Steve Clemons has a piece that will generate lots of links because of the title: “Communications Corruption at the White House.” Sounds exciting, until you read it:
What I have learned after discussions over the last several days with several journalists who either have regular access to the White House or are part of the White House press corps is that there is a growing sense that access is traded for positive stories — or perhaps worse, an agreement that things learned will not be reported in the near term.
The White House is working hard to secure deals that yield fluffy, feel good commentary about the Obama White House. One American White House reporter used colorful terms to describe the arrangement. The reporter said, “They want ‘blow jobs’ first [in the press sense]. Then you have to be on good behavior for a bit or be willing to deal, and then you get access.”
That’s quite a catch there, Steve! Hoocoodanode that a WH communication operation might offer more access to people who will write positive stories? SHOCKING! I wonder if Bob Woodward
Meanwhile, the entire piece is based on “unnamed sources” who have lots to say, none of it on the record so we can verify. This is inside baseball at its absolute worst. A sensational headline with a charge of corruption, a nothingburger of a report with not one piece of original information or a shred of verifiable evidence, all allegedly supplied by anonymous insiders.
Pathetic. I wonder if Robert Gibbs is the new Rahm for the manic progressive set.
*** UPDATE ***
I’VE JUST LEARNED THAT THERE IS AN ENTIRE BUSINESS OPERATION IN THIS COUNTRY DEDICATED TO MAKING PEOPLE LOOK GOOD. THEY CALL THIS CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE PUBLIC RELATIONS, OR PR FOR SHORT. WHERE’S MY PULITZER!
Violet
Yeah, but they said “blow jobs!” Obama is just like Bill Clinton!
Nick
so no one gets any access then.
Once again, there are two sets of rules for Republicans and Democrats…Republicans can get away with things Democrats cannot. The quicker we learn this fact, the better we’ll all feel.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
Jane, BTD, Taylor Marsh, and the entire puma gang all came at once. Rahmmmmmmmmdevil!!
Martin
Wait until he learns that in order to get the best access, journalists will need to take a lap as a male prostitute and use a fake name.
asiangrrlMN
Violet honed in on the salient point. Blow jobs! Really. It gives me hope that I can get a job at Politico if this is the kind of stellar reporting they are requiring. How the hell is that considered corrupt? Are the journos getting paid for it? Do they have to suffer a hand on the thigh for it? Come on. If someone is actually shocked by these ‘allegations’, then that person is a naif who should not be working in politics.
The Grand Panjandrum
Real shocker. When is the report that “water is wet” coming out? Of course, the establishment media could try doing some real reporting instead of kissing every ass in sight. But that requires some actual journalism.
Allison W.
Good, I’m glad I’m not the only one that thought that piece was just weird.
gbear
The reason all those white house correspondents all want access is because the whole lot of them is trying to write tell-all books about being ‘inside’ the Obama administration. Wankers. They can’t even do their first job well.
Violet
Sully’s got a real hate on for for Robert Gibbs. He calls his post The Gibbs Doctrine and then quotes that “blow jobs” sentence. This isn’t the first time he’s shown his distaste for Gibbs. I wonder what Gibbs did to him? Or what he thinks Gibbs did to him?
Martin
This. x100.
Brachiator
By contrast, New York Times reporter Judith Miller fellating Dick Cheney and Scooter Libby [in the press sense] is a bold exercise in journalism.
But I’m sure that Fox News and the GOP lunatic fringe will play this weak tea up as proof, proof I say, that Obama is going to get all Hugo Chavez on the presses’ ass and impose Martial Law, Jude Law, Burke’s Law and Cardinal Law censorship.
Elisabeth
It is interesting that there is an “Obama phenomenon” fueling the book writing craze amongst White House correspondents. I’m certainly not wild about the White House trading access for fluff pieces but it seems that if someone is trying to make money off of the president’s name this kind of thing is going to happen.
