Helen Thomas hits White House like a storm

meme said:
"The Obama" said....
this will be the most transparent and honest administration than any in the past...
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What in the hell does this have to do with transparency? Are you commending Obama for at least being transparent about the fact that the "town hall" meeting featured prescreened questions from a friendly audience?
 
Dungheap said:
What in the hell does this have to do with transparency? Are you commending Obama for at least being transparent about the fact that the "town hall" meeting featured prescreened questions from a friendly audience?
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lol... very funny..
I'm pretty sure you get my drift when I write that line...
 
Dungheap said:
Yes, yes he did. Here:


http://busharchive.froomkin.com/BL2005101401016_pf.html
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THIS is your proof that Bush Totally controlled" Town Hall meetings? A long distance video feed where questions were given to specific military personel to answer who were also told they might receive some off the cuff questions from the president as well? Oh, and they were told HOW to use video equipment to its best adavantage by taking a breath before speaking and to look directly into the camera.....oooooo! Yeah, the term reaching hardly gives enough meaning.
 
Ice Dancer said:
THIS is your proof that Bush Totally controlled" Town Hall meetings? A long distance video feed where questions were given to specific military personel to answer who were also told they might receive some off the cuff questions from the president as well? Oh, and they were told HOW to use video equipment to its best adavantage by taking a breath before speaking and to look directly into the camera.....oooooo! Yeah, the term reaching hardly gives enough meaning.
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I saw the name on the link and figured it was worthless...reach isn't the word I would use...
 
Ice Dancer said:
THIS is your proof that Bush Totally controlled" Town Hall meetings? A long distance video feed where questions were given to specific military personel to answer who were also told they might receive some off the cuff questions from the president as well? Oh, and they were told HOW to use video equipment to its best adavantage by taking a breath before speaking and to look directly into the camera.....oooooo! Yeah, the term reaching hardly gives enough meaning.
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Are you serious? A scripted event with a full rehearsal where participants where questions were not only prescreened but scripted? And there are plenty of references within the article to the various other highly controlled and stage-managed events, including tightly controlled "town hall" events with prescreened questions.

Just goes to show you that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make a wingnut accept reality.
 
Dungheap said:
Are you serious? A scripted event with a full rehearsal where participants where questions were not only prescreened but scripted? And there are plenty of references within the article to the various other highly controlled and stage-managed events, including tightly controlled "town hall" events with prescreened questions.

Just goes to show you that you can lead a horse to water but you can't make a wingnut accept reality.
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First and most obvious this was not a "Town Hall" event. It was a first time long distance video feed to military personel in the midst of a war, never before done. Pre-screened questions would and should be expected as militray protocol, ask any military person involved with MI. Rehersing for the televising of it should not seem out of the ordinary either. Have you ever dealt with live satelite feed? Seasoned reporters even have difficulty with it. Get a grip...this is not what Helen Thomas or the other reporters were talking about...
 
Ice Dancer said:
First and most obvious this was not a "Town Hall" event. It was a first time long distance video feed to military personel in the midst of a war, never before done. Pre-screened questions would and should be expected as militray protocol, ask any military person involved with MI. Rehersing for the televising of it should not seem out of the ordinary either. Have you ever dealt with live satelite feed? Seasoned reporters even have difficulty with it. Get a grip...this is not what Helen Thomas or the other reporters were talking about...
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The rehearsed TV show produced by the White House presented as a live Q&A with the troops merely served as a launchpad for a discussion of the various ways the Bush White House carefully choreographed and stage-managed events, including "town halls."

I'm not inclined to chase down additional articles although they are in abundance. Instead I'll just quote from the previously linked piece:

Brian Williams and Andrea Mitchell turned four full minutes at the top of "NBC Nightly News" into a report on the imbroglio -- and a discourse on the staged nature of so many White House events. (If the Williams/Mitchell link isn't working, Kelly O'Donnell used some of the same video this morning on the Today Show.)

