Yesterday’s post about Obama “shunning” the DC press corpse for the G8 started a discussion in the comments about whether this was a wise strategy for the White House. I don’t know the long-term answer to that, but short-term, no harm done. Here’s the WSJ story, written in party by Elizabeth Williamson, the Journal reporter who was complaining about having to stay in Toronto. It’s mainly a re-write of the G8 communique with a few quotes.
This AP “color” report focuses on Obama sharing his helicopter with David Cameron, the seating arrangement of leaders, how everyone was talking about the World Cup, and the kind of beer Cameron and Obama drank. Somehow the reporter for that piece was able to get most of those juicy details without actually being there.
These two stories illustrate the simple fact that the corporeal presence of the DC press corpse isn’t really necessary. The reason reporters get so bent out of shape when they can’t be physically near the President is because they don’t want to be identified as an expensive anachronism. Since they’re mainly well-paid middlemen for packages released by the White House press office, they could most their job just as well from offices in the District, or in Bangalore.
In addition to tailing the President as he attends his kid’s soccer game, the daily duck-and-dodge of the White House press “briefing” is another expensive waste of time. An experienced operator like Gibbs, or even a lesser light like Dana Perino, just isn’t going to cough up news by accident. All the “real news” is leaked via unnamed sources who call their pet reporters.
The whole press conference exercise is actually corrosive to public confidence in the press and the White House. Reporters lose because they look ineffective, and the White House loses because they look like weasels as they duck the reporters’ questions.
Downsizing the elaborate, expensive White House Kabuki operation would probably be a net positive for everyone but the reporters who get to fly everywhere the President goes. That’s the dirty little secret behind stories venerating the sacred agreements between the press and the White House.
Corner Stone
But then how would we know if Obama sneaked a smoke, or stared at some young girl’s ass while in Toronto?
maya
The WHPC could definitely be out-sourced.
Mr Gibbs: ” Kevin, on the line from the Calcutta Picayune, how can I help you today?”
jeffreyw
This entire post I was waiting for you to work in zombie and a request, no-a demand!, for BRAINS.
cmorenc
I’m sitting here NOT-watching the Sunday teevee talk show kabuki theatre, and not-reading the MSM rehash of white house talking points v GOP talking points.
How ironic that I’m actually much better-informed because of that and choosing to watch England v Germany play their WC game instead. That’s what I pay you bloggers so much for – to read those MSM tools and other bloggers who actually do know what they’re talking about so I don’t have to sift through all the malarkey.
HRA
Thank you. No where is it written that any president had to have the WH press corp velcroed to his body .
I really wanted to comment on the other thread and thought better if I just kept mum. There is way too much nit picking going on with the press against this administration. Earlier I read about Biden and the custard stand. IMO I see error in both Biden and the owner. Yet, the comments on some blogs are beyond disgusting.
Back to cooking. At least there is peace among the kitchen utensils.
Michael Arnold
“All the “real news” is leaked via unnamed sources who call their pet reporters.”
True, if you think real news is inside the beltway crap with the occasional foray into political sausage making. In my view the real news is reported by someone who’s idea of fun is to hang out at out of the way airports and take down the tail numbers on planes that are ferrying people who have been stolen off the street to east Europe for a few rounds of Let’s See if You Drown This Time. Or notice the MMS employees at a big oil football, coke and sex weekend. Or play a few drinking games with some general.
M
Michael D.
“press corpse” ??
WereBear
Well, if the journalists were journalists, not stenographers, it would also make a difference. Isn’t flying around with the President also flying around with his aides? That could lead to stories.
In an alternate universe than our own, apparently.
kay
Well, I disagree. If it’s a strategy, I think it’s a bad one. People love this stuff, and if they want to know who the President sat beside, or what he said, or what he drank, they’re actually entitled to that information.
I do draw the line at children’s soccer games, but a meeting of world leaders? Yeah. They should get a picture.
Look, I know they’re looking for a gaffe, or some stupid “theme” but Obama can hardly rely on “free media” during campaigns then dodge them when he’s working.
The main objection yesterday seemed to be the perception (accurate, I think) that Bush got more favorable coverage. I would think the goal of the political people in the White House would be to figure out how to get better media coverage, not less of it. Why have a political staff int he WH at all if we’re just going to issue policy pronouncements?
Like it or not, Obama occupies a ceremonial or narrative role, because he’s the President. What is the point of fighting this? You’re not going to win. Put energy towards something that matters, and try to do a better job with the purely ceremonial aspects of the job, because it is part of the job.
malraux
I find the press conference deal actually makes me loath the press corps. Stuff like
Gibbs: To day we want to focus on the impact of the Health Care Law.
Reporter: Would the president care to comment about last night’s Top Chef voting?
The questions are either inane or pointless. Since obviously the press corps has no power to compel answers, tough questions will just get ignored.
The best suggestion I’ve heard for what to do with the conference is to ditch the idea of having Gibbs answer questions (which really would better be handled via email anyway) and bring in a knowledgable spokesperson from a particular agency that the WH wants to focus on that day.