It also feels like this phenomenon is different than with other presidents other than perhaps Kennedy. People seem really interested in the personal lives of the First Family in a way I don’t remember in recent years (until Bill’s unfortunate episodes came to light). I guess I’m trying to say it seems more personality driven and less about policy with Obama. Is that a “duh!” moment? :)
T.R. Donoghue
Oh good, I thought it was just me who thought this was a stupid fucking article. Every press operation operates this way – I don’t care if you’re the PR flack for the Girl Scouts or the President.
gbear
Gibbs is neither polite or deferential, but he certainly is entertaining.
liberty60
Jeez- I am imagining these brave Woodward & Bernstien types, trying to crack a really big story:
“Hello, White House? What can you tell me about this story? Oh, no comment?”
Hangs up.
“Well, that’s that! Next!”
DarrenG
The blowjob sentence will get all the play, but this is the one that caused my head to hit my desk.
This White House asks reporters to embargo stories? Shocking! Unprecedented! Corruption! Loud noises!
Violet
I quite like Gibbs – he’s funny and seems fairly down to earth in the middle of a very stressful job. I get the impression that Sully wants Gibbs to be more deferential to him, or something along those lines. The snide comments from Sully definitely indicate that there’s more there – but is it something real, or is it just ruffled feathers? I’d be inclined to go with the latter, given Sully’s rather thin skin (sometimes) and tendency to get overemotional.
gbear
It’s back at the buffet.
Calming Influence
Where’s Jimmy Jeff Gannon Guckert? I mean, speakin’ a blowjobs and such…
demkat620
I am shocked. Shocked I tell you.
Clemons was an ardent Clintonista and has been unhappy with the Obama foreign policy team other than Clinton.
jl
G__d dayam. I’m just dusting myself off and picking myself off the floor from Cole’s revelenaton at the end of the post. OmiGod cubed, dude.
Pulitzer and Peabody for Cole.
But Tunch should give the speeches.
I suppose if the WH used more sticks than carrots, bullied and threatened more than cajoled and flirted, this would not be news.
It did not seem to be news during the Bush II years.
furioso ateo
Didn’t Greenwald just do a post about the same thing?
freelancer
Don’t look now, but it’s the second major story at memeorandum. The Top?
ZOMG! O’s approval rating drops to lowest ever! Worst. President. Ever.
Nick
Good to know Glenn Greenwald is out fighting this crap. Oh wait, he’s peddling this shit too.
Even some “liberals” are good for nothing.
jl
furioso ateo @21
“Didn’t Greenwald just do a post about the same thing?”
I just checked and you are correct.
But it makes sense because Greenwald is an Enemy to Balloon-Juice, a fell opponent in a recent epic blogwar. He is dead to us, or some such inane nonsense. He is One Of Them, now.
(I am adopting teabagger internecine warfare attitude, since we are told by Very Serious People that they are the New Model successful poliitical movement that will sweep the savvy bullies back into power, where they belong.)
Makewi
Most transparent administration evah!
gbear
Wonkette did a posting about it earlier today.
Mike Kay
BREEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKINNNNNNNG!
STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP DA PRESSSSSSSSSSSSSES!
Sun rises in the east!
BUSH = OBAMA!1!
freelancer
OT- More undercover federal agents on the prowl, obviously.
jl
Scratch the Pulitzer for Cole.
liberty60
They should call it the Wurlitzer.
Libby
I read that and thought, these guys all owe Marcy Wheeler a big fat thank you for bringing blow job into the narrative. Remember what a dither the media got into when she said it on air?
Midnight Marauder
So, basically, the Village is whining because
doing their jobstenography is hard work.Un.fucking.real.
gbear
Freelancer, That group must be very strange. Tim Pawlenty is one of the people they threatened.
Libby
Greenwald’s work on media criticism is impeccable AFAIC. I thought he did very good piece on this. Of course he’s not as entertaining as JC.
Makewi
Its those tactics involving lack of controversy, violence or civil war that you really have to watch out for.
myiq2xu
So media bias is okay if you like the occupant of the White house?
me
BREAKING: Some bullshit happened.
Mike Kay
On a serious note, this is what the anti-obama people have been reduced to – pathetic. I can imagine the next breathless breaking scandal – Obama has a tailor to make his suits look flattering and he asks his Michelle, “how do I look,” before he appears on tee vee.
Sharl
Steve Clemons represents some of Bob Somerby’s favorite rage bait.* I expect a barely readable rant from the High Priest of the Low Mordant Chuckle early next week.
Somerby could learn a thing or two from your short, smart-assed but informative post. Unfortunately, he won’t.
