“President Approved Punditry”
[Guest post by DRJ]
Tom Maguire has the list of people who recently attended a 2-1/2 hour off-the-record briefing with President Obama at the White House:
Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post. E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post. Ron Brownstein of Atlantic Media and formerly with the LA Times. John Dickerson of Slate Magazine. Rachel Maddow of MSNBC. Frank Rich of the New York Times. Jerry Seib of the Wall Street Journal. Maureen Dowd of the New York Times. Keith Olbermann of MSNBC. Bob Herbert of the New York Times. Gloria Borger of CNN. Gwen Ifill of PBS.
Once again it looks like the White House has time for its troops in the media but not our troops in Afghanistan.
— DRJ
Glad to see Ifill on this list – it pretty much confirms everything I’ve thought about her work over the past decade. What a partisan hack – and she works for the Jim Lehrer show every night; your tax dollars at work!
Dmac (5ddc52) — 10/22/2009 @ 2:06 pmI guess that these folks don’t “do what they’re told,” huh?
http://www.breitbart.tv/do-what-theyre-told-obama-takes-swipe-at-republicans-during-nyc-fundraiser/
But you see, it’s always different when this President does things, isn’t it?
And to my progressive friends. Just ask yourself how you would have responded with GWB doing this with folks you consider to be “right leaning.”
If you don’t like that, you cannot like this.
Eric Blair (0b61b2) — 10/22/2009 @ 2:06 pmI updated the post to show where I think each attendee works.
DRJ (dff2ca) — 10/22/2009 @ 2:13 pmThe fact that Olberman and Rich are included suggests that the nasty tone is a favored tactic of the White House. EJ Dionne used the favored term “teabaggers” on This Week last Sunday, which is interesting in view of his supposed devout Catholicism. They are marching to orders that are fundamentally without moral basis. It’s Rules for Radicals all the way.
Mike K (addb13) — 10/22/2009 @ 2:15 pmThere are 12 of them.
Like the disciples.
COINCIDENCE???
I think not.
Gesundheit (254807) — 10/22/2009 @ 2:16 pmNote to self: call stockbroker, invest in companies that manufacture kneepads–that group of “journalists” will be burning through a lot of sets “covering” Mr. Obama for the next few years.
M. Scott Eiland (c552ec) — 10/22/2009 @ 2:17 pmWere Katrina vanden Heuvel and Katha Pollitt too busy picketing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to attend?
Didn’t they know Anita Dunn gave all attendees an autographed copy of Mao’s Little Red Book?
MU789 (99caee) — 10/22/2009 @ 2:20 pmKeitel, Jodl, Krebs, Buchdorf. . .
Official Internet Data Office (203a2f) — 10/22/2009 @ 2:25 pmFor fear of moderation, I have judiciously used the delete key often, and will simply note that MadCow and Olbergasm are vile cretins , big ole puss filled pimples on the asscrack of humanity. Barcky would make MadCow switch teams, and Olbergasm will one day spontaneously assplode with a torrent of bile shooting forth from his head like a geyser, which now that I think about it, is pretty much what his show is like.
This meeting comes at the same time that Barcky, the small petulent President, is attacking Fox. Priceless.
I hope they all get lock-jaw while fellating this administration.
JD (7036fb) — 10/22/2009 @ 2:30 pmcome the civil war, that is just a list of legitimate targets.
PCD (ba8fe0) — 10/22/2009 @ 2:32 pmFunny!!!!
What was that on post-partisan hope and change?
Is Obama a nice guy yet or just another piece of excrement?
HeavenSent (01a566) — 10/22/2009 @ 2:32 pmIs there an artist out there who can do a caricature of Obama standing triumphant and naked like the Jolly Green Giant with no clothes and these little media people swarming his private parts with their mouths opened?
Not overtly disgusting but easily understood. I’d buy that T.
Or just as good Mt Rushmore but with his picture, Stalin, Castro and Mao?
Ideas here for the profit hungry entrepreneur.
HeavenSent (01a566) — 10/22/2009 @ 2:38 pmThe Beast had ten horns….
Ted (b3ef41) — 10/22/2009 @ 2:40 pmSo much for the age of transparency.
What, the press needs its pat on the head or something?
Techie (482700) — 10/22/2009 @ 2:54 pmIs there an artist out there. . .
There are 10,000 photoshops of Da Vinci’s The Last Supper being created as we speak.
Official Internet Data Office (203a2f) — 10/22/2009 @ 3:03 pmA rogue’s gallery to be sure.
BT (74cbec) — 10/22/2009 @ 3:03 pmThey’re doing such a bang-up job of Speaking Truth To Power! (TM)
Behold the vaunted Fourth Estate.
