rallies to scripted sessions, fake news and pseudo-science, an unapologetic White House has sought to alter public perceptions to control political debate - and reality itself.
The instances of media manipulation and outright fraud by the White House are simply too numerous to list here. The Bush administration paid "journalists" Armstrong Williams and Maggie Gallagher for friendly coverage of the No Child Left Behind and new marriage initiatives. The Department of Health and Human Services distributed video news releases (VNRs) to peddle the President's Medicare drug program. The White House tried to block the release of Pentagon, NASA and other studies on the impact of global warming. The administration stonewalled decision by FDA career staffers to make the emergency contraceptive Plan B available for over the-counter sales. And former Surgeon General Richard Carmona found his report "Call to Action on Global Health" dead on arrival with Bush White House political commissars.
No doubt, the Clinton campaign showed shockingly poor judgment in force-feeding questions to their candidate on the campaign trail. But to say Hillary Clinton's conservative critics are being hypocritical is an understatement, to say the least. After all, when it comes to stage managed political theater, George W Bush is the master.
UPDATE: 1 A commenter identifying himself as "Jeff Gannon" takes exception to being labelled a "fake, fraud and phony" (his words). While almost assuredly not the real Gannon/Guckert, it's worth checking out his claim to legitimacy - and the response. Interestingly, the full text of "Gannon's" comment is excerpted from a Jeff Gannon blog post from October 29, 2007. Apparently, the same comment appears verbatim on other blogs.
UPDATE 2: Perrspectives has done more digging into Jeff Gannon's attempts to promote his book and himself on the blogs. Once again, Jeff Gannon responds and once again, Perrspectives replies here.
When I learned of the fake news conference, I expected that the characterization of Jeff Gannon as a "phony reporter" would be revived. Liberal media activist Keith Olbermann noted it on his nightly train wreck of a talk show and the lefties of the blogosphere dutifully repeated it ad nauseum. This is a classic case of how a lie becomes reality, since the record proves otherwise. I was as real as a reporter gets, writing over 500 articles as a White House correspondent, a job that Secret Service records indicate I actually showed up for more than 200 times over the course of two years. The veracity of my work as a reporter has never been successfully challenged.
Further, in 2006 ? a year after my supposed exposure as a "phony reporter" - my peers accepted me into the National Press Club, the most prestigious association of professional journalists in the world. My book about the media will be featured at the National Press Club's 30th annual book fair on November 1. Not bad for a "fake, fraud and phony."
Thank you for pointing out the incredible hypocrisy on this.
Jeff Gannon (real or imagined),
No one doubts that you/Jeff Gannon was a "real" reporter in the metaphysical sense that you/he showed up at briefings and then committed words to the page.
The "fake, phony and fraud" journalist issue you/he raise is simply the result of your/his willingness to bend over for President Bush and his allies, a position that despite your/his past career, you/he now seem willing to do for free.
This is a classic case of how a lie becomes reality, since the record proves otherwise. I was as real as a reporter gets, writing over 500 articles as a White House correspondent....
Hmmm...ya mean, kinda like your alluding to being a "real reporter" - that kind of reality that originates in a lie?
Gannon, you're a douche, you will always be a douche, and you will go down in the history pages as the concubine of an idiot president.
Now, please go back to whoring yourself and leave the rest of us alone.
Ol' Jeffy, journalism's easy and fun with a computer, fax and a (shall we say) rich social life!
http://rawstory.com/exclusives/byrne/gannon_accused_of_plagiarism_331.htm
http://www.epluribusmedia.org/features/2006/0327talon_plagiarism.html
Talon News! A Leader in CC since March 2003! (Jeff Gannon leads the way, with a press ticket poster-puttied to his pate!)
Your whole life is phony Jeffy. Why don't you find a bathroom stall with Senator Craig and start tappin.
Ohh The National Press Club. I am impressed. NOT!