Michael
Completely OT, but one of Horowitz’ front pagers thinks well of the coup plotters in “Seven Days in May”.
Corner Stone
I have yet to meet anyone who has ever mentioned this kind of factum, or commented on anything of this type.
I’m sure those people exist, but I have never once been party to a conversation about this in life.
WereBear
@Michael: Well, sure, since they interpret “tyranny” as “our party is out of power.”
I admit it sounds much better than “we’re losers who nearly destroyed the country.”
someguy
I agree. The D.C. press corpse is a waste of time, and given the fact that they give us nothing of any use it wouldn’t bother me if they shut down the WH press room (and for that matter if the Dems just quit talking to reporters entirely). Since they refuse to do any substantive journalism at all I don’t think they’d be missed.
cat48
I’ve read the report, but I don’t understand what happened exactly. It says the press was sent back to Toronto. Did the press have a place to stay where the G8 was held or was the prez supposed to stay in Toronto w/them because they had no place to stay at the G8? How can he send them away if they have a place to stay there? What am I missing?
mistermix
@kay: I don’t think it’s a strategy on the part of the White House. I think the reporters are actually the ones with a strategy, and it’s a classic anti-downsizing one, which is to make sure their importance is front-and-center. I think they’re deathly afraid of their cost-cutting management, not Obama’s desire to duck them.
So, I buy the explanation that the G8 shunning was dictated by the logistics of getting reporters to, and housing them at, a remote location in another country, not by Gibbs getting a little payback.
As for coverage of ceremony, I think that can be done without daily press conferences and round-the-clock body coverage.
@malraux:
Which could be covered by the beat reporters who are in charge of that agency, who know the issues better and aren’t quite as caught up in court politics.
Uloborus
Thank you for putting quotes around ‘real news’. These people wouldn’t know real news if Nancy ripped it out of the ground and threw it at them.
Emma
I finally figured out that the problem is that we don’t have a Royal Family. No, really. See, in the UK, in Spain, in the Netherlands, the Royal Family does all the ceremonial stuff. They to visit wounded soldiers, and christen hospitals, and pin medals on sundry worthies. In the meantime the Prime Minister can get down to business and can go into secret meetings with his counterparts after a short public photo op without reporters getting all bent out of shape.
On the other hand, in those countries there is in most instances a pretty decent separation between a newspaper and a gossip magazine. The line may be crossed by the tabloids, but there is a clear understanding of which one carries which kind of news.
kay
@mistermix:
I don’t know mistermix. This whole theme reeks of “we’re taking our ball and going home”.
I’m honestly baffled. I’ve been hearing about the “bully pulpit” for 18 months. We want the President to sell liberal policies and ideas, but only if we 1. pick the reporter, 2. pick the venue, and 3. rework the relationship between the media and the public? Good Lord. No wonder Democrats hold endless meetings on “message”. There’s a lecturing aspect to this too, “eat your policy vegetables, America, or you’ll get no photos!”
Obama isn’t taking advantage of the situation that exists. There’s no reason Robert Gibbs can’t rephrase a question (he can’t, but that’s his problem).
What is the upside of making enemies of these people? Some broader goal? Pay-backs for their groveling to Bush? Is it even Obama’s job to tell the press they suck?
Allison W.
Sorry Kay, No one is entitled to know such extremely unimportant information.
fucen tarmal
you could get more from the press corpse. of course the white house itself would have to want them to be, by making themselves capable of answering more questions than just one guy at a podium is capable of, not that the presser has to be at a podium, mind you, while we are reinvisioning….gibbs could have a roster of folks available to him, for his press availability, to answer about the forest, when asked about today’s tree.
the news organizations would have to want to ask better questions as well. no point of gibbs putting that sort of firepower together, to answer about obama’s current pie preferences.
they could have the reporters there, have their own availability with the rest of their own media types who may(in an ideal world) have some knowledge of the topics at hand, heck they could cast the net wider, have bloggers interact with the reporters to develop questions based on observations, questions that come from more than what one person can think up on the spot based on their limited frame of reference for that one tree/topic. you could sell the access to these sessions to readers, or have readers contribute the deep background and insight….you know use the technology to get the right bits of information into the relevent people’s ear at the right time?
it doesn’t have to be that hard, to get the information moving, it does however have to be in the media, their employers, and the white house’s best interest.
Nick
Simple really…the DC media wants to be respected and they don’t think Obama respects them, which is double insulting since they believe they created him. He should be thankful to them and do whatever they say and he’s not, so they hate it.
Imagine Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction if Alex Forrest not only had an affair with Dan Gallagher, but believed was the one who got Dan Gallagher his job.
“I will NOT BE IGNORED MR. PRESIDENT!”
kay
@Allison W.:
They cover it because there’s a chance it won’t be unimportant. They hope to get an unguarded moment between world leaders.
This is the opposite of democratic, this view.
“The President will release his policy position to the public for review”.
Besides being lousy politics, it treats them like Kings.
