ABC turns programming over to Obama; news to be anchored from inside the White House

This headline literally made me sit stunned for a moment. And the I had to reread it, just to make sure I had read it correctly.

"ABC TURNS PROGRAMMING OVER TO OBAMA; NEWS TO BE ANCHORED FROM INSIDE WHITE HOUSE" was displayed at the Drudge Report.

Here's the rundown, courtesy of ABC:

June 15, 2009

“QUESTIONS FOR THE PRESIDENT: PRESCRIPTION FOR AMERICA”

ABC News’ Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer to Moderate a Primetime Conversation with President Barack Obama about the Future of the Nation’s Healthcare System

Special Edition of “Primetime” to Air from the White House Wednesday, June 24th at 10pm ET

“Good Morning America” and “World News” to Originate From the White House on Wednesday

“GMA” to Feature Exclusive Interview with President Obama

As the nation debates sweeping changes in healthcare, ABC News’ Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer will moderate a conversation with President Obama about this critical issue on the nation’s agenda. A special edition of Primetime “Questions for the President: Prescription for America” will air on Wednesday, June 24th from 10:00-11:00 PM ET on the ABC Television Network.

During the discussion from the East Room of the White House, President Obama will answer questions from an audience made up of Americans selected by ABC News who have divergent opinions in this historic debate. ABC News’ Medical Editor Dr. Timothy Johnson will also take part in the conversation which will focus on different ideas for how to fix the system and how proposed changes will impact our already fragile economy.

The health care conversation will continue on “Nightline” at 11:35pm ET.

Wednesday morning’s “Good Morning America” will originate from the South Lawn of the White House and will include an exclusive interview with President Obama. He sits down with Diane Sawyer to discuss healthcare and other issues on the nation’s agenda. Wednesday’s program will also feature portions of Robin Roberts’ exclusive interview with First Lady Michelle Obama.

Charles Gibson will anchor “World News” from the Blue Room of the White House on Wednesday.

*UPDATE: “Questions for the President: Prescription for America” will continue on “Nightline” at 11:35pm ET on Wed. June 24th. *

ABCNews.com will invite viewers to join the discussion and share their questions about health care reform at ABCNews.com/Politics starting Tuesday, June 16th. ABCNews.com will be working with Digg.com to select popular questions voted on by online users and some of those questions will be put to President Obama during the program. ABC News' daily political webcast, “Top Line”, will focus on health care reform throughout the week of June 22. ABCNews.com senior political reporter and author of the Note, Rick Klein, will live-blog and interact with users as the forum airs and full video coverage of the forum will be posted online. A special section of ABCNews.com/Politics dedicated to the health care debate will offer comprehensive coverage of the forum and will continue as legislation is taken up in Congress.

ABC News Radio will air portions of “Questions for the President: Prescription for America” and will also produce a special edition of its weekly news magazine PERSPECTIVE, that will include portions of the special. PERSPECTIVE will be available to ABC News Radio affiliates for use over the weekend of June 27-28.
blogs.kansascity.com...

So my conspiracy-minded self has to ask...is this just conditioning Americans for sole media broadcasting from the White House? After all, they do have their own "network" now, created a few weeks ago. This network has been hosting their own media events and locking out the traditional press corps.

Is such a close tie with the president's administration and media good? (Obvious answer here)

What comes next?

What say you?

[edit on 16-6-2009 by MOFreemason]

Mod Edit; Removed all caps title.

[edit on 16-6-2009 by Gemwolf]

Sounds as if there is a political agenda at work AND some jealousy of NBC's recent "White House exclusive" with Brian Williams.

ABC News is gambling that health care reform -- important, but let's face it, a little dull -- will be ratings gold as it devotes a huge chunk of Wednesday news programming to an ongoing erm, "conversation" with President Obama about health care.

"Good Morning America" and "World News Tonight" will both anchor out of the White House on Wednesday. The evening line-up will include a "Prime Time" special from the East Room of the White House, plus a special Nightline broadcast. GMA, World News and Nightline all will feature exclusive interviews with the president -- who is selling health care reform.