Techie (482700) — 10/22/2009 @ 3:05 pmWere those the nominees for Sycophant of the Year?
JD (07f478) — 10/22/2009 @ 3:25 pmThere’s going to be a hell of an offensive from the Left soon.
Metallica (e4735c) — 10/22/2009 @ 3:30 pmLoyal troops in Afghanistan do not get you re-elected. Loyal troops in the media do.
Huey (b957d9) — 10/22/2009 @ 3:30 pmCharter Members of the Lapdog Media, each and everyone of them. History will not be kind to these harbingers of a failed profession.
ropelight (646b3e) — 10/22/2009 @ 3:33 pmI don’t think there is anything necessarily wrong with the President meeting with “friendly” journalists in the White House. I recall that GWB did the same thing with writers from publications such as National Review and The Weekly Standard. I do find the inclusion of the TV personalities very curious. I don’t know if President Bush brought in the Sean Hannitys of the world for strategy discussions.
What will be really obnoxious is when Olbermann or Maddow next refers to Fox as “the RNC News Channel” or some such dig. At that point, someone needs to look straight at them and say, “Excuse me Keith/Rachel, didn’t you go visit President Obama to get your marching orders back in October?”
JVW (d1215a) — 10/22/2009 @ 3:39 pmI don’t think there is anything necessarily wrong with the President meeting with “friendly” journalists in the White House.
Or conservative pundits at George Will’s house?
steve (736035) — 10/22/2009 @ 3:48 pm#22, in the midst of a government assault on voices critical of his Administration, Obama’s sub Rosa meeting with compliant media figures is more than unseemly, it’s alarming, and speaks volumes to voters and taxpayers already uneasy with his excessive spending, unsavory associations, and failed policies.
The unfortunate truth is that Obama simply doesn’t subscribe to the fundamental traditions which guide public life in our republic.
ropelight (646b3e) — 10/22/2009 @ 4:13 pmJeez Louise…
How embarrassing for these clowns (although I doubt any of them will realize the propriety of shame). And how embarrassing for Obama, to need to go crawling to a bunch of hacks to save his sorry ass from the mean ole Republicans.
Leviticus (30ac20) — 10/22/2009 @ 4:22 pmsmall-s steve – Which “conservative” pundits did Barcky meet with @ George Will’s house?
JD (2d6d20) — 10/22/2009 @ 4:23 pmWell said, Leviticus.
SPQR (26be8b) — 10/22/2009 @ 4:24 pmRopelight, I take a back seat to no one in my distaste for Obama’s policies, but I can’t get too worked up over him getting together his loyal lefty media brigade and schooling them in the message of the week. He’s not the first President to do it. Yes, I wish he would spend more time talking with General McChrystal than he does with Maureen Dowd, but it is not for want of time that Obama ignores his commanders in Afghanistan, rather for lack of interest.
JVW (d1215a) — 10/22/2009 @ 4:26 pmDid I mention how deep my disdain is for Olbergasm and MadCow?
JD (2d6d20) — 10/22/2009 @ 4:31 pmDo they get armbands?
Kevin Murphy (805c5b) — 10/22/2009 @ 4:39 pmMaybe Gwen Ifill can bring a copy of her own book for POTUS to sign. Since it is about him.
“Unseemly” appears to be the correct word.
Eric Blair (0b61b2) — 10/22/2009 @ 4:41 pmWhich “conservative” pundits did Barcky meet with @ George Will’s house?
Charles Krauthammer, Rich Lowry, David Brooks and Bill Kristol, among other stalwarts.
steve (736035) — 10/22/2009 @ 4:42 pmRemember, we were all told by our betters just about a year ago that Gwen Ifill is a professional journalist, not a biased and ethically challenged Obama flack.
Karl (246941) — 10/22/2009 @ 4:43 pmLinky, please.
JD (2d6d20) — 10/22/2009 @ 4:44 pmSo, assuming what you state is true, small-s steve, I fail to see how it changes the nature of this come-to-Allah meeting with this chorus of sycophants, referenced above. It is also fundamentally different to meet at someone else’s home than it is to be summoned to the White House. It is not like MadCow and Olbergasm need any prodding to kneel in front of their Messiah.
JD (7642d2) — 10/22/2009 @ 4:49 pmsteve is right about the dinner at Will’s house. Of course, he als had a dinner in the same timeframe with liberal pundits. Today, Obama is still entertaining the libs, and not only not having righty pundits in for chats, but actively trying to delegitimize Fox News. This behavior has gotten so bad that the MSM was obliged to protest.
And again, Ifill is supposedly a journo, not a pundit.
Karl (246941) — 10/22/2009 @ 4:52 pmHere ya go, JD.
It’s embarrassing our obvious our President is.