Obama can and should talk to them, informally. He’s not His Royal Highness, and he doesn’t get to dictate the terms of how Americans view him. The harder he pushes, the harder they are going to push back. Whether you think they have a role or not, they exist. Why not use that existing dynamic to our advantage?
I suspect it’s not because they won’t, but because they can’t, or haven’t been able to. I’m simply asking that HIS WHITE HOUSE get better at this, and this applies across the board, from selling health care to selling financial reform. He can’t appear when he has a policy to promote, give a speech and then disappear when he’s (perhaps) vulnerable.
I keep getting accused of wanting some Royal Press Corps. I feel as if the people here want him in some bunker, if there’s a chance they can’t control every word.
The risk goes with the benefit. He gets free media to sell whatever he’s selling, and they get an opportunity to catch him out.
geg6
The fucking whining crybabies of the WH press corpse are simply pissed because this incident points out how, in reality, their presence is not required. It has been demonstrated that they are not the all important movers and shakers they have convinced themselves they are and the butthurt is stinging, big time. They go to Sally Quinn’s Georgetown cocktail parties and build themselves the Newseum as a monument to their egos’ need for constant self-fluffing and have convinced themselves that THEY are the story. And expect people like me in great unwashed masses to give a shit that they feel dissed because they don’t get a ride on Airforce One or get accommodations equal to the leaders of the most powerful nations on earth.
The only thing Weigel said in his infamous emails that was wrong was only wishing Drudge would DIAF. He should have expanded that to the entire Village. Such a conflagration would be a a boon to this entire nation.
Emma
Kay:
He’s not His Royal Highness, and he doesn’t get to dictate the terms of how Americans view him. The harder he pushes, the harder they are going to push back.
In your view, he gets to take whatever crap the Press mandarins are throwing his way and kiss their feet while he’s at it. I have watched the DC press unequivocally try to destroy an democratic president, and definitely destroy two democratic candidates for president by creating a FALSE narrative of who they were and what they said. In a memorable instance I was present at a Gore speech and what I read in the press the other day was flat out invention.
On the other hand I have watched them fluff Republican candidates with little or nothing to recommend them, inventing a narrative for them that will make them acceptable to the vast majority of the public. In at least one instance, a well known reporter agreed, years later, that, hey, the press just didn’t like Gore.
Nothing anyone has said or done has changed their methods or their behavior. Nothing has shamed them or restored their ethics. They’re still at it.
Obama might as well do what he feels like it and make them work for their keep. A good reporter should know how to find information without depending on being spoon fed by the White House. If Obama is doing something immoral or illegal, let them find out the old fashioned way: by doing some investigative reporting.
fucen tarmal
@geg6:
difference is, drudge brings a unique assholishness to his endeavors.
the whpc could all die in a fire, and another team of whpc would come in, and the dynamics would dictate that they act exactly the same way. sure a rare exception might sneak through the gates, but the rest of the new whpc would get that person in line, or marginalize their visibility.
El Cid
For what it’s worth, I certainly don’t need or benefit from the ‘services’ of the White House press corps. so they can go to hell as far as I care.
kay
@Emma:
That’s a defensive and passive posture, Emma. There’s no reason to accept those terms. Democrats are bad at this. We know we’re bad at it. Maybe we could get better at it.
Obama’s a fine oral advocate. Let him talk.
Uloborus
Kay and Fucen:
Have you guys ever watched a press conference with the White House Press Corp? I have watched Gibbs rephrase their stupid questions. It does absolutely nothing. Neither does giving them a carefully crafted message emphasizing the important issues and destroying the bullshit. They will pretend it didn’t happen. That is exactly what they will do. Then they will ask another bullshit question that supports whatever narrative they feel like today.
There is no way to take advantage of the situation that exists, because the situation that exists is that the WHPC, and to a slightly lesser extent the entire news media, only care about what the administration says if they can use it against them. At best they want dumb gossip. They are honestly not interested in doing their job, and there is no way to make them do their job.
Obama isn’t shunning them. He just doesn’t care because there’s no reason to care. The WHPC cannot be worked with, any more than Senate Republicans can, because they are not making a good faith attempt to hold up their side of the process.
geg6
@fucen tarmal:
I really don’t consider Drudge any more or less of an asshole than Chuck Todd or MoDo or Tucker Carlson or David Broder. The Villagers are all worthless pieces of shit who add nothing but garbage to our national discourse. And who do everything they can to bring down those who actually do have something to add, whether it’s President Obama or Al Gore or Helen Thomas or Dave Weigel. I despise them and I heartily approve of any and all insults Gibbs or Obama or anyone else throws at them. As a daughter of an actual journalist, I view them as nothing more than spiteful gossip mongers and none of them deserve any of our respect, let alone the respect of the POTUS.
maye
And this makes me crazy.
The press corps has no more strategy than as individuals they have to file a story every day in order to pick up a pay check. Their corporate bosses have to sell ads for Preparation H so they can pick up their paychecks.
My question is: Why can’t the White House use the press briefing to their advantage? Why doesn’t the White House have a f***ing strategy?