*For thems who are curious and/or care, Mr. Somerby thinks Clemons represents the worst type of Washington insider. Unfortunately, his rants tend to be unaccompanied by consideration of the media supply/demand market that sustains Clemons and his ilk.
I think it’s the same insider-hatred that caused him to go on an otherwise inexplicable rant some years ago against the retired diplomat husband of Valerie Plame, whose name I can never recall. It took eriposte [blog home unrecalled (early senility sucks)] knocking the stuffing out of Somerby to get him to knock that off.
furioso ateo
@Libby 34
Yeah, the Greenwald article made a point to identify that the press pool was fluffing the WH for their own personal gain. Those juicy tell-alls aren’t going to write themselves.
The Politico piece just looks like more pearl-clutching.
OT: What happened to the little “reply” arrow next to all the comments?
gbear
Yea, how could this ever be thought of as anything other than wholesome good times. Ponies for everybody.
Ass kissing by the media is the media’s choice. It’s a drag that they do it no matter who’s in charge. They’re pathetic.
Tom Hilton
Attackerman has the best take on this that I’ve seen. Beyond the obviousness of the obviousness, he makes the excellent point that in a journalistic world less driven by soap opera and personality stories, journalism would be less susceptible to the corruption that inherently comes with (and is the price of) access.
FlipYrWhig
Little-known fact: before Obama came along, White Houses wanted abrasive, feel-bad commentary from the press.
Comrade Kevin
Oh, look, meatprod climbed out of his sewer for a sec.
Midnight Marauder
EFroh
Mike Kay
@ myiq2xu I recall your idol used to fuck interns in the ass with his cigar, right in oval office, but that was okay, because you loved the big fat slob.
Bob L
Considering that the last eight years the White House Press Corps couldn’t suck off the Bush admin hard enough I can only put the objection giving out Obama admin hummers to “Conservatives are turn off by the size of Obama’s package”
Yutsano
This may or may not be a typo, however me likey!
EFroh
Argh, the blockquote tag isn’t working.
My comment was in response to
“So media bias is okay if you like the occupant of the White house?”
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@furioso ateo #39:
It was raptured. We’ve been Left Behind.
used to be disgusted
I may be crazy. I feel, on the one hand, that I probably admire journalists who try to fight this quid-pro-quo system.
On the other hand, I’m glad that the WH communications shop is playing hardball with the media.
And on the third hand, I agree with John’s mockery of Clemons’ whole “shocked–shocked” shtick.
Am I crazy? This seems like an incoherent set of opinions to hold.
demkat620
Oh christ. Myiq’s back.
Hi myiq! Did you take your meds today?
And while we are on the topic of lunatics, second weekend in a row President McCain will not be on my tv. What’s up with that?
Comrade Jake
I read that and just sighed. I’m sure you could generate a story like that completely from people who were simply bugged they couldn’t get better access.
That’s such a wanker blog post by Clemons, seriously.
Yutsano
@ demkat620:
It gets even bettah. We gots TWO of the resident lunatics on here now! All we need is BoB and mclaren and life will be very entertaining! With no reply arrow it’s gonna get a wee bit cornfuzzled though.
demkat620
@Yutsano
Did atanujar show up? He was my favorite.
Good times.
Mike Kay
@demkat620 He has to spend his weekends in AZ campaigning. It must be killing him, he has such an entitlement complex.
some other guy
One of my favorite Daily Show segments:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/thu-march-5-2009/white-house-press-corps
John Oliver (to Robert Gibbs): “The Obama administration has brought about a new era of transparency and openness. [Holds up list.] Which of these questions your staff insisted be pre-approved would you like me to ask first: one, two, or three?”
Noonan
Memo to Clemons: It’s not the White House’s job to keep the press in line.
rootless-e
A $24,000 Contribution to Media Grover, my PAC that seeks to bring the moral rectitude of Grover Norquist to the media business will help out a lot.
Send your contribution to
Bags-o-Cash Media
1900 PUMA Place
Mount Molehill CA
WereBear
Mmmm, so many Quicktags:
In other news, celebrities invite paparazzi over for beer ‘n’ skittles. “I feel so much more comfortable with them right in my house! That way there’s no jumping out at me as I leave the gym.”
