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(16 of 80)
Re: "Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama" ~ Helen Thomas
Jul 1, 2009 10:43 PM
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She is POed, but let's face it NIxon didn't try because he hated the press and they knew it. PR is part and parcel of a modern Presidency now. Helen's job is to cut through the mood music.
The press CAN turn like Doberman's and I am sure in the tough periods for Obama -- and there will be many since our economy is too far gone to simply pop up again -- they will go after him. The press is actually very easy to herd. The GOP were actually pretty good at feeding them talking points and facts. The "weak response" question line came right out of the GOP playbook. It started to get some traction even, until Sanford.
If you guys think they are liberals, you are wrong. They are a bunch of birds on a wire. They can leap on and leap off in a second. And they are basically lazy or lack resources to do actual reporting, So they do gotcha.
Instead of knowing Afghanistan or health care, they can simply say, "Why do only 51% think this will work better?" Or some such thing. It is garbage reporting. And watch the news shows, a bunch of so-called experts simply giving out their opinions. Who gives a RA.
There really is no decent media in America aside from the New York Times, LA Times and Washington Post. Also McClatchy if you can get them.
But TV? Nothing, not one decent, deep, regular seriously reporting network. BBC is the only one I can name. Even PBS just books talking heads, although they try. Frontline is an exception.
So I expect Obama to spin away and I am completely unsurprised. But he also is quite honest in hsi answers many times, and does not resort to spin. But he is going to stay on message. I don't think that is anything new.
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(17 of 80)
Re: "Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama" ~ Helen Thomas
Jul 1, 2009 10:50 PM
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"There really is no decent media in America aside from the New York Times, LA Times and Washington Post."
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"You may want to look up the notion that telling something that is obvioulsy untrue is not really a lie." - S, 4/5/2009
"You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things!" ~Julius Caesar, Act 1, Scene 1
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(18 of 80)
Re: "Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama" ~ Helen Thomas
Jul 2, 2009 12:13 AM
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So far the only reports we are seeing on this "exchange" are on right wing anti-mainstream media blogs.
This is why I will wait to see what Helen Thomas has to say, herself, in her own writing later on.
Until then the news sources for this story are a bit suspect and I wonder if they are presenting only half the story.
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"Facts Are Stupid Things" - Ronald Reagan
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(20 of 80)
Re: "Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama" ~ Helen Thomas
Jul 2, 2009 5:16 AM
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Good point but that didn't make the sharpshooter a better shooter.
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I would hope that a wise white man with the richness of his experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than any one else who hasn't lived that life.
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(21 of 80)
Re: Let's see what Thomas says about it in her blog, "Front Row Seat"...
Jul 2, 2009 5:33 AM
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See PB, that is the difference between those of us that think for ourselves and those that don't. We can agree with one thing a person says and yet disagree with something else they say. Other folks simply agree with everything that person says.
I am fairly certain which group you fall in. We call ya'll sheeple down here.
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"The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he didn't exist." - Keyser Soze
"Moreover, any man more right than his neighbors constitutes a majority of one already." Henry David Thoreau
"America may have some problems, but it's our home, our team. If you don't want to root for your team, then you should get the hell out of the stadium"
-Stan from South Park
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(22 of 80)
Re: "Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama" ~ Helen Thomas
Jul 2, 2009 6:00 AM
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Tankey, there were two reporters challenging Gibbs, not just Thomas.
And it wasn't just about the Huffington post it was about pre-staged questions, something even Nixon didn't do. Can you imagine a greater insult? How bad must it be for Thomas to turn on Obama.
What good is it if BO gets questions from Iran if they are pre-staged?
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I would hope that a wise white man with the richness of his experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than any one else who hasn't lived that life.
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(23 of 80)
Re: "Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama" ~ Helen Thomas
Jul 2, 2009 11:54 AM
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Good grief did Gibbs look like a buffoon in that exchange.
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A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government
-Thomas Jefferson
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(24 of 80)
Re: "Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama" ~ Helen Thomas
Jul 2, 2009 12:17 PM
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Odd, she used Nixon and not W in her comparison:
http://www.slate.com/id/2080034/
Scr*ew You, Mr. President
Helen Thomas used to ask questions in press briefings. Now she makes speeches.
By Jack Shafer
At his televised news conference last week, President George W. Bush deliberately snubbed several reporters he ordinarily calls upon, including journos from the Washington Post, Newsweek, and USA Today. But the most conspicuous recipient of the 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. freeze-out was longtime UPI reporter Helen Thomas, who has barbed and grilled every president since John F. Kennedy and almost always gets to ask a question. Bush pointedly ignored her.
Bush then dealt Thomas a second slight. By custom, Thomas concludes White House press conferences at the president's signal by saying, "Thank you, Mr. President." Bush denied her that supporting role, ending the conference with his own sign off, "Thank you for your questions," and flushing a decades-old White House custom.