I know I’ve harped on this ad nauseum, but with just a little smarts and effort, the press can be manipulated. It need not be the way it is. This White House sucks at communications.
arguingwithsignposts
@maye:
Oh, bullshit. The people who have succeeded at manipulating the press are the Ari Fleischers, Scott McClellans and Dana Perinos of the world. This White House doesn’t suck at communicating. It sucks at lying repeatedly with a straight face.
Emma
Kay Now I know you’re either connected to or part of the media. First attack then sidestep the issue. All you do is whine that “they” have a job to do and Obama’s team is being “ineffectual” when they don’t give them whatever “they” whine about.
The issue is that NO MATTER HOW WELL A DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT SPEAKS, the press makes it up. And that nothing, it seems, can change the pattern.
Until you articulate a solution that explicitly states which kind of responsibility the press has towards those they cover, and how the other members of the press will shun and punish those who contravene their “agreements” with them, I will consider you a media troll.
Mnemosyne
@kay:
Close — they hope to get a “gaffe” that they can blow up into the meme of the day. “Obama may have looked at a woman’s ass — is his presidency over?”
The relationship between the press and Obama is definitely a problem, but I really don’t think that giving in to them and doing exactly what they want is the solution, and that seems to be what you’re advocating. Dancing to the tune of a press that’s more interested in gaffes and “enlightening” anecdotes than in telling people about what is actually being done in Washington is a recipe for disaster.
maye
@arguingwithsignposts: So they’re just too morally pure to manipulate the media?
demimondian
@Michael D.: WHPC == “Whiny Heathers Petulance Collective”
Mnemosyne
Here’s the first question from Friday’s press gaggle:
IOW, we’re flying into Toronto to discuss the crisis in the world economy with the G20 and the primary question on the reporters’ minds is, “How is this going to affect the election in November?” Not, “What is the president going to discuss with the other G20 members?” or “Is the president planning to change direction based on comments from PM Merkel?”
For them, it’s all about electioneering and nothing matters if they can’t spin it into What This Means For Democrats in November. I’m really not sure how the White House is supposed to fix that.
demimondian
@Emma: I don’t suppose that your response might, just might, be due to your own ideological biases?
Maude
If the WHPC was covering what Obama does, why didn’t anyone know what the president did right after the oil rig explosions?
It was made to look like the president didn’t know what he was doing and wasn’t doing anything anyway.
It was, instead, is this Obama’s Katrina and other such nonsense.
eemom
Jane? That you?
Mnemosyne
@Emma:
I don’t think that kay is a media troll. She really does think that Robert Gibbs is doing a crappy job. The problem is that none of us can really come up with a solution to something that is definitely a problem for the administration.
Admiral_Komack
@Emma:
I love you, Emma.
If the press wants to keep playing their bullshit games I hope the President continues to shun them.
maye
There are many people formerly and currently employed on Madison Avenue (and elsewhere) who get paid to devise and execute aggressive, creative media strategies. It’s not brain surgery.
jeffreyw
Bah, it’s all beneath my radar today. My “what matters” proximity alert is flashing red on fried wontons and crab Rangoon.
Elisabeth
@Mnemosyne:
One solution might be to stop calling on the same crappy reporters during the daily briefings. If Tapper, Todd, etc get called on out of habit then Gibbs needs to find a new habit. Or at least make them sweat it out while others get called on first.
demimondian
@maye: Um, yeah.
Actually, it *is* brain surgery — or rather, a lot like brain surgery used to be. PR is about guessing where the frog will jump, usually with less than adequate information. Unlike brain surgery, though, there’s no large and well-funded government agency directed at understanding how to measure and respond to society-wide cues.
Uloborus
@demimondian:
And perhaps more importantly, the media is at least moderately willing to play ball with a company. But here they have their own agenda that is almost entirely contrary to the administration’s.
Cathie from Canada
This whole story was just a stupid overreaction on the part of the delicate flowers in the White House press pool.
The media covering the G8 meetings were all housed in Toronto — there was no decision on Obama’s part to bus them back and forth, this was the decision of the G8 organizers because there were not enough hotel rooms at the resort where the G8 meetings were held to house all of the G8 leaders, their staff and the huge security apparatus.
Of course, the media outlets running with this story yesterday couldn’t be bothered to actually do any research or ask the G8 press office for any background — too much like work!
Sorry, I didn’t see your “shunning” post yesterday or I would have posted this information there — and some other Canadian may have done this already.
http://www.thestar.com/travel/northamerica/article/817482–deerhurst-resort-in-huntsville-ready-to-welcome-g8-leaders-for-june-25-26-summit
maye
@demimondian: Letting the town hall screamers, the tea partiers, the blue dogs, and every other ancillary nutty group grab and keep the headlines the entire first year was due to a lack of any media strategy. It needn’t be guess work. They could have at least tried to get out in front of the propaganda.
valdivia
@Cathie from Canada:
thanks for posting this. just confirms everything said in this thread to criticize the WHPC and to really just ignore their constant whining.
