Patterico's Pontifications

9/30/2009

Governing 101: Attack Fox News

Filed under: Obama — DRJ @ 3:16 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

When it comes to the Obama Administration’s priorities, getting even with Fox News is high on the list judging by this White House Blog Reality Check. Here’s an excerpt:

RHETORIC: VALERIE JARRETT “WAS LAST SEEN WITH THE NEA.” Beck’s guest, FOX News contributor Pat Caddell, said, “[Obama] is going to go [to Copenhagen] with Valerie Jarrett who was last seen with the NEA pumping up their use of, you know, money.” [Transcript, Glenn Beck Show, 9/29/09]

REALITY: VALERIE JARRETT WAS NOT ON THE NEA CONFERENCE CALL. Valerie Jarrett was not a participant in the August 10, 2009 United We Serve/NEA conference call.”

Some of Obama’s staffers worked in the Clinton Administration so they’ve learned from two Presidential masters at word manipulation. Valerie Jarrett may not have been a participant in the NEA call but Buffy Wicks, a Deputy Director in the Jarrett-led Office of Public Engagement, certainly invoked her name and influence.

On page 11 of the NEA transcript, Buffy Wicks was introduced as the person who “spearheaded the [NEA] initiative from the beginning.” Wicks not only had a prominent role in the NEA call but on page 13, she made a point of highlighting Jarrett’s leadership and assistance:

“We have about 20 folks and we work under Valerie Jarrett, she’s one of our fantastic leaders and Tina Chen [sic]. And so we’re really here at your disposal and we want to be helpful to you.”

Nice threading of the rhetorical needle, Obama staffers, but Chris Wallace is right. You really are the biggest bunch of crybabies.

— DRJ

33 Responses to “Governing 101: Attack Fox News”

  1. This country’s being led by children.

    Dmac (5ddc52)

  2. When they call Fox News liars, and then obviously lie, they are really helping Fox News build credibility.

    At this point, lots of people want to know what’s up with Obama. They are having to stomach Fox News’s loud loud loud style because so few media outlets are willing to scrutinize the white house.

    Valerie was with the NEA in some capacity… so the white house knew they were liars. Where’s the investigation? It should come.

    Dustin (0bdb72)

  3. People named Buffy are not to be trusted. Just like midgets. And clowns.

    JD (336b12)

  4. You’re doing exactly what you’re accusing the White House of doing. You’re the one manipulating words to mean something other than what they mean, not the White House.

    The fact is, Jarrett was not on the call. You can’t dispute that. She was not, “last seen with the NEA pumping up their use of, you know, money,” as was asserted on Beck’s show.

    The White House responded to what was actually said on the show. If Caddell wanted to say that people who worked for Jarrett invoked her name, he should have. He didn’t.

    In the real world, words mean something. You should try it some time.

    Katie (14d589)

  5. Katie, nice try at repeating the White House spin but you have ignored the content of the post.

    Its not hard. Read the post. Understand it and then try to comment. Then your comment won’t seem as silly as that one does.

    Well, maybe it won’t.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  6. It shows what you can do when the Constitutionally protected press is on your side and will republish your propaganda.

    bill-tb (365bd9)

  7. Katie,

    Cadell didn’t say Jarrett was a participant, the White House did. Cadell said Jarrett “was last seen with the NEA,” a statement that arguably includes her leadership role in general as well as support via surrogates in the specific NEA call. It’s not unlike President Obama’s support for Chicago’s Olympic bid through Michelle Obama, who will travel to Copenhagen as a surrogate for him and a representative of their hometown of Chicago.

    DRJ (b008f8)

  8. Is Katie our new White House assigned troll?

    daleyrocks (718861)

  9. You see how it works? Complete with a foot stomp and a sniff.

    It’s Clinton II. Only less adroit.

    Hey JD: how do you feel about midget clowns named “Buffy”?

    Eric Blair (0b61b2)

  10. Add Katies to that list. Reading a leftist say something like “words have meanings” almost made me wreck my new car, and I shot Mountain Dew all over the windshield.