It's strange (to say the least) to see the administration turn the White House over to a network -- NBC News did their "day in the life" bit from here, but those were cameras following the principals around. ABC News will be anchored out of the Blue Room -- turning the historic, oval-shaped reception room (where Grover Cleveland got married) into a full-blown network news studio. GMA will broadcast from the South Lawn. Both are areas the press does not routinely have access to.

But the network and the administration have dovetailing interests. The other networks hated NBC News' special, and want to look relevant and plugged in, too. Obama wants a big audience to deliver his health care informercial. The downside for the network is that their programming will be devoted to co-pays, tax debates and personal anecdotes from a specially selected audience -- not fun pictures of Bo the dog and Team Obama passing up apples for M&Ms in the West Wing.
www.washingtonexaminer.com...

This was just published at the Drudge Report website:

Late Monday night, Republican National Committee Chief of Staff Ken McKay fired off a complaint to the head of ABCNEWS:

Dear Mr. Westin:

As the national debate on health care reform intensifies, I am deeply concerned and disappointed with ABC's astonishing decision to exclude opposing voices on this critical issue on June 24, 2009. Next Wednesday, ABC News will air a primetime health care reform “town hall” at the White House with President Barack Obama. In addition, according to an ABC News report, GOOD MORNING AMERICA, WORLD NEWS, NIGHTLINE and ABC’s web news “will all feature special programming on the president’s health care agenda.” This does not include the promotion, over the next 9 days, the president’s health care agenda will receive on ABC News programming.

Today, the Republican National Committee requested an opportunity to add our Party's views to those of the President's to ensure that all sides of the health care reform debate are presented. Our request was rejected. I believe that the President should have the ability to speak directly to the America people. However, I find it outrageous that ABC would prohibit our Party's opposing thoughts and ideas from this national debate, which affects millions of ABC viewers.

In the absence of opposition, I am concerned this event will become a glorified infomercial to promote the Democrat agenda. If that is the case, this primetime infomercial should be paid for out of the DNC coffers. President Obama does not hold a monopoly on health care reform ideas or on free airtime. The President has stated time and time again that he wants a bipartisan debate. Therefore, the Republican Party should be included in this primetime event, or the DNC should pay for your airtime.

Respectfully,
Ken McKay
Republican National Committee
Chief of Staff
www.drudgereport.com...

So,now we definitely have NBC, with the GE CEO on Barry's cabinet, and now ABC with their news branch in Barry's pocket. Wonder if Barry's gonna merge all his television networks into one entity for better cost management, or keep them separate for better marketing?

reply to post by Ferris.Bueller.II


You bring up a great point about streamlining major news networks into just one. After all, the major networks have seen dramatic ratings losses to cable news networks.

i say commentators are correct in calling mainstream media the "state- run" media.
what comes next and what has been happening since the election is this infatuation with obama by the media. Have you noticed a lack of dissenting opinions on obama's policies? Instead of investigating and finding the truth they take whatever "story" is given to them by the white house and question nothing.
The scary part about this is the average person will never know the whole story but only what the white house wants to them know/perceive. Its an extremely effective way of steering sheep in the direction you want them to go.
In this case obama wants the sheep to accept obamacare as it is being shoved down their throat so what better way then spend a whole week on the state run media abc?

Maybe this is what the digitial conversion is for. Obama does not only want to control the MSN but also the very thoughts in your head. Prepare yourselves for the Obamanation of Desolation.

Recently, I have been reading how many political scientists are trying to compare our government to that of a liberal fascist one, similar to Mussolini's Italy.

I just came across this a moment ago, regarding Mussolini and the media:

By the end of the 1930s, a whole set of regulations had been developed by the Ministry of Popular Culture for the treatment of Mussolini in the media under its control, that is newspapers, radio and cinema:

1. His name was always spelt with capital letters in newspapers.

2. Newspapers were instructed exactly what to say about him.

3. He was never to be portrayed dancing, or with priests, etc.

The image which was projected of him was usually an explicitly aggressive, ‘macho’ one - and this is clear from Mussolini’s extraordinary, theatrical ‘natural’ poses. But it was not as simple as that. As these pictures show, Mussolini could be portrayed in several different ways, as ‘Renaissance man’, ‘military man’, the ‘family man’ and even the ‘common man’.