Kerry Reid
@Uloborus:
Thank you!
asiangrrlMN
@Cathie from Canada: Your link has been pulled.
I don’t think it’s so much that the White House is lousy at manipulating the media or whatnot–I think it’s as Emma says. No matter what a Democratic president does or says, the narrative will be that he is weak or ineffectual or whatever bullshit the meme of the day is. I don’t think we need a press corps that follows Obama everywhere. I mean, if we really need to know all those stupid little details while waiting for Obama to say something unexpected or get caught on tape talking dirty to a woman on the phone, then why don’t we just embed a camera into the man that can monitor his every movement?
@Corner Stone: Ditto this. I have never heard someone say, “Gee, I wonder what the prez talked about as he rode on Air Force One today?”
And, if, indeed it’s a matter of all reporters got housed in one certain area, then the WHPC is even more WATB than I thought.
sukabi
@Michael D.: yes, corpse is very fitting as it hasn’t been alive and properly functioning in a very long time.
Emma
Mnemosyne: Perhaps. But I am tired of people telling me the President has to appease the media monster, or “get out in front of the narrative”.
I don’t think there’s any way to do that, because the media is rigged. I’m not talking conspiracy. The majority of the press is corporate-owned, and the corporations are only interested in having media outlets that provide a corporate-friendly narrative and in making sure that the Washington game of bought politicians voting corporate interests remains the status quo. The media environment is steeped in that and the only “reporters” who thrive in the Washington press either passively accept it or actively promote it.
The president can play by those rules until the cows come home and he will get what every democratic politician has gotten for at least thirty years. Bubkes.
Kerry Reid
Frankly, I think we should dispense with the press conferences altogether and just run Stephen Colbert’s address at the White House Press Correspondents’ Dinner on a continuous loop. Remember — the address where the Villagers couldn’t wait to tell the world how badly Colbert bombed (as the early reports said)? And then the video went viral and millions of people pointed and laughed at the Damaged Fee-Fees Brigade who didn’t realize that they had just been punked.
Tom Brokaw whined a while back that the American people were “confused” about healthcare reform because they didn’t know what was in the legislation. Well, gee, Mr. Official Fluffer for the “Greatest Generation,” why don’t you use your SuperDuper I’m the Most Important Greasy Eminence in Broadcast News Now That Saint Tim Russert’s Dead status, and do a freaking special broadcast that looks in-depth at what is and isn’t in the legislation? Too much like real work?
Emma
Demimondian: Unlike the press, I never claimed not to have biases. But I do try to filter them to the best of my ability.
The American press postures about claiming “impartiality” and screws over ever Democrat it can get its hands on and gives a pass to every Republican it can get away with, and whines when it gets caught or it feels ignored. My three-year-old cousin has a better grip on the idea of “fair and balanced” than they do.
valdivia
@Kerry Reid:
this.
Nick
@kay:
We have, it doesn’t appear to be working.
Nick
@Corner Stone:
They’ll never admit it. It’s like National Equirer. Have you ever met anyone who admits to reading it? Yet it has a huge circulation.
It’s a guilty pleasure.
60th Street
Uhhh…so now the very serious question now is whether or not the WH is wise in dismissing the likes of Chuck Todd?!?
And, doesn’t the phrase “expensive anachronism” imply that these (yes, way, way, overpaid) clowns that make up the bulk of the current WHPC were significant at some point?
Make it stop.
AhabTRuler
@60th Street: Really, the WHPC has always been useless. People usually refer back to Watergate, but by and large the WHPC was either timid or dismissive, initially. Woodstein weren’t from the WHPC, or even the political beat. One of them was doing Metro and the other style, IIRC. Once the WHPC smelled blood in the water, they went after the admin, but without Woodstein and Ben Bradlee’s willingness to support them, nothing would have happened.
Needless to say, Woodstein were also young & hungry. I mean, look what success did to them.
arguingwithsignposts
@maye:
You are under the mistaken assumption that the WH has enough power to actually get in front of the propaganda that is coming out of the right wing puke funnel (not to mention the left flankers like the firebaggers).
Obama’s team members are the ones who own what’s going on. They are Goliath facing an army of secretly well-funded Davids who have nothing else to do but attack. TeaPartiers, GOP asshats, etc. don’t have to deal with actually governing, so they can throw shit at the wall to see what sticks.
And the press will lap it up because it’s a conflict narrative, which is about the only one the Washington Village understands. It’s why any of these useful idiots pays attention to Sarah Barracuda’s Facebook page.
The administration doesn’t have the resources or the time to swat at a thousand mosquitoes every day.
Robert Gibbs may not be the best press secretary, but I really don’t see anyone being able to wrangle the steaming pile of crap that is the WHPC given the coordinated attacks that are under way atm.
arguingwithsignposts
@Kerry Reid:
I had someone say this to me during a panel discussion once, and I had a very curt response.
The information was there. If the American people didn’t know, it was because a) they didn’t *want* to know, or b) the media weren’t doing their jobs.