Your a phony POS and always will be phony POS Jeffy. And, your another self loathing GAY REPUBLICON!! Nice.
Loser
Monica Lewinski was a "real" White House intern. She showed up for work every day as well.
Does that mean that you did your job and you did it right?
Hey, Jeff. How's the male escort business coming along?
Jeff - why weren't you in the National Press Club BEFORE the whole world found out about you? Maybe soon you'll win a "Polk" award or is it a "Peabody". I suspect the boys you hang with would give you a "pee-on-body"....
I was as real as a reporter gets, writing over 500 articles as a White House correspondent
I've written over 500 Letters to Penthouse, but that doesn't make me a correspondent for them, you sleazy lying weasel...
A discredited fake "journalist"/male gay prostitute/fake wanna-be Marine is calling a someone else a "train wreck"? Priceless.
The veracity of my work as a reporter has never been successfully challenged..
You are a gay prostitute. Your "work" as a "reporter" [sic] doesn't need to be challenged.....men PAID you to have sex with them. You are a hack, a fraud, a criminal, and a shill.
Oh, so you were "as real as a reporter gets", huh, Jeff? How many other members of the White House Press Corps were issued credentials while using an alias, even though they had no journalistic training or experience? How many of them had other "occupations" like your Internet sideline as a gay male prostitute? How many of them did the Secret Service record as checking into the WH even when no press briefings were scheduled, but not checking out on a number of occasions?
As for the veracity of the "work" you published at Talon News/GOPUSA's fake "news" site, there was no "veracity" to challenge. Right wing opinions and propaganda are no substitute for facts.
Jeffyjames Gannonguckert notes that Secret Service records indicate that he showed up for "work" more than 200 times over 2 years. Why didn't he mention that Secret Service records also show him being a guest at the White House on numerous occasions without a record of him leaving? Exactly what kind of "work" was he doing? Was he wearing his journalism hat or his gay prostitute chaps?
I was as real as a reporter gets, writing over 500 articles as a White House correspondent, a job that Secret Service records indicate I actually showed up for more than 200 times over the course of two years.
Do those 200 times include the ones when you stayed overnight at the White House Gannoning the White House staff?
Do those 500 articles include and/or discuss the planted softball questions you lobbed at Putsch during those White House press briefings?
Nice to see you have no grip on reality, either - KO's nightly train wreck of a talk show is about to pass Oh!Really? in terms of audience share.
Not bad for a fake, fraud and phony who conveniently forgets to note that he's still a gay hooker. Who spent more unsupervised time with the pRetzelDunce than Monica did with the last legally elected president of the US. Who also, equally conveniently, has never been grilled about the subject by the supposedly liberal media.
Typical knee jerk liberalism...Hilary didn't tip th waitress " oh yeah well George bush staged a fake meeting"...Hilary fields planted questions...."oh yeah well George Bush is a religious kook" Hilary eats at Ice cream shoppe.."oh yeah well George Bush killed innocent Iraqis" it goes on and on and on and on....GET OVER IT GEORGE BUSH ISN'T RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT...AS A CONSERVATIVE I AM LAUGHING MY WAY TO THE POLLS BECAUSE THE MORE ATTENTION YOU PUT ON GEORGE BUSH...THE LESS YOU WILL BE TRYING TO SMEAR FRED THOMPSON.
"THE LESS YOU WILL BE TRYING TO SMEAR FRED THOMPSON"
Yup! Liberals waste their time smearing the guy who is going to come in third in the Republican primary, while conservatives concentrate on smearing the next President of the United States.
According to me George W. Bush ruled perfectly . It's very common for the politicians to blame one over the other.Some how those have some negative feedback in the people.People looking for the change.Will see how the things will be sorted out..
===========================================
shiny
Trivia Game Challenge
Thank you very much very nice article
MBT Shoes Sale offer powerful training shoes
good thanks for shar.e..will read more...
Shell Pearl