White House Reporters Grill Gibbs Over 'Prepackaged' Questions for Obama

White House Reporters Grill Gibbs Over 'Prepackaged' Questions for Obama

www.breitbart.tv

"The point is the control from here. We have never had that in the White House. And we have had some control but not this control. I mean I'm amazed, I'm amazed at you people who call for openness and transparency and have controlled..." veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas said Wednesday.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Why now?

What happened?

Have these reporters been daydreaming or living under rocks during all other press conferences/town halls, etc. up until now?

Is "cap and trade" the last straw for even the most entranced supporters?

Are they finally realizing that we are living under the government's dictatorship?

www.breitbart.tv
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 1-7-2009 by sonjah1]

White House Disputes Criticism That Health Care Town Hall Meeting Is Staged

Before President Obama could even field the first Internet question for a town hall forum in Virginia on Wednesday, the White House was forced to defend the event against criticism that questions would be staged. "I think will be a representative sample of the issues in this debate that we're dealing with," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs explained in response to concern that the event would be tightly controlled.

Over the weekend, the White House Web site solicited Americans to submit questions for the town hall via social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. According to the site, hundreds of entries were received.

Gibbs acknowledged that members of the White House's New Media office would be "shuffling through questions." And a White House Web site entry dated July 1st reads: "Today's the day where the president will get to answer some of the best submissions."

Gibbs tried to deflect further questions on why the event was being so tightly controlled -- unlike the town hall meetings Obama participated in on the campaign trail.

"How about you ask me that question tomorrow based on what questions were asked rather than pre-selecting your question based on something that may or may not come through," he said.

Asked if dissenting views would be expressed, Gibbs said, "I think that's a very safe bet."

But some reporters complained that the event was the latest attempt by the White House to control the media.

"I'm amazed at you people who call for openness and transparency," said veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas.

"And you haven't heard the questions," Gibbs shot back.

"It doesn't matter. It's the process," CBS' Chip Reid argued. "Even if there's a tough question, it's a question coming from somebody who was invited or who was screened or the question was screened."

The exchange came one week after the White House drew fire for providing first-rate treatment to a Huffington Post blogger, who asked the president a question on behalf of Iranians who submitted queries to the site. The White House escorted Nico Pitney from the lower press area to the front of the main briefing room so he could be the second questioner called on during the midday press conference.

The town hall event was not the only question about transparency during Wednesday's briefing. Gibbs was also asked whether the administration was trying to minimize media attention by delaying until the July 4 holiday weekend the release of an internal CIA report on the agency's secret detention and interrogation program during the Bush administration.

"My understanding is that it's doubtful that it will be released this week," Gibb said about the 2004 report that was expected to be made public two weeks ago.

Asked whether the delay was part of an effort to make the report more transparent, Gibbs said it was a combination of transparency and legal issues.

Obama's town hall meeting in Annandale was designed to be a conversation with the public about the administration's proposed health care reforms. The town hall format is something the president has consistently relied on, both during the campaign last year and through the first few months of his presidency

www.foxnews.com...

Of course Obama is going to try to control the media. Things aren't going too well for him, so he needs to spin it in his favor.

The Stimulus Bill, Cap and Trade, and Healthcare. This is the hat trick of the Obama Politburo. He has to get these passed in the first year, because he knows Dems will lose control in the 2010 elections, and he'll be out on his ass in 2012.

Hey I'm glad they are finally waking up.

I thought maybe they were giving him a pass in his first 100 days to get acquainted with everything but now it seems they are waking up to the fact that he expected to get away with it for all 4 years.

If this is like anything else his media spin will drop even faster.

Helen Thomas has been a thorn in White House Secretaries behinds for 50+ years. You should have seen her when she was 40 years old. A real pistol. Ugly as sin but still a pistol!!
Zindo

[edit on 7/1/2009 by ZindoDoone]

Originally posted by sonjah1


Is "cap and trade" the last straw for even the most entranced supporters?

Yes.

Only the extremely ignorant think cap and trade is a good idea.

As a "liberal" environmentalist, cap and trade will do nothing to save the environment.

Obama's healthcare plan reminds me of something a Republican would think of. It is absolutely moronic and will only serve to increase the profits of the insurance industry, the very same industry that has single-handedly created the health care crisis in this country.

The bailouts (although Obama doesn't get all the blame for them, he certainly didn't try to stop them) were the worst decisions our government has made since Iraq and Afghanistan.

I don't blame them for giving Obama pre-packaged questions. They don't want him to look as bad as Bush. And that's how bad he's starting to look.

Do they not get that no one cares? Do they not get we have real PROBLEMS here? Do they not get that EVERY administration does this to some degree or another? Did they not hear that HP was told to come up with a Q and they'd be called on? QED. Let's focus, people. Focus.

Is "cap and trade" the last straw for even the most entranced supporters?



oh get a grip. seriously. snap outta it.

Obama is making me feel nostalgia for Bush

Call me crazy, but shouldn't the questions in a Town Hall meeting come from those that are in the hall? Just sayin'...

Anyone who wasn't standing at an Obama campaign event in a trance and actually took the time to read the 124 pitiful attempts at legislation he authored during his brief tenure as a United States Senator that litter the Library of Congress would have known immediately that Obama is an 'empty suit'.

I don't think the man as a single solitary clue in regards to even how to tie his shoe laces without having a handler prep him and guide him from behind the scenes on how to do it.

The man is a pitiful joke as an intellectual and an inovator and is simply good at reading with a rythmic and appealing mezmerizing cadence things that are carefully scripted for him.

If you thought George W. Bush, Jr. was an idiot, Obama makes him look like a Rhodes Scholar when you take his tele-promter and writers, publicists, stagers, handlers and groomers away.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler



And you hit the nail right on the head with that post. Very good!

Now every Obamatron has to see that.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks that about him. He really doesn't appear that intelligent to me.

One thing about Bush though no matter how much the media bashed him on his speaking abilities he never carried a teleprompter around with him.

With his teleprompter and an audience of Mini-Me's, Obama will be able to fool many into believing that his policies are the right medicine for this country.

Wait till he raise taxes to pay for his healthcare plan. I bet ya he will convince many that he never promised NOT to raise taxes on those making under $250,000.

He will pull a Bill Clinton and give his own definition of what taxes are.

reply to post by Hastobemoretolife

they ALL use teleprompters. geesh is this stale, old talking point really still kicking?

reply to post by jam321


Oh jeeze, I don't think we can handle another, "well that depends on what the definition of "is" is."

Either way hopefully the media will turn into pitbulls and start going for the jugular.

Originally posted by ~Lucidity
they ALL use teleprompters. geesh is this stale, old talking point really still kicking?

True, but at least "dumb" Bush didn't make it so frakin' obvious as Obama does.

And when Obama is off-teleprompter, he's worse than Bush. He sounds like a 7th grader describing his science project.

Originally posted by jerico65

Originally posted by ~Lucidity
they ALL use teleprompters. geesh is this stale, old talking point really still kicking?

True, but at least "dumb" Bush didn't make it so frakin' obvious as Obama does.

And when Obama is off-teleprompter, he's worse than Bush. He sounds like a 7th grader describing his science project.

Bush rarely used teleprompters. Go back to campaign speeches he scribbled alot of summary notes written on index cards or on a notepaper. He probably had more trouble wth the teleprompter given his dyslexia

Obama is a horrible president. I know he is a mere figurehead but since he is black he is able to cause people to drool over him and accept it in the butt and like it. I hope enough citizens wake up to reality and will incite a civil war/ revolution.