White House Press Corps Slams Gibbs over Palin Joke
In case you missed the reaction to Robert Gibbs' lighthearted mockery of Sarah Palin's "telepalmter", the White House press corps has a new rule. NBC's Chuck Todd, who previously defended Palin by declaring, "We've all done notes," protested Wednesday "I was surprised by the stunt myself." In her report, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux groused, "so much for changing the tone." Apparently, for this Democratic White House to jokingly respond to bitter attacks from former (or wannabee) Republican vice presidents is undignified and out-of-bounds. Of course, President Bush and his spokesmen could mock his opponents with impunity.
Chip Reid of CBS introduced this species of right-wing water carrying in March during the unprecedented barrage of attacks on Obama from former Vice President Dick Cheney. After Cheney first began his campaign to essentially label Obama a traitor ("he is making some choices that, in my mind, will, in fact, raise the risk to the American people of another attack"), press secretary Robert Gibbs joked, "Well, I guess Rush Limbaugh was busy, so they trotted out their next-most popular member of the Republican cabal." On March 16th, that was more than CBS White House correspondent Reid could countenance:
REID: Can I ask you, when you referred to the former Vice President, that was a really hard-hitting, kind of sarcastic response you had. This is a former Vice President of the United States. Is that the attitude -- is that the sanctioned tone toward the former Vice President of the United States from this White House now?
GIBBS: Sometimes I ask forgiveness rather than for permission, Chip. But no, I hope my sarcasm didn't mask the seriousness of the answer with which I addressed Ed -- that for seven-plus years, the very perpetrators that the Vice President says he's concerned about weren't brought to justice.
Of course, Reid's ventriloquist act for the Republican Party began almost the moment Obama took the oath of office. When every Republican member of the House and all but three in the Senate voted against the $787 billion stimulus bill, Reid essentially blamed the President, asking Obama if "your White House is moving away from this emphasis on bipartisanship." And before he warned of "Democrats also raising their ugly heads," Reid asked President Obama about his posture on Iran, "Were you influenced at all by John McCain and Lindsey Graham accusing you of being timid and weak?"
In sharp contrast, the whoring on behalf of the GOP during the Bush administration wasn't limited to the presence of Jeff Gannon in the White House press room. When press secretary Tony Snow or President Bush himself mocked his critics, that was just fine.
For his part, Tony Snow like President Bush repeatedly resorted to the childish "Democrat Party" taunt so beloved by Republicans since the days of Ronald Reagan. But his stunning mixture of arrogance and cynical humor hardly ended there.
Asked about James Comey's testimony that Alberto Gonzales in March 2004 tried to coerce Attorney General John Ashcroft, then bed-ridden with a pancreatic condition following gall bladder surgery, into approving President Bush's regime of illegal domestic surveillance, Snow joked:
"Trying to take advantage of a sick man. Because he had an appendectomy, his brain didn't work?"
Three weeks after proclaiming "We didn't create the war in Iraq," Snow on the fourth anniversary of the invasion told CNN's Ed Henry to "zip it" when Henry asked him to explain the Bush administration's "recipe for success."
On the subject of Iran, the late Tony Snow was particularly dismissive of President Bush's critics. After declaring in January 26, 2007, "The Iranian people are more pro-American than any American university faculty," Snow the next month blasted Democrats suspicious of President Bush's saber rattling towards Tehran:
"It is interesting to me that it seems that some politicians maybe are trying to protect Iran."
In May 2007, Snow directed the "sarcastic tone" Chip Reid would later decry at former Vice President Al Gore. When Gore in book The Assault on Reason correctly and accurately labeled as a "deception" the Bush administration's efforts to link 9/11 to Iraq, Snow sneered:
"I don't know if they're going to do a reprinting of the book to try to get the facts straight. The fact-checkers may have to take a look at it. These are highly complex publishing issues and I can't be an expert on them."
Of course, when it came to the facts about the war in Iraq and Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, President George W. Bush was (or should have been) an expert. And for Bush, it was all a laughing matter.
Bush's presentation at the 2004 Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner also showed his contempt for the truth and the suffering of the American people. His tasteless White House slideshow made light of the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Coming one year and hundreds of American dead and wounded after the invasion of Iraq, President Bush the cut-up hoped to regale the audience with his White House hijinx. As David Corn of The Nation reported:
Bush notes he spends "a lot of time on the phone listening to our European allies." Then we see a photo of him on the phone with a finger in his ear. But at one point, Bush showed a photo of himself looking for something out a window in the Oval Office, and he said, "Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere." The audience laughed. I grimaced. But that wasn't the end of it. After a few more slides, there was a shot of Bush looking under furniture in the Oval Office. "Nope," he said. "No weapons over there." More laughter. Then another picture of Bush searching in his office: "Maybe under here." Laughter again.