    JD (aa1bf7)

  11. A group of about 50 people has been picketing Fox-11’s building in West LA several afternoons this month. They also seem to favor a “single-payer” health plan.

    Since they are slowing an otherwise grim commute on Bundy, they aren’t getting a lot of love.

    Kevin Murphy (805c5b)

  12. I have to admit I’d have a hard time calling Sean Hannity “fair and balanced.” But Fox is one of the few places where a reporter who isn’t a Leftist can actually hope to have a decent career. Outside of Fox, you are either on the Left, or on the sidewalk.

    Kevin Murphy (805c5b)

  13. Easy there. Katie is none other than CBS’ sockpuppet propagandist replacing RatherNot. Couric by any other name. Ok, that’s a Georgian stretch. teh.

    Between all the connections between the White House, ACORN, SEIU, Apollo, DNC, most Dems in Congress, Czars, Ayers, etc etc etc. Makes one’s head …. Where’s Woodward & Bernstein and their complicit lapdog sycophants of the media? I mean, come on – tentacles reaching all the way into the White House. heh

    MDr (fd1f4b)

  14. “…You really are the biggest bunch of crybabies”

    DRJ, (embracing a very stern tone) how can you be sooooo judgemental?

    AD - RtR/OS! (7148a0)

  15. I don’t think a post complaining about Obama calling out the liars at Fox News should call other people crybabies. Tu quoque.

    Andrew J. Lazarus (fcc5c3)

  16. Heh. Good to see you, too, Andrew.

    DRJ (b008f8)

  17. Note to AJL: Chris Wallace called the WH crybabies; DRJ is just quoting him.
    But then, accuracy has never been your strong suit.

    AD - RtR/OS! (7148a0)

  18. Andrew,

    Seriously, that would be a good argument if I were whining about the way the Obama Administration treats Fox News but I’m not. Fox can take care of itself. My point is to highlight what I think is a silly attempt at misdirection by the Obama Administration.

    DRJ (b008f8)

  19. AJL never misses a chance to miss a point.

    JD (d3f3ab)

  20. If we could only convince Obama and his administration that Al Qaeda was just as dangerous as Fox News, we would all be a lot safer.

    Huey (b957d9)

  21. The Obama administration is not an administration. It is a media image. That’s why it has a desperate, genuine, need to defend itself.

    nk (df76d4)

  22. Maybe Andrew can point to one substantive accomplishment of the Teleprompter in Chief?

    nk (df76d4)

  23. Why pounce on an allusion to isolate a specific event only to dictate the obvious? The assumed premise revealed is how toxic the “nothing to see here” event has become.

    JDBlackaby (1309cf)

  24. Yesterday’s Glen Beck show was very revealing about Valerie Jarrett’s corruption. A guest stated that she was in the top ten most corrupt in the world/nation? I didn’t get whether she was the most corrupt politician or business person. Seems like the WH would wish to deny that statement if it were untrue….

    It’s a pleasure to watch Beck use these guy’s recorded statements to make his analyses.

    krusher (d7ca19)

  25. So when Applebaum gets something wrong, it’s just flat out false. But when Beck gets something factually wrong, it’s “threading the needle” to point it out. That’s a rhetorical double standard, and no mistake. But that’s what politics does to people, sadly.

    Drew (d587d9)

  26. Anne applebaum is not just wrong because someone said so, she said multiple flat our fucking false things in service of a narrative that just so happens to coincide with her husband’s professional stance, and aids to gloss over the anal rape of a 13-year old girl after drugging her. And, Pat Cadell said the quote you allege to be factually wrong, Drew. See comment #7 above …

    JD (b5a4c1)

  27. Drew, like what? Knock off the moral equivalence shtick, it isn’t and it doesn’t work.

    PCD (1d8b6d)

  28. That’s totally, like, not fair! Fox News would NEVER attack the president!

    JEA (b29a48)

  29. More FOX “authenticity”.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj4I2f0ZO6g

    blubonnet (ae1d2a)

  30. “Maybe Andrew can point to one substantive accomplishment of the Teleprompter in Chief?”

    He almost knew how many states there are.