The answer for most is c) all of the above.
arguingwithsignposts
@maye:
No, they had excellent media manipulation during the campaign.
But governing is not the same as campaigning. Once you’re the one in power, the media turns on you, unless you’re a Republican (unless a hurricane kills thousands of Americans in a major U.S. city under your watch).
jeffreyw
Got time for a snack?
maye
@arguingwithsignposts: Just taking healthcare as an example, it was Obama’s signature piece of legislation, and they had no coordinated national media campaign. None. You have to at least try.
Nellcote
Inside the Media Bubble (at the G8):
Corner Stone
ISTM, we’ve moved on to discussing two separate phenomena:
1. how the WH deals with the WHPC
2. how the WH deals with getting their message out
I would argue they aren’t the same thing.
The WHPC and their over-inflated salaried selves are nothing more than Gossip Reporters, and should be dissed as much as possible.
The over arching narratives, and propagation of significant messages on key legislation or issues ~ that to me is where this WH hasn’t done as much as I think they can. IMO
*And to me, the WHPC is not where the messaging effort should start or be focused. No one gives a damn about the details the WHPC provides. What someone’s wearing, where they sit, what they are served. No one cares outside the bubble.
But on significant efforts that people really do care about, the press has failed them and this WH hasn’t really broken through on how to unfuck that chicken.
Uloborus
@Corner Stone:
Okay. I completely accept that separation. My opinion is about how the press, and especially the WHPC treats the White House. But you’re right – that’s a different topic from whether the administration is selling things like legislation well.
At a quick thought it seems like many of the same obstacles apply, since the media really isn’t interested, but I don’t have a well formatted opinion on this. It could be they’re handling it badly. The WHPC refuses to do its job, but I don’t think the resistance is as monolithic or as hard to get around for broader messaging. I… have to think about it.
Corner Stone
@Nellcote: Awesome blurb, thanks for posting that.
60th Street
I think there’s a pretty strong argument that this administration is pretty successful in manipulating the media for the most part and, for that matter, any political reporter/writer/blogger/activist/junkie/observer who wishes to be manipulated. Anyone who wilfully grabs the AnonymousWhiteHouseStaffer™ bait to serve their ends is a perfect example.
This doesn’t mean that in allowing this and/or not denying statements allegedly given by anonymous staffers Obama and his team get the message right every time, but it serves to force everyone else to create their own reality and, let’s face it, it makes lazy reporting and pontificating easy. We see that 24/7 from the MSM and the blogs.
There is a distinct increase in the appearance of AnonymousWhiteHouseStaffer™ in reporting since Jan 20, 2009, is there not?
Consider the “RAaahhhhmm!!!” narrative and how well that serves Manic Progressivism. As mentioned here, it’s now just a given that the bulk of the anonymous hippie punching is coming from Emanuel. Who cares whether or not he was quoted on the record.
That people take it seriously baffles me.
It’s the equivalent of every other WH press briefing being conducted by the Unknown Comic.
Nellcote
It’s not like the only thing Gibbs does all day is the 15min. press briefing. There’s an early morning press “gaggle” where he puts out the WH info for the day as well as answer questions of immediate import. He and his staff also answer/discuss requests via phone, email etc. from the press all day. The daily televised press “briefing” is a cspan thing that has turned into a chance for the WHPC to posture for the cameras.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@60th Street:
Perusing the headlines over at memerandum, if there is a dubious Obama fail meme missed, I don’t know what it could be. That includes Frank Rich along with the other usual suspect wankers.
If I was Obama. I would consider several body doubles to keep up appearances and disappear himself to an undisclosed location to get some presidentin’ done. There is no upside to glad handing these jackals. The only answer to the only question that matters to them is “why have you failed us Mr. Presnit”. And they are not interested in pushback on that prevailing meme. They are going to answer that question with their own answer, no matter what the WH says.
arguingwithsignposts
@maye:
And yet, HCR somehow passed. Something Bill Clinton couldn’t even get done.
Also, the WH was all over the place talking about health care reform last year. Just because you didn’t see it on the news doesn’t mean it wasn’t happening. And, it’s hard to rally for a bill when it’s still in flux (which it was until early this year) and you have idiots like those in the Senate playing king of the hill with different parts of the program.
I don’t exactly get what you are thinking about with a “coordinated national media campaign.” The WH doesn’t buy ads. It’s not Wal-Mart or Budweiser. No WH has done that.
arguingwithsignposts
@60th Street:
No. It is a well-known fact that the Bush White House (up to and including Cheney, Rice, etc.) would function as “sources close to the president” on all manner of things, right to the side of the dais in the WHPC briefing room.
JAHILL10
As a former journalist, I think that several in this thread are defending an ideal of journalism that, as far as the WHPC is concerned, is dead. They’ve operated as a wolf pack since Reagan taught them to be spoon-fed yes-men and that process was completed under W. in which we witnessed the spectacle of Washington press colluding with the administration to push this country into an unnecessary war.