This was a very important difference from the ways in which Goebbels’ Ministry of Propaganda portrayed the Führer in Nazi Germany. Hitler was almost always portrayed in a very aloof, sexless, distant, almost divine way; the very epitome of the ‘Superman’ of the German philosopher Nietsche. He was never shown semi-naked as Mussolini was
www.users.globalnet.co.uk...

When do we get a "News Czar?"

Get ready folks, this is going to be like watching a Billy Mays infomercial from the news networks trying to pitch you a crappy product that looks great until you buy it.

reply to post by Anjin


That's the worst part...this isn't just a ploy for ABC to play catch-up in the ratings game with NBC. It's more about pushing this health care reform plan with an unprecedented media campaign to assist.

Seems like this is just the first step toward more-and-more of this.

Originally posted by MOFreemason
reply to post by Ferris.Bueller.II

 

You bring up a great point about streamlining major news networks into just one. After all, the major networks have seen dramatic ratings losses to cable news networks.

It's already one network, all the news is AP or Reuter's. There is no independent source (except ATS! )

It doesn't really matter which channel you turn to, or which paper you pick up, you are reading the AP news line!

[edit on 16-6-2009 by getreadyalready]

Charlie, that has bias written all over it and you would allow that to happen with your newscast. You should know better! Shame on you and you are the head news man at ABC. Anchoring from the White House? So I take it Charles Gibson is assuming his role as Joseph Goebbels for the new health agenda? This story is utterly disgusting and defeats the purpose of a free-press.

Now they are wearing their bias on their sleeves, at least before; they didn't throw it out in the open. This isn't journalism, this is pubic relations plain and simple and nothing more. Charlie Gibson thinks of himself as a professional . . . hah! Hypothetically, does anyone think Murrow would do something like this? ABC is a disgrace to journalism and our free-press in America.

[edit on 16-6-2009 by Jakes51]

reply to post by Jakes51


Just wait until, in addition to the love-fest broadcasting out of the Blue Room, they allow the average American to Twitter back-and-forth with Charlie and the President.

This really is amazing. And again, either I'm overly-emotional about this story because of my natural conspiracy-theory mind or I'm just outraged at the breach of journalistic integrity here!

Here's something to ponder.

Now that everybody's attention is on the networks and this new health care fixation, what are the diverting our attention from?

Originally posted by Anjin
Get ready folks, this is going to be like watching a Billy Mays infomercial from the news networks trying to pitch you a crappy product that looks great until you buy it.

What are you talking about. Oxyclean work great and I just couldn't live with out my Zorbeez.

Are you thinking of Ron Popeel? Now that's Junk.

they are always diverting attention away from something.

since their ratings are so bad how much longer until they ask for a bailout?

Can/would other media networks air their concerns over this type of unprecedented media coverage and access from the White House...

...or would that be creating too much hype and interest in a rival network, thereby, effecting their own ratings?

I would assume other veteran "journalists" should be outraged by this, no?

Originally posted by MOFreemason
reply to post by Jakes51

 

Just wait until, in addition to the love-fest broadcasting out of the Blue Room, they allow the average American to Twitter back-and-forth with Charlie and the President.

This really is amazing. And again, either I'm overly-emotional about this story because of my natural conspiracy-theory mind or I'm just outraged at the breach of journalistic integrity here!

I majored in journalism in college and this stuff makes me furious because they are our only line of defense. Heck, they are considered the fourth estate and an essential check and balance. If I was Charles and I was asked to whore myself and my broadcast, I would tender my resignation immediately. I am not kidding either. I don't care if I am reporter making 20,000 a year, I would quite on the spot. This has to be one of the most important posts I have seen on here. This is a clear assault on our freedoms.

[edit on 16-6-2009 by Jakes51]

reply to post by whaaa


Haha, ok, you got me on Oxyclean, great stuff!

didn't mean to go off topic but couldn't help it

reply to post by DazE777


Thats a great question. They are diverting our attention away temporarily to the failing economy and California going breakrupt.

Bad healthcare + bad economy = mark of the beast. It's in the works, just a matter of time now. Wr Probably get to see the amero rise and fall or maybe not since the EU is having so many prblems with their currency.

Remember Gordon Brown and Obama pushing the New Deal? Well here it comes. The official announcement that the United States no longer exists or the constitution anyways. NAU here we come.