General Egali Tarian Stuck
When all the tea bag shit started, Atanugar uncloaked as a liberal spoof and stuck around for awhile, but haven’t seen him since. Said he just couldn’t pretend to be a wingnut with all the town hall tea b going on.
John Cole
I’m not sure why some are bashing Greenwald- he gets it right. The scandal here is not corruption in the WH- it is the corruption in the newsroom. Clemons gets it completely upside down and inside out.
That was the point I was trying to get across. And he does it by using the worst journalistic practices possible- insider access with anonymous and unverifiable accusations. His post was so vapid, wrong, and at the same time, ironic, I’m wondering now if it might have been performance art.
Nellcote
They probably think calling things like “death panels” a lie is
a fluffy story.
Clemen’s fu*ked up post is just depressing. I guess his lack of self awareness makes him a member of the MSM now.
jeffreyw
Bob Gibbs tosses the press corps a little tidbit, keeps them hungry for more.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
I don’t remember GG’s piece on this kind of thing. And if he got it right, whatever that means, then that’s a good thing, and the first thing he has gotten right in a while.
Morbo
“Yeah, but checks this out: I can force all the bloods to my face and gives myself a real cool blow job! Dat’s whats I’m talking about.”
“Yous means nose bleed, not blow job.”
Comrade Jake
How long before Peter Daou writes a companion piece over at Huffpo?
eemom
oh, he’s busy plotting the repeal of HCR after next November’s republican tsunami when they have a supermajority in the Senate.
Y’see — dunno if you knew this — John McCain’s a War Hero. A maverick. A fuckin’ Fighter Pilot. HE’S not gonna wimp out on repeal like his some of those other pussy-ass republican senators.
‘Course, even if the GOP were, God forbid, to take back the Senate, the new majority just might not include him. Tee hee.
Morbo
Huh, post didn’t even go into moderation, it just went poof…
furioso ateo
@General Egali Tarian Stuck
GG’s post wasn’t the shit sandwich this one is. And I think GG gets his shit right pretty often.
Mike Kay
@Comrade Jake
I wonder if Peter will ever escape the PTSD PUMAism of the 2008 campaign.
myiq2xu
So media blowjobs are okay?
Maybe Monica should have changed her name to Media.
Nellcote
If McCain looses his senate seat will he be on teevee less or more?
Jim Newell
I’m glad you and I disagree sometimes John Cole. I thought this deserved a little more credit. I didn’t give a shit about or find the article because the word “corruption” was in the headline. It wasn’t just a generic declaration that fluff-for-access is currently a problem with the media. It brought the book dimension into that, which probably a lot of folks hadn’t considered before. If all of these schmucks are writing books and fighting each other for access, then that’s a whole new layer of leverage the Administration has, over lengthy periods of time, to make sure they’re getting the daily coverage they want in the reporter’s primary job. It’s a fair point to suggest that someone — and obviously this will never happen in fucking Washington — should flesh out conflict-of-interest rules for reporters whose daily work might be hamstrung by the access demands and compromises necessary for their long-term side-gig gossip books.
The alternative is just to take all of these pussies out back and shoot ’em, but that’s against the law.
mistermix
I’ve italicized the nut of this story — he dances around it in order to foment a non-existent scandal.
And, yes, GG is right — the issue is the reporters, not the WH.
Mike Kay
@furioso ateo = Grifter Glen Groupie.
jl
Tom Hilton @43:
I also think the Attackerman piece is the best one of those discussed. It is very clear and concise, and sums up the situation with proper hint of ridicule and disgust.
Cole and others are right that Greenwald also focuses on the press. But who illustrated it with a pic of O and R in the WH window?
Edit: the solution is to fire the national affairs press fools and put real reporters on the beat. For example, the sports, gardening, and food beats could rotate.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
I don’t. not lately, like since Obama took office. He has become an out of control polemicist that insists, as do his cult members, that he still is a serious and honest researcher writer.
Mike Kay
@Nellcote About the same. The beltway press is addicted to McCain, the same way hobos are addicted to cheap booze.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Can’t bring myself to read another Clemons post at the moment. Does he A) refer to the Very Important Dinner or Reception that he recently attended, or B) mention a trendy restaurant that plays an important part in his analysis?