As for his his administration’s failure to stroke the press so they will give him favorable coverage, the Obama people learned in the campaign that that gets them nowhere. Facts get them nowhere, reality gets them nowhere. Remember all the debates that McCain “won”? The the WHPC, aside from being obsessed with horse race politics, follow overarching sterotypes that were supposedly ushered in in the post-Vietnam era: Dems are weak and ineffectual leaders. Republicans are strong, decisive, can-do, daddy substitute leaders.
S. Benin has ably documented the double standard to which the current press corps holds Obama. Obama has decided to do what he did during the campaign — make his own case without an intermediary. The media tools are now available for him to speak directly to the American people and he has used most of them effectively and constantly since taking office.
Observe every time the media narrative “Obama is losing control, is waffling, indecisive, blah, blah blah.” Then someone takes a national poll and lo and behold his approval rating is not in the gutter, except among the well documented crazy 27 percent.
Let’s face it, the political junkies who want to know what the president has for breakfast or the details of his his next policy proposal is can find that stuff out themselves and they don’t go to CBS news for the information anymore. By refusing to do its job, the press corps has made itself obsolete. What we are seeing now are a bunch of Nora Desmonds demanding their close-ups.
What I want to see more of are the McClatchy type websites that combine new media with real reporting. Much, more of this please.
Nick
@maye:
No, they had a coordinated media campaign, the media had no coordinated way of covering the story.
Basically it went like this “WH says something, ‘anonymous adminsitration official’ (aka nobody)’ says something contridicting what the WH said, WH looks disorganized”
JAHILL10
Besides, give the guy a break. If he wants to see his kid play soccer without a bunch of press following him around, is that really anything to get exercised about? It’s not like he slipped the Secret Service and put himself as leader of the free world at risk.
MikeJ
@JAHILL10: Everybody remembers (or has seen the film of) Cronkite announcing JFK’s death. By not letting the pool following him, he’s potentially denying them their shot at immortality if his mortality is proven.
That’s really all they care about. Fuck ’em.
fucen tarmal
@geg6:
i don’t know about the rest of the village, or what varied purposes they serve, but the whpc is simply a beat, they are beholden to the info they are given, you can set their agenda, by only talking about what you want to talk about.
sure it would be nice if they could ask interesting questions about other subjects, but they can’t so you control them by only offering meat on one subject, and iceberg lettuce on any other, until they miss enough stories to be replaced or refocused, or become incredibly unsubstantial, simply give them nothing but what you want them to have….
when they start preparing for the topic at hand, then you can broaden out their allowed boundaries.
kdaug
How many of our current laws/customs are dictated or designed around a reality that no longer exists?
I know every state has “silly old laws” on the books that no one (mostly) bothers to enforce. (“No spittin’ on the sidewalks. He-he, that’s so old.”)
But summers off from school (so the kids could work the fields)? No alchohol sales before noon on Sundays (you’re supposed to be in church)? Congressional recesses for a month at a time (since it takes a long time to ride your horse from Washington to bumfuck wherever)? Two months between Presidential election and swearing-in (so the president-elect could get his affairs in order and prepare for the move).
And the White House press corpse. Some things have survived beyond their original purpose and intent, and serve no constructive purpose now.
What have I forgotten?
Nick
@kdaug: Our whole system of government may be outdated.
Keep in mind that our system was designed in a non-partisan, non-ideological world where everyone compromised and combined their best ideas for the good of society.
Doesn’t work when everyone’s just jockeying for power.
arguingwithsignposts
@Nick:
Haha. You’re funny.
benintn
So wait … Tim Geithner does a 30-minute Q&A, Ben Rhodes leads a team of key diplomats and policy experts in a 30-minute presser, and there’s an announcement of a major new South Korean free trade agreement … and folks are upset because they were stalking the President and he didn’t take questions?
Corner Stone
@Nick:
So you’re insane then?
eemom
btw and fwiw, y’all, the fuckwits under discussion, with their infantile attention span, have forgotten all about being “dissed” at the G8 by now.
Their shining hour is coming back up tomorrow right here at home, when the circus that will be Elena Kagan’s confirmation “hearings” kicks off.
Their blackberries are buzzing. Their dicks are hardening. Their mouths are drooling at the palpable scent of blood that permeates the dense air of the Washington summer…..
kdaug
@eemom: Brilliant.
I have a new German Shepherd puppy. She gets into mischief. But if I distract her with another, more appropriate, shiny object, she forgets all about the bag of kitty litter she was just tearing into.
Let us find the appropriate shiny objects for our WHPC.
demimondian
@Corner Stone: No, but he lives in a world with a purple haze for a sky.
maus
@Nick:
In my understanding of history, the Founders were of mortal stock.
@Corner Stone: hahhahhaahhah. It does sound like a Beckism.
Phoenix Woman
@Corner Stone: The reporters so eager to play Teen Beat and touch the hem of some politician’s garment would be better served by hanging out at the McDonald’s over in the Federal Triangle area of DC, a quick walk from the White House.
