Thomas, Gibbs and Lack of Transparency
By LisaB on July 2, 2009 at 10:10 AM in Current Affairs
Mr. Transparency had a “townhall” meeting yesterday. Earlier, Obama Press secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about this upcoming “townhall” meeting. Both Chip Reid and Helen Thomas said that the “open forum” for the townhall meeting - as given to them - wasn’t open at all. The words “tightly controlled” were used.
While this kind of “transparency” isn’t actually a surprise, Robert Gibbs’ smarmy “discussion,” where he mugs, laughs and does his Oscar-level best not only to make the questioners seem petty but also to suggest the questions themselves are ridiculous, is beyond fail. Gibbs even suggests email is a better way of reaching Obama than talking to his getting-paid-for-what “press secretary.” Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil and nevermind-the-man-behind-the-curtain all rolled into one.
Notice Gibbs is laughing by himself. No one else finds this funny. I guess the old saying about “laugh and the world laughs with you” does have at least one exception.
I’ve had conversations with people like Gibbs. But they were adolescents who were trying to get away with something in my classroom.
According to CSNnews, Thomas stated afterward that not even Nixon tried to control the media like this.
Following a testy exchange during today’s briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas told CNSNews.com that not even Richard Nixon tried to control the press the way President Obama is trying to control the press.
“Nixon didn’t try to do that,” Thomas said. “They couldn’t control (the media). They didn’t try.
Thomas also did not like the HuffyPot’s planted question at the previous “press conference” with BO.
Thomas said she was especially concerned about the arrangement between the Obama Administration and a writer from the liberal Huffington Post Web site. The writer was invited by the White House to President Obama’s press conference last week on the understanding that he would ask Obama a question about Iran from among questions that had been sent to him by people in Iran.
“When you call the reporter the night before you know damn well what they are going to ask to control you,” Thomas said.
WaPo discusses the “townhall” in this piece. They note the statecraft involved but, unfortunately, don’t go into what that might mean to the event itself.
In the stage-managed event, questions for Obama came from a live audience selected by the White House and the college, and from Internet questions chosen by the administration’s new-media team. Of the seven questions the president answered, four were selected by his staff from videos submitted to the White House Web site or from those responding to a request for “tweets.”
ad_iconThe president called randomly on three audience members. All turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration: the Service Employees International Union, Health Care for America Now, and Organizing for America, which is a part of the Democratic National Committee. White House officials said that was a coincidence.
The only thing transparent here is the bs.
(Release: November 13)
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has a spatula.)
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The transparency promised by the Obumble administration is merely more of the same old opaqueness. The song-and-dance routine that Porky Pig defends are identical to those his type criticized during the Chimp Administration. And like Press Secretaries of the past, he makes lame attempts to deflect criticism by using the truly worn-out, fallacious appeal to common practice, b, b, but ________ (insert Administration of your choice) did it, too.
When do the ceaseless rationalizations, irrelevant responses, and obfuscation stop? It would be refreshing, for a change, if one of these dickweeds would actually grow a spine, a sense of honor, and a sudden aversion to prevarication and actually answer a question candidly.
Ferd: i think it will stop when we, The People, bring it to a stop. Not sure how we’ll do it, but we need grassroots movements and new parties.
I was encouraged over the weekend to hear even my college aged kids criticizing Obama. Usually, they rationalize whatever he does. The light is beginning to dawn
Unfortunately, you are probably correct. Since this is the case, I doubt it will ever change. Appeals to Irrelevancy have replaced reason, since most people don’t know the difference between the two. All one has to do to justify anything any more is to make the rationalization sound good. Style and format have trumped substance and content. The dumbing-down of America is nearly complete.
I’ve been waiting for this to occur for years. If it weren’t for a tendency of groups that split off to create their own single-issue fiefdoms rather than align themselves together, it might have worked.
While this is encouraging, it does seem to be just a tad late in the game as the
jackassunicorn is already out of the barn.A national strike perhaps? Everyone stays home for a day? or two? No shopping, no teaching, no working, no riding the buses or subways. no gassing up cars, no going out to eat, etc. etc.
That might get the politicians temporally-limited attention, if only until the next scandal breaks.
Perhaps if all the unemployed, foreclosed on, bankrupted and about to go bankrupt, overtaxed, uninsured, were to call a nationwide protest, it may get some attention, especially if the signs include a promise to vote them out.