Uloborus
I haven’t read Greenwald’s piece, because the way he phrases it is sure to grind my teeth and I don’t want that. And I don’t want it because I have a strong inclination to accept an opinion like this from him.
He’s always hated this kind of corruption in journalism. He hated it under Bush. He hates it under Obama. He hates it when it has nothing to do with either. He holds journalists up to a standard of honesty, and whatever problems I have with Greenwald, he ain’t dishonest. He meets his own standard.
Which is markedly different from someone trying to claim that this is a new phenomenon that somehow marks the Obama administration as more corrupt than… every other newsmaker in existence.
furioso ateo
@Mike Kay
Christ, I love having it both ways. According to Glen I’m an Obamautomaton. But I’m apparently also a Grifter Glen Groupie. I guess that makes me a… uh… Double Agent! Sweet!
Makewi
Sure MM, whereby fallacious is designated to mean “stuff I don’t agree with” and intimidating is deemed to mean a lack of a credible threat according to the authorities. You get down with your bad self. And change your diaper, apparently that one’s full.
Nellcote
Mike Kay
How’d you get that name-link? Do you see arrows? I don’t see an arrow anymore. :(
DarrenG
@Jim Newell:
Except the book angle is treated almost as a throw-away in the midst of shouty headlines about White House corruption, innuendo about practices like embargoes that have existed since the dawn of time, and a bunch of other sensationalist crap.
And as many have already noted, how is this the White House’s problem, rather than one for the publishers and editors who assign these access-seeking fluffers and continue to sign their paychecks?
eemom
OMG, how the fuck did we get back to Greenwald again? Do ALL roads lead to Greenwald?
furioso ateo
@General Egali Tarian Stuck
I guess it depends on what we’re talking about. His riffs on the inner machinations of the WH can come to pretty bizzare conclusions, i.e. Rahm. But when he sticks to things like civil rights abuses that he was covering when Bush was still in office, I think almost every word he lobs at the admimistration is dead on.
gbear
Mr. Newell, you obviously have not read my comments on this thread, which were all cribbed directly from your posting. I’m stung to the quick.
Yutsano
@furioso ateo:
Did you do that the hard way? Or are you using some special trick you’re not sharing? Oh and humming “Secret Agent Man” while driving a Humvee might put you up for a 5150. I’m just sayin’.
Mike Kay
@Nellcote I see →→→→→→↑↑↓↓←←
Tom Hilton
@General Egali Tarian Stuck: his rant the other day illustrated the Greenwald problem: lucid and logical up to a point, then veering off into batshit crazy ranting about the O-bots. He’s a smart guy, but you just never know when he’s going to go figuratively postal on one of the many, many things that (apparently) push his buttons. And when he gets onto one of those topics, he abandons not only rational argument but also any semblance of honesty.
MikeJ
@Nellcote: I’m guessing that was hand crafted html.
demo woman
Steve Clemons is hoping to fill one of the many vacancies at Politico. Gee, the guy is just trying to earn a living.
Amir_Khalid
As a (now-retired) journalist, I dealt with in-house and hired flacks almost every day. This is all part of their normal routine, and staying on good-enough terms with PR people to maintain access was also a normal part of my job. I’m surprised that Clemens’ editor didn’t spike this non-story and chew his ass out.
Midnight Marauder
I wouldn’t know what the dictionaries say in Bizarro World, Makewank.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
If your talking about when Bush was in office, then I agree. If the second sentence is referring to now equating that period and the Obama administration which GG is currently doing, then I vigorously disagree.
furioso ateo
@Yutsano
The hard way. Which is tedious enough I might stop doing it.
jeffreyw
@MikeJ: I think that must be it.
Uloborus
And that’s kind of the point of the post, Amir. Why the crud is anyone getting away with an article pointing out the bland and mildly corrupt realities of political journalism and pretending this is something special in the Obama administration?
The two competing answers seem to be ‘deranged bias’ or ‘idiocy’.
(Again, this applies to Clemons, not Glenn. Ain’t talkin’ ’bout Glenn no more this thread.)