Here's Williams:

"It was billed as a chance for the president to hear directly from the troops in Iraq. The White House called it a 'back and forth,' a 'give and take,' and so reporters who cover the White House were summoned this morning to witness a live video link between the commander in chief and the U.S. soldiers in the field, as the elections approach in Iraq.

"The problem was, before the event was broadcast live on cable TV, the satellite picture from Iraq was being beamed back to television newsrooms here in the U.S. It showed a full-blown rehearsal of the president's questions, in advance, along with the soldiers' answers and coaching from the administration.

"While we should quickly point out this was hardly the first staged political event we have covered -- and we've seen a lot of them in the past -- today's encounter was billed as spontaneous. Instead, it appeared to follow a script."

Williams then turned things over to Mitchell, who showed a brief clip of deputy assistant defense secretary Allison Barber coaching the troops:

"If he gives us a question that is not something that we have scripted, Captain Kennedy, you are going to have that mike and that's your chance to impress us all. Master Sergeant Lombardo, when you are talking about the president coming to see you in New York, take a little breath before that so you can be talking directly to him. You got a real message there, ok?"

Says Mitchell, showing video of Bush on the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln: "This isn't the first time the administration used troops to help sell the Iraq war.

"In fact, the Bush White House has choreographed everything from town hall meetings on Social Security to campaign events with planted questions. Many administrations, Democrat and Republican, stage-manage events. Often the news media ignore the choreography."

But the satellite feed, Mitchell concluded, offered "a rare look behind the curtain of a White House trying to sell an increasingly unpopular war."

Here's Terry Moran on ABC last night: "Well, as you know, this is a White House that's prided itself on expert stage managing and polished events of Mr. Bush's public appearances. Today, we got a glimpse behind the scenes.

"It was billed as a simple, straightforward back and forth conversation, a video teleconference between the president and a group of soldiers in Iraq. . . . But those questions, it turns out, came as no surprise to the soldiers. . . .

"Before the president appeared, Allison Barber, a senior Pentagon official, prepped the troops thoroughly, and in a rare White House slip-up, was caught on camera."

Lara Logan reported on the "CBS Evening News" that Bush's message "was overshadowed by questions about how much staging went into the event."

And even Fox News was in high dudgeon.

Here's Shepard Smith: "At least one senior military official tells Fox News that he is livid over the handling of U.S. troops in Iraq before their talk by satellite live with the president. . . .

"As the White House tries to prop up support for an increasingly unpopular war, today -- to hear it from military brass -- it used soldiers as props on stage.

"One commander tells Fox it was scripted and rehearsed -- the troops were told what to say to the president and how to say it. And that, says another senior officer today, is outrageous.

"It's certainly not the first time a photo op has been staged for the president -- far from it -- but it's the first time we know of that such a staging has touched off such anger."

On comes Carl Cameron: "First, the White House and the Pentagon claimed it was not rehearsed. But for 45 minutes before the event, the hand-picked soldiers practiced their answers with the Pentagon official from D.C. who, in her own words, drilled them on the president's likely questions and their, quote, scripted responses.

"There are folks here at the White House now walking around shaking their heads about how badly it appears to have gone."


[snip]


Thomas M. DeFrank and Corky Siemaszko write in the New York Daily News: "President Bush's supposedly unscripted Q&A session with the troops in Iraq yesterday was unmasked as a sham when a Pentagon official was caught coaching the soldiers Bush was going to question. . . .

"The White House is notorious for stage-managing Bush's events, notably the town hall meetings where prepicked participants ask Bush carefully screened questions. But it's rare that Bush's handlers get caught doing it so brazenly."