It is the follow-through that is important. The lifespan of a mayfly is longer than the attention span of most of the electorate. Mesmerize them with a salacious scandal or two with some over-embellished commentary to go along with it and that becomes the single focus of attention. Need proof–just look at this Michael Jackson manure-fest.
Amen Ferd!
Yep Ferd, even as we are now seeing gleaming press for Romney as he unveils a new portrait of himself. The next corporate shill is already being spit shined… just in case. We need a third party if we are to have hope and if we are to stop change.
Is there a secret assembly line somewhere mass-producing these androids? We have lost all capability of building a better mousetrap but can roll out these Stepford politicians like nobody’s business. Too bad that there isn’t a market for these creatures overseas as we could make a fortune.
aye… Rommney is just a ‘whiter’ barack obama mixed a wee bit of john edwards
Well Ferd, I was puzzled by your use of the term “dickweed,” as I was not familiar with it and suspected that maybe you coined the term for dramatic effect. And so I looked it up in the Urban Dictionary, and sure enough! It appears to be a legitimate word, with no fewer than 21 definitions. Here is def. #6:
Scholars interested in studying all 21 definitions may go here:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dickweed
LMAO. That is a great definition
ROTFLMAO - oh, my - y’all are too damn funny…
LisaB - THANK YOU for this - and thank heavens for Thomas and Reid. Gibbs is, well, I think we all know what he is. His intentionally missing the point of what they were saying to him gave a mighty good glimpse into how that man operates. It made him look foolish beyond measure - not unlike others in the “Obumble” Administration…
lmao…………
This is classic!
6 An indigenous plant in the dumbfuck forest.Yes, I think you picked out the best definition of the bunch!!
roflmao
“Obumble administration”
Perfect descriptor!
And bless Helen Thomas for leading this.
This administration is turning into a train wreck - no surprise. You cannot take an inexperienced lightweight who only has good presentation skills and expect him to do the job he was elected to.
As I expected, Hillary was marginalized in her role of SoS and that is not something a person like her accepts. She is setting herself up for a run at the nomination in 2012 because it is evident that Obama is becoming the worst President in American history. His foreign policy decisions have been puzzling and his domestic iniiatives are not popular. His handling of the economy can no longer be blamed on his inheriting anything.
Obama is just “acting” as president. He thinks being president is a question of having a desk in the oval office where he could put up his feet. He has no working knowledge of the job and therefore can’t lead. He takes every opportunity to marginalize Hillary, take credit for her work; but instead he only succeeds in looking juvenile and making it obvious to everyone how ill-equipped he is for the job. He did well during the campaign because they could write his “script” based on how good things could be. But now he has to deliver on those promises and he has absolutely no clue how to get things done
It’s about time!!!! I’ve often wondered where Helen Thomas had been! (Probably locked out).
Gibbs is a fool beyond question… And good for Chip Reid. I have thought all along, once a few bravely step up and speak out against this ‘control of media etc’, it will spread like wild fire. It is getting to a point where ‘enough is enough’. Hopefully there are still a few true journalists concerned with the truth! Helen Thomas has always been like a bulldog! She has seen ALOT in her day and I know she won;t let this go!
Once the idiots in MSM see they are being expopsed and complicit in this “state run cover up”, they too will start backpeddling… …dare I feel hopeful???
No doubt she will be on permanent lock out from now on! Soon they will lock out anyone trying to do real journalism and Gibbsy will be talking to himself!
Well, don’t get your hopes up too high about the press picking up on things and it running like wild fire. It will still be a very slow process.
The best news I’ve heard lately came from one of the pundits who said the press was becoming humiliated at how they are being perceived and that even B0 was making fun of them for it. The jokes 0 told at the TV-Radio WH Correspondence Dinner bear this out, especially:
1) “I know most of you supported me. You all voted for me.”
2) “I was lying awake trying to think what I would say tonight and finally I rolled over and asked Brian Williams what he thought.”
3) There was one exception, but the rest of the names he called that night were all MSNBC or NBC - Chuck Todd, Meka Brezenski, Joe Scarbough, and Brian Williams. It was only a day or two later that hack, Chuck Todd, asked 0 a very unsettling question that Chuck followedup just as feisty and bold. 0 looked pissed. Now that is an achievement for those of us who watch and wait! Chuck Todd was the worst of the worst in promoting 0 from January to November 2008.