Bush's slaps at Thomas are consistent with the psy-ops his information wranglers conduct day-in and day-out on the White House press corps. Bush's news conferences have become increasingly scripted, with the president calling on reporters from a preset list and refusing the follow-up questions that might trick him into saying something substantive. Press Secretary Ari Fleischer has lobotomized the White House press corps in official briefings by jawing more and more and saying less and less. (The smarter reporters play hooky these days rather than endure Fleischer obfuscations.) Last October, Fleischer maliciously tampered with the corps' self-esteem by reassigning seats in the briefing room. The new chart demoted scribes from Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report from the Park Place of the second row to the Siberia of the sixth. (Pressies live for their little perks, and the White House reporters revealed their Ted Baxterian pettiness for all to see when they bellyached about the reshuffle.)
But the reason behind Bush's double dissing of Thomas isn't directly related to his basic contempt for White House beat reporters. Bush ignored Helen Thomas because she is no longer the Helen Thomas of yesteryear, a deadline artist writing news for tens of millions of UPI readers. She left the waning wire in silent protest, after convicted felon Rev. Sun Myung Moon's News World Communications rescued it from collapse in 2000, and took a job at the Hearst News Service. There, Helen Thomas the Pundit writes a sharply partisan syndicated White House column about what she thinks—as opposed to Helen Thomas the Reporter, who wrote about what she'd learned. How bad is the column? Only a couple of Hearst papers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Houston Chronicle, publish her pieces with any regularity.
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(25 of 80)
Re: "Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama" ~ Helen Thomas
Jul 2, 2009 12:43 PM
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not a very good anology by thomas, Nixon knew he could never control the press. that is a relative new situation really starting with the last president. She may as well have complained that Not even Washington tried to control the media like obama, that too would be true.
Now if she attempts to compare Nixon to obama in truthfulness then I will have to take aception. Of course that isn't going to happen. Helen Thomas should have figured out a better anology to make her point. I think a better one would have been G.W. Bush to obama but then again the press fawned all over Bush when he ran against gore and kerry, the press didn't like either Gore or Kerry, they do like Obama, so I would say they need to get back to doing their jobs and ask the tough questions no matter who is the president.
spondulix
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(26 of 80)
Re: "Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama" ~ Helen Thomas
Jul 2, 2009 12:45 PM
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Propaganda happens when journalists forget their objectivity and ethics, and start turning into nothing more than dime a dozen editorializing egoists. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
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(27 of 80)
Re: "Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama" ~ Helen Thomas
Jul 2, 2009 12:59 PM
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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."
The 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.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/01/AR2009070100950.html
Anyone wanna bet that tankey, HR and others will believe that???lololololol
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(28 of 80)
Re: "Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama" ~ Helen Thomas
Jul 2, 2009 1:00 PM
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What's sad is she once merited being credited with showing the most objectivity and ethics in journalism history. The article explains when that changed in her.
I have no doubt she's frustrated with the way everything has gone since JFK. She respected him as so many journalists did because he earned their respect. Every reasonable person should frustrated over the corruption permeating US society. She let it burn her out, which is why she's going against everything ethically objective journalism is supposed to offer.
The woman, who once finished each press conference held by JFK with "Thank you, Mr. President", has now allowed herself to be reduced to a frustrated, burned out skeleton of her former great self in journalism. Years of hard work to properly engage in ethical journalism all thrown away, because she didn't step back from the bitter frustration of powerlessness, and approach it a more objective way as an independent.
Now people know what bitter frustrated burnout looks like in the most ethical of us. Almost 30 years of Reagan through W corruption reign did that to the most ethical of us from time to time unless we knew it was time for a break from burnout for being bombarded by nothing but black propaganda and corruption, at the highly levels of finance and politics.
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(29 of 80)
Re: "Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama" ~ Helen Thomas
Jul 2, 2009 1:07 PM
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> What's sad is she once merited being credited with
> showing the most objectivity and ethics in journalism
> history. The article explains when that changed in
> her.
>
> I have no doubt she's frustrated with the way
> everything has gone since JFK. She respected him as
> so many journalists did because he earned their
> respect. Every reasonable person should frustrated
> over the corruption permeating US society. She let
> it burn her out, which is why she's going against
> everything ethically objective journalism is supposed
> to offer.
>
> The woman, who once finished each press conference
> held by JFK with "Thank you, Mr. President", has now
> allowed herself to be reduced to a frustrated, burned
> out skeleton of her former great self in journalism.
> Years of hard work to properly engage in ethical
> l journalism all thrown away, because she didn't step
> back from the bitter frustration of powerlessness,
> and approach it a more objective way as an
> independent.
>
> Now people know what bitter frustrated burnout looks
> like in the most ethical of us. Almost 30 years of
> Reagan through W corruption reign did that to the
> most ethical of us from time to time unless we knew
> it was time for a break from burnout for being
> bombarded by nothing but black propaganda and
> corruption, at the highly levels of finance and
> politics.
When Helen Thomas was attacking Bush and his spokesperson the Left applauded her. Now that she says something against the Obama administration she is attacked.........so typical of the Left
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(30 of 80)
Re: "Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama" ~ Helen Thomas
Jul 2, 2009 1:10 PM
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I suspect Helen's main objection is that since she regards herself as the dean of the Washington press corps, that SHE and she alone should have been called in advance to ask what questions she wanted to hear answered in the townhall meeting.
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"Facts Are Stupid Things" - Ronald Reagan
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