Dana (863a65) — 10/22/2009 @ 4:52 pmOf course, he als had a dinner in the same timeframe with liberal pundits.
And the guest list?
steve (736035) — 10/22/2009 @ 4:56 pmIs MoDo the only plagarist on the list?
Dana (863a65) — 10/22/2009 @ 5:09 pmPaul Krugman must feel very slighted.
Dave N (894918) — 10/22/2009 @ 5:48 pmIt was clearly a weiner eating contest. These pundits obviously need to be hands on. .You wonder if Obama got jerked around at all.
“Some of it was hard to swallow” said MoDo.
drjohn (488550) — 10/22/2009 @ 5:52 pmI am still trying to figure out what Maddow was doing all the while.
HeavenSent (01a566) — 10/22/2009 @ 6:18 pmMost of these personages can be beaten by a test pattern and often are, btw breaking news on this thread anyways:
narciso (f191e2) — 10/22/2009 @ 6:31 pmhttp://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=157794838434&comments
[…] An interesting footnote: at that little gathering of liberal pundits mentioned by DRJ earlier, guess what Obama whined […]
Patterico’s Pontifications » Obama’s War on Fox News Escalates . . . And Another News Organizations Fight Back (e4ab32) — 10/22/2009 @ 6:59 pmOr conservative pundits at George Will’s house?
That was early on, when Obama likely thought his smooth, shiny-teeth-smile, used-car-salesman abilities would lull and perhaps even brainwash conservatives, or certainly centrists, throughout the land. Then reality set in and the guy currently in the Oval Office must now realize he has to fight down and dirty. Or to reveal what his true nature apparently is and always has been, at least based on his eating up almost 20 years of “Goddamn America” rhetoric and hugging a Hugo Chavez but dissing a struggling constitution-minded nation like Honduras.
Mark (411533) — 10/22/2009 @ 7:44 pmPaul Krugman must feel very slighted.
I would imagine that Krugman is, to some degree, personae non grata in the Obama White House. For one thing, he was one of the liberals who argued against the stimulus, er stabilization, bill earlier this spring on the basis of it being too small. In a similar fashion, he has been out front in arguing for a second (third, actually) round of stimulus spending, and that is not an argument that Obama needs just as he is trying to put through a massive health care bill.
The other reason that the White House would want to freeze out Krugman is that he is a Nobel Laureate, and thus serves as a reminder of how politicized the whole Nobel Awards are.
JVW (d1215a) — 10/22/2009 @ 8:19 pmsteve — 10/22/2009 @ 4:56 pm:
On the same day President-elect Obama met with George Will and other conservatives (at Will’s invitation, about 2 weeks before his Inauguration), Obama also met with “prominent columnists and liberal commentators, including the New York Times’ Frank Rich and Maureen Dowd and the Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne.”
DRJ (dff2ca) — 10/22/2009 @ 8:30 pmJust an idle speculation:
Can’t you just imagine that somewhere in that b-b pellet-rattling-around-in-a-tuna-can mind of Dowd is the thought that if it weren’t for Michelle, she might have a chance?
I will snark no more.
Ag80 (2a7a2a) — 10/22/2009 @ 8:57 pmSomething about “you are judged by the company you keep.”
Dowd, Maddow, Olberman. Yikes.
I can’t recall if G.W. every had a similar kaffeeklatsch with 12 handpicked conservative journalists?
What, suppose, would be the reaction of the Huffington/Kos crowd if G.W. had a nice little off-the-record tea with Limbaugh, Coulter, O’Reilly, Malkin and friends?
Froth, froth, froth…
Steve B (5eacf6) — 10/23/2009 @ 12:33 amNo time for the troops? What do you mean? Those “journalists” ARE his troops…
william (81c700) — 10/23/2009 @ 8:15 amGen MvChrystal got a 20 min dressing down on a tarmac overseas, and Olbergasm/MadCow/Dowd/etal get a White House audience. Nice.
JD (d16764) — 10/23/2009 @ 8:51 amI am still trying to figure out what Maddow was doing all the while.
Comment by HeavenSent — 10/22/2009 @ 6:18 pm
Sizing up who had the biggest…fist.
Matador (e01f85) — 10/23/2009 @ 9:00 am#28, JVW, my #24 wasn’t a slap at you. I’m familiar with your comments and I’m in general agreement. Of course, Obama can meet with reporters, journalists, and broadcasters at his discretion, that wasn’t the point.
My comment focused on the time and uniform bias of the individuals invited to the White House within the context of his Administration’s War on Dissenting Opinion. I find it alarming that an American Chief Executive would so brazenly enlist gutter snipes, mudslingers, and hatchet men to silence legitimate critics of his asinine policies. It smacks of totalitarianism.
ropelight (2db5c9) — 10/23/2009 @ 11:58 am