He got a very nice promotion for his efforts as well - from MSNBC/NBC Political Director to *WH* correspondent.
If the White House has lost Helen Thomas and Chip Reed, it’s time to worry.
Helen Thomas endorsed Hillary during heated primaries, I am not sure that she actually likes Oblow.
Yes but Helen has the integrity to question WHAT is said and not just WHO is saying it.
Oh, no, Helen was quite smitten with B0. She is just now waking up. In fact, I don’t recall Helen “endorsing” Hillary. I do recall her talking about either being a democrat or voting democratic during the inauguration.
I do remember the Bush people dismissed Helen’s questions very abruptly, but she was then warmly welcomed by Gibbs or 0 at one of the first press briefings. Hopefully this means that little honeymoon is over. Helen may be old, but I don’t think she is anybody’s fool.
My recollection is that she was smitten with him, also, because I remember being really surprised at her during the election - she’s such an astute person and seems to have spent her long career being a real journalist, I couldn’t believe she was taken in by BO. I’m glad she has woken up - we just have to hope that BO doesn’t do what Bush did to her eventually, taking away her front row seat and not calling on her anymore….
More of the same. Wow, even Helen Thomas is upset with The One.
Nothing is spontaneous with this group, but I’m glad when kicked in the face they are finally waking up. Remember that little episode from a previous T/H meet a few wks ago when the press got such a kick out of that father, who brought his daughter to the meeting and asked for a missed school note from the “high one”, set up? To me the truth was revealed instantly with the tone of BO answer. Perhaps he should give an excuse note to the Pres. of Honduras before he returns to his country!
The high-pitched giggle: nervous, uncomfortable, squirming . . .
Robert Gibbs, don’t do that, please.
Next, we’ll get a dee-de-de, dee-de-de, That’s All Folks!
That’s OK, since he fits the part of Porky. However, should he start dressing like him, sans pants, all bets are off.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESidBrr2cxk
That’s Gibbs, all right. Spank his pantless backside and call him Porky.
Hilarious! Yep, that’s how Robert Gibbs will summarize the collapse of this silly administration . . .
Robert Gibbs has got to be the most unprofessional WH Press Secretary ever. Gibbs’ folksy silliness, giggly lack of knowledge of what should be reported is wearing very thin. Tony Snow, Dana Perino, Ari Fleischer, George Stephanopoulos, or Mike McCurry would never have conducted press briefings in this manner. Their briefings were quite serious and never the jokefests that Gibbs seems to like.
Just saw this on memorandum. More details on the planted people at the townhall.
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/07/023939.php
“thank you for serving..”??
sure seems to me that obama knew who these people were.
great post!
What an inspiring story! Game show host Barack Obama made tearful pitiful Debbie Smith, 53, Queen for a Day! Amazing how spontaneous unrehearsed miracles happen in O-land. Makes me Hope that maybe my day will come . . .
OOOH, so Obama WAS thnking her for her service, because she was spent four years serving in the U.S. Marine Corps.
And he did’t know who she was???
http://maroonedinmarin.blogspot.com/2009/07/emotional-moment-at-annandale-town-hall.html
Has the original story been scrubbed? i can’t get thiss link to work:
http://www.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/virginia_health_reform_campaign_begins/23196
The author of “Marooned” asked a question I had been thinking, too - if she is a vet, why isn’t she getting treated at the VA?????
i KNOW!!
something is fishy…
must be lowtide.
Here is some information I found:
Unfortunately, even though a veteran may qualify for treatment at a VA hospital, he or she may not always be able to receive it. The reason for this is that while there are nearly 100,000 beds available in VA hospitals across the nation, there are many more than 100,000 veterans and dependents who are in need of medical care. To meet these demands (and particularly to address the problem of the limited number of hospital beds) the VA has established a priority system for deciding who gets treatment first directly from VA hospitals, clinics, and doctors. This priority system is as follows:
Priority Group I - veterans with service-connected disabilities rated at 50% or more disabling.
Priority Group 2 - veterans with service-connected disabilities rated at 30% to 40% disabling.
Priority Group 3 - veterans who are former prisoners of war, were discharged for a disability incurred or aggravated in the line of duty, have service-connected disabilities rated 10% to 20% disabling, or who were disabled by treatment.
Priority Group 4 - veterans who’re receiving aid and attendance or housebound benefits.