That, for the White House press corps, was hilarious. But now that a Democrat is in the Oval Office, humorous jabs at Obama's critics from the President and his press secretary apparently aren't funny more.
(This piece also appears at Perrspectives.)
todd is the #1 attacker of the Obama admin among the so-called MSM. that sunuvabeyatch deslared on 9/9/2008 that he would go afte the Obama administration.
Some stuff you can't make up!
is a figment of the media imagination and a way for them to attack democrats and progressives.
Some stuff you can't make up!
humour --his was spot on with trying to bring levity to the Press room...Todd is a total waste as is Tapper--I have not watched CBS in years so Reids snide comments are to be excepted.
However--it is time for a total blackout on all things palin...We have real issues in the country and the world..cover them not the quitter!
there is no nice way to put it, last thing we need is the female version of George Bush back in the lime light. She needs to be called out for what she is.
Goodnight, Frau Blücher
that they can play sad music on for Chuck Todd and the villagers?
Jesus. Gibbs just had a little lighthearted fun with it. If they're crying over Gibbs they should have seen what Colbert did with Sarah's latest adventures in idiocy. Now that was both hilarious and brutal.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
They are feckless anyway; a bunch of Faux wannabees. They get riled about this, but not about Palin's lies and hyperbole. Good for you, Gibbs.
mostly a bunch of dicks, hacks, bimbos, himbos, propaganda mouthpieces, corporate lackeys, toadies and ass kissers, carnival barkers, circus clowns and concern trolls.
Nary a real journalist in the whole bunch.
fucking notebook next time, you imbecile!" written on my palm. Just because.
I always used to see cholas in town with phone numbers and such written on their palms, and I always thought it was trashy. Ditto for Sarah.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
usually are associated with cheating on an exam. Legitimate notes for a speech or presentation are normally on 3 X 5 index cards or on a notepad.
This is why she dropped out of 3 colleges before she found one that allowed cheating.
I thought it was five colleges.
The 20% hard core moron segment of American population thinks this woman is qualified to be President.
Just what we need, a President who works off notes scribbled on her hand.
I guess she doesn't wash her hands after using the bathroom.
People like these are the reason I qiut watching the TVnews shows. The people on them are dishonest, shameless liars.
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness!
Forget TV news, it is shameless mind destroying propaganda.
The corporate media's job is to spread the ignorance and catapult the propaganda.
The more ignorant Americans are, the larger their target audience is.
They are not interested in keeping Americans informed.
They are a bunch of Judas's and Benedict Arnolds who will sell out their country to further their careers.
Their goals and actions are actually damaging to our nation.
In my opinion that makes each one of them a traitor to America.
If we're to the point of using Chuck Todd as a barometer for the mood of the nation's press we're sunk. Todd is probably one of the lamest 'reporters' on ANY beat...
I am sure he graduated from the same correspondence journalism school as David Gregory
I am sure he graduated from the same correspondence journalism school as David Gregory
Yeah, the school of furthering your career by being a suck up, toady and ass kisser.....
and in David 'Strech" Gregory's case being dance partner with the sociopathicly devious.
These guys are absolute jokes and an unwatchable waste of time.
I wish a well-versed psychologist could give us insight into that double standard, where republicans can get away with any god awful thing they choose to do, but once a progressive or like-minded person does or says anything slightly controversial they get called on it and are expected to explain themeselves? WTF is up with that?
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
republicanism/conservatism is a mental illness!
Obama seems to be picking his enemies and Sarah is a good enemy to have.
Obama is only picking his responses to selected attacks. His enemies are pretty much everywhere.
Some stuff you can't make up!
Yes I've noted over the past couple of days how touchy conservatives have been about this typically ditzy and revealing Palin incident.There has been a pronounced lack of humor on their part, a "circle the wagons" attitude leading me to assume that the entire party is behind her in a big(presidential aspirations?)way.
A truly sickening and disturbing scenario.
"To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And,
at the same time, unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between,
plus some things I can't remember, all rolled into one big "thing."