Mike Kay
Who the fuck is glen greenwald? Why should I care what he has to say on anything?
what office has he held? what issues has he helped turn into law? what ballot initiatives has he directed? what campaigns has he worked on? How many precincts has he walked in 100 degree heat or in 5 feet snow drifts? How many picket lines has he stood? Has he ever fed the hungry? Has he ever helped a women walk to a clinic surrounded by wingnuts to see her OB/GYN?
Oh, I see, he sits behind a keyboard and plays armchair quarterback. Community organizers laugh at him.
Jim Newell
@DarrenG
I agree on both points. There is a lot of sensationalism in the article; I wasn’t reading it for that or for whatever stupid opinion Clemons had. Usually I comb these things finely for ways to mock the writer, but here I was just interested in the part about the book deals, didn’t care about the rest, since several stories about this popped up in the last few days. I’M READING THE INTERNET INCORRECTLY!
The part where he demands the White House fix this is legitimately hilarious and stupid and (most importantly) at the bottom of the article, so I don’t think that’s the part people will dwell on. Obviously the White House is expected to and will do whatever it can to get positive news coverage, and reporters are supposed to fight that. Clemons is definitely a pretty big fucking Beltway crazy person who has lost his mind if he thinks this White House, or any White House, will voluntarily make reporters be more critical about them.
Makewi
MM, a brilliant and witty comeback. I fear I cannot keep up with such a dazzling intellect.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
tom hilton
I honestly don’t care that the guy can be a jerk and call people names. Hell, I’m about as bad as he is in that department. Maybe worse.
My problem is tweaking crucial facts in an argument that turns that argument in a desired direction, and making assumptions contrary to common logic, and always assuming the worst possible motives that he nor I can know.
Yutsano
Are the two mutually exclusive?
Tom Hilton
Oh, definitely–the dishonesty is the worst of it.
Just Some Fuckhead
You need a new tag, “Reflexively Defensive About Obama”.
Mike Kay
@General Egali Tarian Stuck
There’s really not a dime’s worth of difference btwn Glen and Sirota.
Mike Kay
@Just Some Fuckhead I bet you jumped up and down when the assholes on Fixxed News manufactured outrage when the President used mustard on his hamburger.
The Sheriff's A Ni-
I was going to vote ‘typical he-said she-said horserace bullshit’ myself.
Enquiring minds also want to know when Meatprod and Fuckhead are going to start dating.
The Sheriff's A Ni-
Remember: Serious People agree that ‘hope and change’ meant Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, no exceptions. Its Villager tested, and GOP/PUMA approved!
General Egali Tarian Stuck
Haven’t read anything really of Sirota in a long time. But I think Glen is highly smart and highly talented. Just wish he’d use those tools better and without an agenda.
Beth in VA
Per John Cole’s observation from a month back somewhere, Steve Clemons is the biggest concern troll out there.
The Sheriff's A Ni-
Are we deliberately attempting to invoke Glenzilla into rampaging through the front page again? Eyes on the target, people: Villagers first, circular firing squad later.
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
@Mike Kay
I hear Greenwald is doing some actual legitimate work these days with this Accountability Now PAC, if you think that sort of thing counts as work and not counterproductive whining.
Polish the Guillotines
This gets to my All the President’s Men theory of political journalism: These guys don’t want to be Woodward and Bernstein. They want to be Redford and Hoffman.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@The Sheriff’s A Ni- #115
OK everybody, sing along with me:
And it’s 1, 2, 3, what are we fighting for
don’t ask me, I can’t get a break
the next stop is FireDogLake
and its 5,6,7 open up the trolly gates
Well there aint no time to wonder why
WHOOPEE we’re all gonna die.
Admiral_Komack
Steve Clemons is a dickhead.
Bet the Politico won’t put that on their front page.
SiubhanDuinne
@Midnight Marauder #46:
Heh You said fallacious. Heh. Heh.
resign from public office for preposterous and fallacious reasons
SiubhanDuinne
F. Y. W. P.
Jeebus.
Mike Kay
@ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Sweet! That’s a keepr.
gwangung
Ding! Ding! Ding!
We have a WINNAH, folks!
Anne Laurie
Violet:
Sullivan hates Gibbs like Maureen Dowd hates Hillary Clinton. If there’s gonna be a big, bearded ‘bear’ getting attention on the TV from Very Serious People, it should be Andrew Sullivan getting it, dammit!
