Beyond Belief for
October 21, 2009
by SamHenry
Larry King (is that he or is that an ancient robot with suspenders in that chair?) last night was talking with the newest Latino media star, Jeff Valdez.
Jeff volunteered a rather awesome insight into the entertainment industry when it comes into contact with the White House. The Secret Service had reviewed his comedy routine prior to a performance attended by the President.
Now last week, Justice Sotomayor related a sartorial scenario in which the Obama Administration carefully chose the outfits she wore to her Senate confirmation hearings. Apparently White House media management spares no time or effort in reviewing every detail of public events.
Their attention to detail even extended to distributing lab coats to physicians in violation of “dress code” for a scripted event in the Rose Garden concerning health care reform legislation.
Is there any time in recent memory in which the Obama Administration has not exercised control over a media event? Yes. Last week, White house Communications Director Anita Dunn slipped past the palace guards to give the media fodder for analysis.
She gave a speech at a school in which she enthusiastically made points about two historical figures that had inspired her: Mao Zedong and the self-effacing mother Theresa. This revelation seemed to confirm the Administration’s socialist – nay Marxist leanings.
Later in the week during an interview, she proudly asserted that the Obama campaign, of which she and her attorney husband were a part, used the internet to bypass reporters and deliver their message directly to voters in an unedited form. Oops!
Anita Dunn’s transgressions aside, the continuing role of OFA and the carefully scripted Presidential Press conferences are key components in maintaining control of the message the Administration wants to get directly to the people unedited by the press.
White House Press Secretary Gibbs is adept at bypassing half the press with which he regularly deals. How about one of his favorite phrases: “I think I’ve answered that.” That’s a phrase right out of the Presidential press handbook.
Organizing for America is the “arm” of the Obama media control effort that keeps Obama in campaign mode. This “apparatus” formerly drove the Obama campaign effort. It has been preserved as a division of the Democratic National Committee. At a little past 4:00 AM this morning, I received the following from them:
It’s late; I know you’ve gotten a lot of messages from us recently, and everyone here at OFA headquarters is pretty tired. But the last reports of calls and commitments are just coming in from events on the West Coast, and I wanted to share the news with you.
As you know, we set a big goal: 100,000 calls to Congress placed or committed to in a single day by OFA supporters and allied organizations. By 2:30 p.m., you had crushed it. So, we gulped and said let’s go for 200,000, not knowing what would happen. But the calls just kept pouring in — keeping phones ringing off the hook in congressional offices in D.C. and your representatives’ district offices around the country.
Then, OFA supporters gathered in over 1,000 living rooms and community centers from Macon, Georgia to Missoula, Montana. You called hundreds of thousands of key voters in your community and got them to agree to call Congress and speak out for reform, too. President Obama joined in at a call party in New York — and he had some amazing words of support for the folks like you who make this movement possible. I’m looking at the numbers, and with almost all of the reports now in, the tally wasn’t 200,000 calls placed or pledged — it was 315,023. You did it.
Happily, the American public has a constitutional apparatus comparable OFA to gather and broadcast their message: Congress. However, during the August Town Hall meetings, a Congressional member of the House of Representatives said over an open mic that he would vote for the health care reform bill that he considered was best for his constituents.
Recently it came out that many congressmen don’t even have time to read legislation on which they are voting. Neither they nor we have been given time to review pending legislation until recently when we demanded it.
Now what can we do about the fact that the real debates occur behind closed doors with key administration personnel such as Rahm Emanuel? Obama promised that key debates would be on c-span. It appears he has had second thoughts.
Congress is no longer the representative body the founding fathers envisioned. Since these days it is a Democratic congress, they are pretty much the President’s men. Members opposed to Administration policy quickly conform after dutifully voicing opinion.
And hubris? It must be a qualification for employment in this Administration. Even Obama’s home town newspaper, the Chicago Sun Times complained:
The White House trying to dictate who’s a news organization. Democrats out to gut a business group. Obama media allies damning Americans as racist, unpatriotic and treasonous. Is this the America Obama promised when he campaigned to end the cynical and divisive politics of the past?
Avoidance is another heavily used Administration tactic. Sadly, we have elected a President whose priorities don’t match our own. He keeps deftly dancing away from them. Health care reform and cap and trade have been put ahead of a controversial war.
I wish there were some clever remark to lighten the load of all of the aforementioned but it is just out of reach as I type on this early morning. I should put in a call to Jeff Valdez. He might have a comic quip to add. But there is nothing funny about that ultimate weapon in the information game the Administration employs: withholding it. We, our military leaders and our allies want an answer to the question, “when will President Obama make a decision regarding troop levels in Afghanistan”? Alas, no comic in the world will find anything in this situation suitable for humor. Funny thing about war.
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Hot Air – Tapper to Gibbs: Who are you to decide what constitutes a news organization?
Fire Andrea Mitchell – Maoist Anita Dunn admits “We control the news media”
Newsrealblog – Obama White House Flack A Maoist?
Sister Toldjah – Sending some love to Jake Tapper for standing up to WH’s war against Fox News
ON MY WATCH - the writings of SamHenry 
samhenry
October 21, 2009
I cleared this yesterday – I don’t know what happened. I am at a MAC store in a mall waiting for a friend to have a lesson and using mac for the first time in a long time. b
samhenry
October 21, 2009
Sincerely appreciate the feedback on one of my posts from the great cat.