WP: WP: Sparring Between McClellan and Reporters Escalates

[Bumblebee]

SAY WHAT?!!! This White House "less enmeshed in strategies to influence news coverage"?!! Makes one's jaw drop!


By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer

... Despite extraordinary tension with reporters during the scandals that led to impeachment, the Clinton press office regularly engaged reporters in attempts to leak favorable information and suppress damaging allegations. In the Bush White House, the press office has been less enmeshed in strategies to influence news coverage, in part because Bush cares less about the daily headlines than his predecessor did. Some reporters say they do not regard McClellan, a Texan who began working for Bush in Austin, as a valuable source....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/15/AR2005101501104.html

[ellenfl]

1. aw-w-w, poor scotty. eom

[MADem]

2. It did not work when Ron Ziegler tried this crap in the NIXON WH either

If you change the names to those in the press room during the years of 'No Longer Operative' Ron, it is the same shit, different day!

Roberts said in an interview that President Bush's spokesman "has adopted this siege mentality in which the best way to deflect the question is to attack the questioner. I'm not quite sure who he's playing to -- maybe the segment of the Republican Party that believes we're a bunch of liberals who have our own agenda."

McClellan, for his part, said his job is "to mix it up a little bit and keep them on their toes. Reporters like to swing away at others, but they don't like it when you punch back. The pack mentality goes into overdrive . . . The media's trying to get under our skin and get us off-message. My job is to help the president advance his agenda."

As the White House has been forced onto the defensive in recent weeks -- over Hurricane Katrina, the CIA leak investigation, the Iraq war and the Miers nomination -- the daily sparring between McClellan and the press corps has turned increasingly testy. While there has been an element of theater in these sessions since live television coverage began in 1995 -- clips are now routinely posted on the Internet -- McClellan's rebuttals have lately become more personal.

"There's been an attempt to put reporters on the spot and question the motivation of reporters," said David Gregory, NBC's White House correspondent. "It is irritating, and I for one think it's an attempt by the White House to change the focus from what is a legitimate question to what the talking point is. It's an effort to cast the media as out for red meat."

[gumby]

3. Howie The Ho-Ho-Ho

Gawd! This one sentence says it all: "In the Bush White House, the press office has been less enmeshed in strategies to influence news coverage, in part because Bush cares less about the daily headlines than his predecessor did."

This is just so much bullshit, it makes for hard trekking. First of all, one must ask Mistah Kurtz what the definition of "press office" is. It has long been exposed, and seems ongoing, that the Bush Administration PAYS "journalists" to do "positive" stories. How about the "faked" "interaction" with soldiers in Iraq just the other day? The Bush administration has been deeply involved in media perception management. Perhaps Mistah Kurtz thinks he can vomit this baloney because he limits his chunks to "press office"?

Then, in the same bullshit sentence, Kurtz regurgitates the most transparent pro-Bush propaganda. In just a few words, Kurtz reminds the reader that Bush is a Man's Man who doesn't rely
on 'headlines'(polls) to tell Him what to do... unlike Clinton who did EVERYTHING based on 'headlines' (polls).

It's quite amazing that Kurtz relies on the Manly Man formula that has been Bush's signature ruse. Bill Clinton was a wimpy-wimp; a girlie-man that 'felt your pain.' Bush is such a Manly-Man-Warrior that he doesn't need 'headlines' to tell him what to do. He just has the 'right stuff' to know how to lead the nation based on his 'gut.'

I can't stand to read or listen to Kurtz any more. As you can see, all it took was one sentence to make me despise that piece of puke.

[Carolab]

4. Pretty transparent, isn't he? n/t

[bluedeminredstate]

7. Two words"

Armstrong Williams

"In the Bush White House, the press office has been less enmeshed in strategies to influence news coverage, in part because Bush cares less about the daily headlines than his predecessor did."

Now what were you saying Howie...

:dunce:

[gratuitous]

15. Four more words

Maggie Gallagher. Jeff Gannon.

And a few more for Mr. Kurtz to chew on: Talon News. Pay to play. The Secretary of Defense saying that his office would lie to reporters. Terror alerts every time bad daily headlines were coming out. The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The sudden surfacing of a submarine out on a joy-ride for wealthy Texas contributors. The "trashing" of the White House. War on Afghanistan. War on Iraq. I could go on and on.

Either Mr. Kurtz is delusional, or he thinks we're fucking retarded.

[depakid]

8. Talk about a smarmy guy with ZERO credibility

He's part of the reason that the Post has become such a laughingstock in intelligent circles.

After Kurtz's obvious conflicts of interest (with his wife working for Arny while he was reporting on the campaign)- the fact that he's still working there just goes to show why so few people take them seriosly anymore.

Whatever problems the Times has, the Post has fallen so much farther.

Katherine Graham must be rolling over in her grave.

[Spazito]

11. Actually, I believe that is the truth, as far as it goes, but Howie

is using this half-truth to hide the fact that the reason the press office has been less enmeshed is because the influence pushing is done by others instead and Howie is one of their biggest cheerleaders, regurgitating the message he has been given. He is totally disgusting in his continued attempts to cover their asses, imo.

[senseandsensibility]

16. * doesn't read or care about the daily headlines

That much I DO believe. He can't read, and he's too stupid to understand them when someone like Harriet reads them to him. How impressive.:sarcasm:

[Neil Lisst]

5. If you're going to hate on Scott McClellan ...

Then you gotta see my comic a few days ago skewing him.

http://www.webcomicsnation.com/neillisst/neillisst/series.php?view=archive&chapter=2843

[bluedeminredstate]

6. Jesus H. Christ on a surfboard,

this trick is so skanky no working girl would do it for ANY amount of money.

Has Howie forgotten the actual press conferences that were conducted regularly by President Clinton? He answered questions; he didn't repeat the same 3 to 5 "inspirational" pap lines. And talk about a tough hide...who would dare ask Bush the things Clinton was asked, often in front of world leaders?

Howie's obviously ill, delusional, on the take or a pathological liar. Not to mention a gigantic douche bag of fakery...
How does he draw a paycheck?

:eyes:

[truthisfreedom]

9. i've been watching scotty turn on the spit for a long time now and i think

that what's happened is the spit has stopped and he's facing the coals continuously. scotty's condition is a metaphor for what the whole administration is going through.

and in the midst of this non-stop distraction and pressure, who is running the country?

who?

[Jacobin]

10. I like the way the press just Laughs At Loud at him

Especially at the end. Catcalls and everything. The WH press corps is finally starting to show its teeth. Finally.

[soothsayer]

12. ok, but the reporting is still pretty weak, imho

[POAS]

13. Agreed but the reporting is

also in large part a result of editors and editorial policy. Once the reporter leaves the briefing room and files the story it must pass the scrutiny of those editors.

On the other hand, the briefing itself has become a story that the reporters boss in unable to influence because of C-SPAN. A NY Times editor may kill a report about Scotty not answering a question but it still gets reported elsewhere once the video is made public.

[robbedvoter]

14. Less enmeshed? Howie, remember Ganon? How "enmeshed" was he?

[meg]

17. what a whore kurtz is!!!

Despite extraordinary tension with reporters during the scandals that led to impeachment,

Yeah - like ONE sex scandal!! I hate it when the 'reporters' refer to Whitewater as a Clinton scandal. Whitewater is a scandal, but it is a vast-right-wing conspiracy scandal.

[Vickers]

18. "Bush cares less about the daily headlines" Ah, hubris...

...ya gotta love it.

:spank:

Personally, I think that is a lie, and he HAS been reading the papers, and so he's on coke and whiskey (again).