Newspapers Refuse to Print Condi Rice's OpEd.

[illinoisprogressive]

About 2 1/2 years ago, when she was new in office, I accompanied her on her first trip around the world, with stops in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, South Korea, Japan and China. Crowds gathered to see her limousine drive past; people whistled, waved and cheered. Interviewers routinely asked her whether she was planning to run for president. One TV reporter in India told her she was "arguably the most powerful woman in the world." She chuckled but did not exactly agree -- or disagree.

How things change.

A few months ago, she decided to write an opinion piece about Lebanon. She enlisted John Chambers, chief executive officer of Cisco Systems as a co-author, and they wrote about public/private partnerships and how they might be of use in rebuilding Lebanon after last summer's war. No one would publish it.

Think about that. Every one of the major newspapers approached refused to publish an essay by the secretary of state. Price Floyd, who was the State Department's director of media affairs until recently, recalls that it was sent to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and perhaps other papers before the department finally tried a foreign publication, the Financial Times of London, which also turned it down.

As a last-ditch strategy, the State Department briefly considered translating the article into Arabic and trying a Lebanese paper. But finally they just gave up. "I kept hearing the same thing: 'There's no news in this.' " Floyd said. The piece, he said, was littered with glowing references to President Bush's wise leadership. "It read like a campaign document."

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/22/INGDFR1UV512.DTL

[babylonsister]

1. Wow, a discerning press? Who knew? nt

[Gman]

2. No way!

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

3. Maybe Condi can write a piano concerto - an Ode to Bush's Polyps

and try to make a hit record out of it.

[malaise]

11. ROFL

:rofl: :rofl:

[bonito]

4. Now that's what I call progress. n/t

[struggle4progress]

5. Oooh! Halliburton and our tax dollars rebuild Lebanon!

I wonder why nobody was interested :shrug:

[ovidsen]

6. Silence is golden.

Maybe it's just me, but you hardly see Condi in the newspapers or TV or hear her on the radio because she just plain doesn't do anything. And when you haven't done anything, the chances of your essay getting published in the NYTimes, Wash Post or Wall Street Journal are slim at best. For example, the past few weeks have given her a wonderful opportunity to lessen the tension between Hamas and Fatah, the two major factions wrestling for control of the Gaza Strip. Maybe she DID try to calm things down, and somehow the story got stuck on page A-17, and I missed it. But I read 4 papers a day and it's hard to miss items like that. It's more likely that she did't do anything concerning the mideast, and seeing how there was nothing to report, the media didn't

I suspect Condi is adapting her bosses office habits. You know, those naps and extended stays at his Crawford, Texas ranch. Last week the papers were filled with stories about how Condi loves golf, and loves to watch the pros putt (you can learn a lot about putting that way), has a "mean hook", and enjoyed her lunches with real pros like Tiger Woods. I'm glad she enjoyed herself but can't help wonder how all this helped her understand geopolitics and the US's place today as the world's only remaining superpower.

Seeing as how her boss, President Bush rarely seems to spend a full working day at the Oval Office, and has taken more vacation time-outs thsn any other President in modern times, maybe she's angling for her bosses job after he leaves office in January, 2009.
Better watch out, Hillary!

[cui bono]

7. Cheney doesn't WANT her to do anything. She's the suposed to be the diplomat

If she were to succeed in that how could he pretend to have a reason to attack Iran?

She's been sidelined.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

12. She was supposed to go to Israel yesterday for talks.

Blair is over there also, acting as a Mid-East Envoy.

[rodeodance]

8. "It read like a campaign document." ------The whole ADm acts like it is campaign!

The piece, he said, was littered with glowing references to President Bush's wise leadership. "It read like a campaign document."

[Canuckistanian]

9. Wow, somebody actually refused to catapult the propaganda?

They'll pay for this.

Although when Murdoch takes over the Wall Street Journal, he'll probably run it as front-page news.

[Solly Mack]

10. Send me a copy...I might run low on TP and it sounds perfect for the job

[dave123williams]

13. The whores over at the OpinionJournal haven't given her a platform?

Just askin'.

[Festivito]

14. Just wait till Sunday: "It's a left-wing media!" Based on this?

So what if her article is printed, or not. CONs will love it, Dems will shun it, and the middle will muddle through.

I'll be waiting for this no-print story to show up on Sunday mourning, Hardbawl, et. al. as a small quick quietly-spoken proof line invoking the meme that the media is left-wing therefore any stories against righties would have been reported had those stories been the least bit true (sucker).

Perception management.

Sprinkle cognitive dissonance lightly, and lead them to think: Both sides do it (sucker).