That’s where the regular DC workers go to discuss things that they feel they can’t talk about in their agency cafeteria, and that’s where, if you’re quiet and patient, you can pick up a ton of useful info.
Nick
@maus:
they were also dreamers who occasionally found themselves reaching for an unreachable goal who died before they could become cynical.
JGabriel
mistermix:
Speaking of dirty little secrets, I’m surprised no one has mentioned the dirty little not so secret of the White House Press Corps: it’s basically an assassination watch. No one wants to be left out in the cold if some kook takes a shot at the president, especially a successful shot.
So all of the media outlets make sure they have someone there, just in case something violent happens. That’s the only reason the the networks, etc., underwrite the expense. And the Secret Service tolerates it, allegedly, because they think it helps reduce the risk of a successful attempt with extra eyes watching.
The Kabuki is just a byproduct of keeping the press corps busy in the interim.
.
Corner Stone
@Nick: “The Impossible Dream” from Man of La Mancha?
Jack Canuck
Bit late to the party, but as someone who had to read through an awful lot of Bush I and Clinton White House and State Department press briefings and conferences in the process of researching my dissertation, I’ve got to disagree that they should be done away with. Yes, most of the time they’re full of stupid and pointless crap, but not always, and it’s those occasions that they’re not that are the valuable ones. I got some very useful and illuminating material from them when the reporters got the bit between their teeth and refused to let go, for instance on wanting answers about what good the economic sanctions on Serbia were actually doing to reduce the violence in Bosnia (a question, by the way, that the administration basically could not answer and did its best to dodge). So I think they do, or at least can, play an important role.
However, I concede that the ones I was looking at were fifteen+ years old, and the current WHPC is, shall we say, not renowned for, well, doing their jobs.
kay
@Emma:
Oh, Emma, I’m not saying anyone has to “appease” anyone. I think you should drop the war analogies.
He can’t talk to Republicans, he can’t talk to the WH press corps, anyone else we want to “shun”?
I think you’ve succeeded only in making these people into a much bigger threat than they are. This whole thing reminds me of how liberals turned Karl Rove into an evil genius. We made him Ten Feet Tall, and scary.
Obama can go head to head with them, and he enjoys it. He’ll hold up fine. He’s at his absolute best when he’s verbally sparring. He has a sense of humor and good grasp of where he’s going, and he does a good job explaining the larger picture. He likes an opponent, someone to play off of, and I don’t think he has anything to apologize for, or explain.
If they’re lining up to talk to him, he should use that to his advantage, is all. I don’t know why we would take a person who does really well in an informal back and forth and insist he shouldn’t get in one, to punish ‘the village” or whatever.
It’s just another forum. He can do with it what he wants.
If a Republican President has passed health care reform he wouldn’t shut up about how fabulous it was.
Bush spent 2006 on bragging about homeownership numbers with reporters, ’till about 2 weeks before the freaking crash.
It’s not like they’re these awesomely smart people, who are gonna trip him up on some policy nuance.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@kay: I think the daily press briefings by Gibbs and a regular, but not terribly often question and answer session press conference should be about all that the WH should be expected to provide. They can provide more at their leisure, if they want, but concluding the press has the right to follow the president around like his shadow everywhere he goes is too much to expect, or provide. And it sounds to me like this is what they are demanding.
AxelFoley
@Maude:
Bingo.
kay
@General Egali Tarian Stuck:
I guess I just see this entirely differently than you-all do. I can’t help but feel this is a defensive posture.
“He will provide this BUT NO MORE”
Or what happens? What horrible thing happens?
eemom
hmmm. All this is reminding me of when Obama smacked down that Ed Henry assclown with “I like to know what I’m talking about before I open my mouth.”
That was teh awesome. Zip. Bang. Boom. POW.
kay
@eemom:
Or when he asked Jake Tapper if Tapper was the “White House press corps ombudsman”, grinning a little.
It’ll be fine.
drkrick
@MikeJ:
A hundred times this. Old timers can tell you that the obsessive in corpus coverage dates back only to late November ’63. No one but Zapruder got pictures of that assassination and it will never happen again if the WHPC has anything to say about it. I hadn’t heard that the Secret Service considers the extra eyes a protective effect (or more likely a source of more evidence if needed), but it isn’t the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.
The WHPC is only loosely associated with anything that actually does the country any good, and so cowed by the right-wing media narrative over the last 40 years they feel like they need to be hostile to Dems and friendly to GOPers to stay out of trouble. Doing the least for them they absolutely have to is a wise allocation of resources for any Dem administration. There are plenty of less filtered ways to get the message out.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@kay: I don’t think horrible things happening is the right description. I would call it irrelevant time wasting bullshit things happening. I look at it as Obama disciplining the WH media corp with the only whip he has, access. They do need it to do their job, which is vital imo. But starving the beast just enough to focus their minds on what is relevant and what is not, is a good thing imo. Good for the country, the presnit, and the press. Not to mention my BP levels.
AxelFoley
@JAHILL10@post #76:
Damn good post, sir (or madam, as the case may be).