Priority Group 5 - veterans with a 0% disability rating whose income and assets are below certain dollar limits.
Priority Group 6 - Gulf War veterans receiving care solely for Gulf War-related disorders not amounting to compensable disabilities, veterans with compensable 0% service-connected disabilities, and World War I veterans.
Priority Group 7 - all other veterans. If accepted for treatment, this group of veterans must pay a copayment for services.
http://www.finweb.com/insurance/va-health-benefits.html
And here is the information directly from the VA:
http://www.va.gov/healtheligibility/
This woman might have too high an income or be like a lot of non-insured or underinsured - eligible for federal programs but haven’t applied, investigated or been briefed on them all. Or she she could be on the bottom of the waiting list for treatment with the VA due to her status.
she said she can’t work because of the radiation… i don’t get that.
so, she can’t earn too much.
she has also been dealing with this tumors return for three years, from the articles i read, so she shouldn’t still be on the bottom of a list, should she???
I received radiation for cancer. I was still able to work without a problem. Also, when I heard her speak at the town hall, I personally questioned at that time, if, she had cancer, why was she so heavy. You would think that if she was sick she would be thinner.
What a juvenile piece of shit! I would have stood up and walked out.
Sickening!
CAROL HAKA
How much longer before Gibbs resigns? What a putz, working for a putz. He’ll probably be replaced by even a bigger a**, Bill Burton! EWWW.
I’m glad to see some of the MSM is waking up to what most of us Clinton &/or McCain supporters have known all along. Obama is unqualified and clueless. If he knew his policies had weight and could back them up with facts and convincing arguements, he wouldn’t have to pepper his townhall meetings with lackeys. Obama is afraid. Therefore the teleprompter, prechosen questions and supporters. He is deathly afraid of an intelligent question from an opponent exposing his ignorance or lack of a plan.
insightful.
also like the post below on “presstitutes”. yes, that’s what the MSM is, kool-aid doped presstitutes.
He has not ’stood in the line of fire’ since the Phili debate with Hillary…
He is a clueless COWARD!
he still has that speech he gave way back in 04.
experience you can believe in..lol
Oh yah, I wish I could remember who to credit this to, but some blogger out there calls the MSM, presstitutes. As in they sell themselves out for the benefit of Obama.
Urinalists.
I am concerned that Hillary has canceled Russian and other trips. I understand the broken elbow but I am surprised that two weeks later she is not able to travel and participate. I can not help wondering if something is afoot.
That bothers me, too. I just don’t think a broken elbow 2 weeks after the fact would hamper her activities much. Something is fishy.
Appalachia Native Debby Smith Will Attend Health Care Town Hall
Published: July 1, 2009
A local woman received word yesterday that she will have the opportunity to speak to the President of the United States of America.
Debby Smith of Appalachia, Va. a member of the Virginia Organizing Project, will attend President Obama’s Health Care Town Hall Meeting at 1 p.m. today in Annandale at Northern Virginia Community College.
Live participants in the town hall will ask the President questions along with participants online on Twitter, YouTube and FaceBook.
Smith was invited to the meeting because she has been vocal in her community on the issue of health care reform. As a member of the Virginia Organzing Project, she has shared her own health care story and helped plan health care events and lobbied Congress on health care reform.
“I would not miss an opportunity like this for anything,” Smith said in a recent press release from the Virginia Organizing Project. “Health care is an issue that I feel strongly about and I am thrilled to be able to attend the meeting and hopefully put in my two cents. I am excited about shaking the President’s hand and letting him know that we need health care reform now. I am going to let the President know where I am from and I hope that it will be an opportunity for some recognition of Appalachia.”
Smith said that if she has the opportunity to speak face to face with the President, she plans to invite him to RAM (Remote Area Medical) days in Appalachia July 24-26. RAM hosts an annual outdoor health care event to provide care for people who could otherwise not afford it.
“I hope that the President will consider coming to one of the RAM days in Appalachia this summer. I can think of no better example to illustrate that our health care system is broken. The fact that people line up days ahead in the sweltering heat just for a chance at free medical care shows that we definitely need serious health care reform,” said Smith.
http://www.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/appalachia_native_debby_smith_will_attend_health_care_town_hall/27797/
Excellent post LisaB!!
And great last line.
Go Helen!!