Jim VandeHei, writing in The Washington Post, describes it as "one of the stranger and most awkwardly staged publicity events of the Bush presidency. . . .
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As I said, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't force a Republican to accept reality.
 
and you can't lead a Obamabot to criticize "the Obama" for anything...they will always turn the conversation back to Bush....:cof1:
 
Dungheap said:
The rehearsed TV show produced by the White House presented as a live Q&A with the troops merely served as a launchpad for a discussion of the various ways the Bush White House carefully choreographed and stage-managed events, including "town halls."

I'm not inclined to chase down additional articles although they are in abundance. Instead I'll just quote from the previously linked piece:




As I said, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't force a Republican to accept reality.
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Ya know whats funny? When all these "never forget a fact" Righties suddenly develop alzheimers, like now.

Anybody remember the REPUBLICAN PLANT at those WHITE HOUSE press conferences??

Here's a bit more:

"James Dale Guckert posed as a conservative columnist under the pseudonym Jeff Gannon and was given credentials as a White House reporter between 2003 and 2005, eventually being employed by the news organization Talon News during the latter part of this period. He also published what were essentially unedited White House press releases under his own byline on his personal Web site and that of Talon News, which has been shown to be a subsidiary of the right-wing organization GOPUSA.

Using his own name, Guckert also ran a number of gay porn Web sites, including one called Hotmilitarystud.com. A beefcake photo of a shirtless Guckert casting a come-hither look was available on his personal AOL site until it was taken down last week.


NOOOOOO!!! Republicans don't plant operatives in their audiences!
 
You are not inclined because it's a pure BS comparison and you cannot find a Town Hall event where president Bush pre selected the press and the questions!
 
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and if I recall, this thread was about Helen Thomas calling out "the Obamas" administration on it's staged and and less than honest town halls...
 
USFREEDOM911 said:
But it's easier to complain about President Bush.
Dinna know
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This is hilarious. If you review the thread, it started with me saying that Helen Thomas was right to question Obama about this. Then, instead of just accepting yes for an answer, all Ice Dancer and MeMe had to go a step further and insist that Obama was doing something that had never before been done by and President ever.

I was simply pointing out that Bush too did this, I wasn't complaing about Bush or otherwise deflecting the criticism of Obama because I agree with the critics.

Jackasses.
 
Dungheap said:
This is hilarious. If you review the thread, it started with me saying that Helen Thomas was right to question Obama about this. Then, instead of just accepting yes for an answer, all Ice Dancer and MeMe had to go a step further and insist that Obama was doing something that had never before been done by and President ever.

I was simply pointing out that Bush too did this, I wasn't complaing about Bush or otherwise deflecting the criticism of Obama because I agree with the critics.

Jackasses.
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Hey now! don't insult animals that way.
 
Dungheap said:
This is hilarious. If you review the thread, it started with me saying that Helen Thomas was right to question Obama about this. Then, instead of just accepting yes for an answer, all Ice Dancer and MeMe had to go a step further and insist that Obama was doing something that had never before been done by and President ever.

I was simply pointing out that Bush too did this, I wasn't complaing about Bush or otherwise deflecting the criticism of Obama because I agree with the critics.

Jackasses.
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I know your ego demands that you view all comments as pertaining just to you; but you may want to consider that you weren't the only one blaming President Bush.

I am surprised though, that you would want to sign your post with the moniker "Jackass"; but it you insist, I'll try to rememeber that's how you wish to be addressed.
 
USFREEDOM911 said:
I know your ego demands that you view all comments as pertaining just to you; but you may want to consider that you weren't the only one blaming President Bush.

I am surprised though, that you would want to sign your post with the moniker "Jackass"; but it you insist, I'll try to rememeber that's how you wish to be addressed.
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Cool, dude.








 
blackascoal said:
:hand: :hand: :hand:

Helen Thomas has more balls than 90% of the Democratic Party.
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At this point I most heartedly concur! Reid and Thomas called out Gibbs on the BS...and Gibbs looked like a total fool.

I'm so glad that the "liberal media" that the neocons are always squawking about is final doing it's job.
 
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