(Basically, it’s the inverse of Sully’s weird fascination with Palin’s vajajay. Sometimes he reads like Perez Hilton with a functioning forebrain.)
Davis X. Machina
Steve Clemmons is the Republican Steve Sirota, and vice versa.
Wile E. Quixote
Uh Oh! myiq2xu is back, which must mean that her shitty blog isn’t getting any hits and the poor thing is desperate for attention. Hey, myiq2xu, have I ever told you how delicious I find your resentment of President Obama? Really, few things are enjoyable as watching racist morons like you piss and moan because a black man was elected president after kicking the shit out of the lousy candidate you backed. Watching Hillary Clinton’s completely undeserved sense of entitlement take a beating was one of the best parts of the 2008 election, right after watching John McCain’s sense of entitlement get bitch-slapped. And you must be really pissed about the fact that President Obama got a health care bill passed, something that your gods and idols, the Clintons, weren’t able to do. Man, that is some seriously tasty schadenfreude. Keep it coming.
I have to wonder how long it will be before myiq2xu and the rest of the pumabaggers over at the riverdaughter site will be asking to see Obama’s long form birth certificate. Should we start a pool?
Wile E. Quixote
@myiq2xu
Or if rimjobs are the subject maybe Monica should have changed her name to myiq2xu. You’ve spent more time with your tongue up Bill and Hillary Clinton’s asses than Monica Lewinsky ever did with her tongue up Bill’s.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Hey
myiq2xuGoatBoy, you just keep fucking that goat.Chuck Butcher
Is it too late to point out that Knight-Ridder (now McClatchy) got the run up to Iraq right – without access? They got it right because they talked to the little folks not the access muckety mucks. But it appears that getting things right takes a second seat to … something.
JGabriel
The White House grants access for positive coverage? I’m outraged!
Does Karl Rove know?
.
Robert Waldmann
Finally I understand. They are too busy giving blow jobs to broadcast the Whitey tape.
I think Mr Clemons earned the right to be ignored forever when he failed to deliver that one.
lawguy
Maybe I missed it but no one quoted the old joke: We know what you are now were only discussing the price.
single file
This blog has taken (especially in the comments section) a hard line against drama queen Greenwald, “I care about the working man” Sirota, “let’s make a date with Norquist” Hamshire, and other loony lefties. It’s about time. Those people make me vomit.
Cathie from Canada
Here’s the comment I posted at Clemon’s blog:
So we’ve had more than a year of non-stop media stories of doom and gloom and what a terrible job Obama is doing and how weak he is and how everybody hates him — remember how Obama was raked over the coals for tele-prompter-gate, anyone? the long hot summer of the tea parties? that Harvard professor? the underpants bomber? Michelle’s bare arms, for heavens sake? Remember all that and more? Someone upthread already mentioned the mustard thing, and don’t forget the bowling either?
Now we finally start to see some positive coverage for things that actually matter, like Obama’s new agreement with Russia, health insurance reform, economic turnaround, car companies solvent, international relations improving, enthusiastic town hall meetings, thoughtful and forward-looking speeches.
So Republican push-back is not surprising — cue the articles about how those darn librull reporters are just a bunch of toady suck-ups who are being bribed to make happy talk, implying that the Obama administration is lying to the American public.
But I am disappointed to see Steve Clemons getting gulled so easily by the Republican spin machine.
BruinKid
@John Cole: Well, I mostly agree. But this part, IMO, is stretching it.
Hmm… I seem to recall quite a few things happening in those few months that changed the dynamics of everything, where we started to realize the Senate didn’t have the 60 votes for the public option, and that trying to pursue it could’ve meant the death of health care reform. (All this was in 2009, way before Scott Brown came on the scene, so we were still thinking about the filibuster problem.)
So for Greenwald to say that Alter changed his opinion of things simply to curry favor with the White House, when there’s that little confounding factor of, oh… I dunno… REALITY setting in… to me, it’s a lazy criticism.
As for the other reporters he mentions, sure, he could be correct. But that one example he gave here just stood out like a sore thumb to me.
Edit: Oh… and what happened to the little reply arrows next to each comment? They’re gone now. Is this just me, or did this happen to everyone else?