OK, this is interesting… apparently Obama people have already used Debbie in a PR piece pushing health care reform:
http://hcfan.3cdn.net/0fc5fc823a85bbcca2_k4m6bkgoj.pdf
Yea, i would say helen and chip were right to be mad at gibby.
Remember how the left was SO sure Joe the Plumber was a plant, even though Obama walked into his front yard?
I wonder if they will go after Debbie because she WAS a plant?
That had to be the last unscripted thing BO ever did.
I don’t understand why Debbie Smith can work for Obama, but not as an accountant?
She organized a town hall in 2008 for healthcare to forward to Obama.
By Mac McLean
Reporter / Bristol Herald Courier
Published: December 31, 2008
Southwest Virginia residents had a chance Tuesday to share their ideas about how to best fix the country’s health care system and pass them along to President-elect Barack Obama and members of his incoming cabinet.
Appalachia resident Debbie Smith hosted a town forum discussing the topic Tuesday at the Appalachia Town Hall. The event was designed to collect people’s ideas about health care and forward them to Obama’s incoming administration.
“Health care is one of Obama’s big interests and he wants to hit the ground running with it,” Smith said before the forum started. “They’ve just asked people to have these meetings and feed the information back to them.”
http://209.157.64.200/focus/news/2283432/replies?c=49
From the article linked… so how does one “organize” 8000 volunteers to begin with? Not a small undertaking. 8000 volunteers? How would you find 8000 people who could take off from work etc? I wonder if ACORN is in this somewhere?
it is acorn.
Gibbs to Ried:
Gibbs:”I am confused, are you not a member of the public?”
Ried: “That would be inappropriate,this is for the public”.
Gibbs is a snide little jackass who doesn’t do snark well at all.
Gibbs is the perfect “Mouth of Sauron”, but possibly less informative.
“I will let you ask me a question tomorrow as to whether the question, amended by the other question by the other reporter, will or will not be answered tomorrow after the public asks its questions via twitter or email. *idiotic grin* Are you a member of the public or not? If not then how so, how so, how so? We’ve had this discussion ad nauseum. *nasty cackle* Have you emailed your question today? *mindless giggle* If you get on your computer you can ask him that yourself!”
So obnoxious. We pay him why?
Because Porky can convert ers, ahs, uhs, and ums to at least a type of substandard English, which gives me an idea of what sort of pant-singeing statements are being said by That One.
How can Helen Thomas or anyone else in the MSM be surprised that BO stages his ‘events’? I posted here, there, and everywhere last July 2008, that POTUS wannabe BO and the Decemberists had co-planned that free concert/political rally last May 2008 in Portland, Oregon. The Decemberists even plugged the event days in advance on their web site, asking people to RSVP at BO’s web site. Afterward, the MSM only marveled that the man could attract 75,000 to hear him speak!
jbjd
Heck, his life story was staged by his books long before he actually ran for office. No, somebody invested a lot of time and money building the brand of Barack. Of course that brand is now being marketed and the image of that brand is being branded to the world. He is a brand.
Yes; and that adds to my belief that BA wrote “Dreams.” Because, grooming BO for higher office, he anticipated the problems that would arise circumventing the fact, he is not a NBC. So, he slips into the book the memory of rummaging through a trunk in high school, and coming across his HI birth certificate…
I didn’t read the book, but when I’ve seen this part of it discussed, I’ve never heard that he said it was from Hawaii - just that he found his BC in a book, and was really happy.
That part made me suspicious, because to be so “happy” suggests it had some info on it that he didn’t know about. That could refer to several possibilities, but as I believe he found it when he was trying to figure out how he could be a black person, I always wondered if the birthplace could have been the surprise to him.
Did you read the book, or when you heard about this part, are you saying that the book specifically said it was a Hawaiian BC….?
I am so sorry. I just pulled up some sites with the language and, they do not mention HI. My point wasn’t to verify a HI birth; it was only to point out, the mention in that book of physically coming into contact with his “birth certificate” seems to me to be attributable to someone with the intelligence and foresight of BA.
It’s time for the 0bama KOOL-AID lovers to hit the wall in order to finally weak-up.Can anybody have a suggestion, how WE can get out from this mess. Every day brings us closer to the communism disaster. Europe is going right, America, thanks to 0bama, to the left.
Gibbs is pathetic. All he needs is a funny hat, a big red nose, and cotton stuffing coming out of his ears.