    Dave Surls (719891)

  31. That’s from a photo shoot, blubonnet, not Beck’s show.

    DRJ (b008f8)

  32. Drew,

    As Beck & Cadell discussed, Valerie Jarrett was involved with the NEA via her deputy — who not only participated in the conference call but also specifically discussed her boss, Valerie Jarrett. Apparently you think that’s an unfair point. Fair enough.

    Here’s another point: Patterico wrote the Anne Applebaum posts. I wrote this one.

    DRJ (b008f8)

  33. Fox News is kind of like professional wrestling. Everybody knows what they do. They’ve done it since their inception. A lot of people want to believe it’s real because their politics are inclined in the direction FOX advocates and FOX reinforces their beliefs and reassures them they needn’t do anything but oust the Democrats and the country will be fine again. Yet Beck and O’Reilly admit in interviews that what they do is an act. Ailes and his succesor as the Fox News head are former Republican political operatives who’ve on occasion admitted quite directly that they use the network to oppose Democratic policies and Democratic candidates. But the watchers of Fox News by and large watch only Fox News and form the bulk of right-wing talk radio audience, so they don’t hear those remarks. In the campaign season and throughout the Obama presidency thus far Fox News talkers and anchors have hyped a constant stream of conspiracies, from Ayers to ACORN, from phony birth certificates to terrorist fist bumps. It’s frankly laughable. These aren’t even good conspiracies. Here are some things I’d like FOX News or its viewers to examine: How is it that Fox News, is the only 24 hour television news outlet in America that’s a foreign-owned entity; that entity owns media corporations all over the world and is a strong partner of the Chinese government; that entity has avoided paying almost any U.S. taxes (by using off-shore banks and other means), yet so many patriotic Americans accept every bit of information it sells as the real truth, fair and balanced? Don’t they know it’s not an American company? That it plays its politics to empower the party that has dismantled the media ownership laws of this country so it could grow its massive media business and earn billions of dollars from taxpaying Americans? That this foreign entity now controls newspapers and TV outlets throughout the country, sports stations, a movie studio, HarperCollins Books and its subsidiaries including Zondervan, The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Dow Jones Company, DirectTV and MySpace? What’s REALLY going on here? (And why was Glenn Beck on a moral crusade to help get universal, single-payer, government-operated healthcare for America while he was on CNN Headline News for two years, but when he got his Fox News show he suddenly railed against such thing with almost as much passion? What’s up with that?)

    Hey, how was it that George W. Bush purchased nearly 100,000 acres of land in Paraguay in 2006 and this went virtually unreported? Also almost unreported was that this land is adjacent to a similar sized tract owned by his father G.H.W. Bush and very near a huge tract the size of both Bushes that is owned by GHW’s close friend, the uber-conservative publisher of the Washington Times, convicted U.S. tax-evading felon, ultra-secret financier of Republican candidates and causes, and notorious cult leader, the Reverend Sun-Myung Moon. Interestingly, at the time of purchase the U.S. had just committed an American military Unit to train Paraguayan sodiers to fight anti-government rebels. Also at the time Paraguay was one of the very few nation with no extradition treaty with the United States (just in case somebody got serious about that war crime stuff?). But wait! Guess what? This land sits atop one of the largest fresh water aquifers in the world, giving the Bushes and the Moons control over the world’s most important resource in a part of the world that just might make that a highly profitable position to be in one day.

    One last conspiracy that reeks of truth and you can google it: remember the plane that somehow took off from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota and ended up in Louisiana with a payload of armed nuclear missiles? Gee, what a crazy mistake that was. A ral mix-up. Never should have happened. Slack oversite up there at Minot said the official investigation. Demote the highest level officer who let it happen. End of story. No. Such a thing is absolutely impossible to have happened by mistake. There are multiple safeguards, multiple personnel whoi have to sign off on it, multiple agencies involved, a strict chain of command for the orders. Simply not possible that it was a mistake. There’s only one way it could have happened . There is one clear intent behind it. And there is no question who authorized it. Googler it.

    Those are some interesting things to do while your breaking your nasty Fox News habit.

    JH (3c3b32)


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