This is truth, to me. "
-Jack Handy
president. A smart person cannot be easily manipulated, but Palin can be very easily manipulated. She will do what she is paid to do, and with her major ego, she is even more subject to manipulation. The Republikans are running her up a flag pole right now, to see how many will salute her. She also has the added ability to provoke and disgust the left. And realize this: they had to wire Bush to tell him what to say. They can just write crib notes on Palin's hands and arms. Money saved.
Is a huge part of the puzzle here just like Bush.
It takes an enormous ego to imagine yourself in such an elevated role while at the same time demonstrating an obviously limited,if not non existent grasp of both foreign and domestic policy.
Then again the GOP seem to embrace mediocrity as some kind of foil in their battle against "elitist" intellectualism-a stunning lack of responsibility that will some day bring America to it's knees with President Palin at the helm.
"To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And,
at the same time, unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between,
plus some things I can't remember, all rolled into one big "thing."
This is truth, to me. "
-Jack Handy
at the thought of President Palin. She would bring the world to it's knees or should I say, she would destroy the world because Sarah is longing for The Rapture.
Palin is a dunce like Bush, but Bush was a member of America's oligarchy and military industrial complex (See Daddy Bush's investments). He was raised in that environment and and despite his ego, knew how the game is played and that he was part a bigger team.
Palin does not come from that wealth and is not a member of that class.
She was not raised and educated in that manner and is not a member of that class.
She an ambitious sociopath who is in it entirely for herself.
She can be used as a tool, but I doubt anyone but the teabag suckers and dupes would ever actually trust her.
Chuck Todd has been presenting false equivalences (sp) as well as numerous misrepresentations, for so long that I have long since dismissed him as irrelevant. What amazes me is that he seems to take his own opinionated babble seriously.
in listening to him.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
By the way, while chastising Gibbs and Obama, about chancing the tone in Washington, did anyone on CNN realize that Palin not only isn't in Washington, but got blown out of Washington in 2008?
Not sure the media has fully grasped that fact. Palin is no longer an elected official
.
Great points Jon Perr!!!! Just think of the silence in that press room around the time of the Jeff Gannon story, or the Anthrax story for that matter? What a bunch of cowards always going after the nice guy or easy prey and never finding the sack to go after the true bullies. Geez.
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
If Gibbs had refrained from making this jab at Palin we wouldn't have to endure what I'm sure is going to be a couple wasted news cycles on this crap. It's a non-story. It's just going to feed the trolls and polarize people further. What a waste of everyone's time.
Republicans are bullies and bullies get a free pass from the media. They give credence to the most vapid (Palin) or treasonous (Cheney) statements to keep the news cycle churning. Obama's team is held to a higher standard, Reublicans are held to no standard, and Barbie is treated like she actually has something to say.
Way to go Colbert, you nailed it.
opposable thumb out of my head. The man is brilliant. And Palin is so, so, stupid.
"The greatest tyranny is censoring information in order to be better able to control people." - Cristina Saralegui
Which house of congress does Sara belong to? Is there concern that we should worried about bi-partisanship when she can't vote in either house? CNN, have your reporters finally reached the level of Fox? Of course we're talking sewer level.
the media is upset because Sarah is now one of them... an analyst on the Fox Opinion Network.
who's the president? Obama or Palin?? After all these conservatives, including Palin, disrespected Obama, the media all of a sudden cries foul? If Palin chooses to be disrespectful to the President of the United States with her rhetoric, Obama is not allowed to respond in kind? Really WHAT THE EF is going on here.
Chuck Toad. Major asshole. What else can be said about him?
Why didn't Gibbs respond like this:
"Wow, I had no idea how thin skinned the press corps are about Sarah Palin.
Are there any other issues that the press corps is too sensitive to have brought up?
Chuck Todd, I hate hearing you cry, so let me know in advance those things you can and cannot take - although from experience I already know rule number one, don't ever make a joke about a conservative, it will get their lap dogs whining."
And then never call on the crybaby asshats again.
That'll be the day that I die.
along with cnn. they're assholes.
Chuck todd is openly hostile and rude to the president, pushing his own uninformed, misinformed agenda during one on one interviews, evidently having a tough time keeping himself from openly mocking the guy. I'm sure he would not do that to an older whiter more Thug guy. NBC should have pulled him off that assignment on 21 Jan 2009. But then it's NBC, doing the exact opposite of what is in their best interests. Look at their programming choices. And David Fish Face Gregory on MTP? NBC, please. Wait til the Comcast deal goes through. Then NBC will REALLY be arseholes.
And CNN is just a wailing pack of arseholes.
me-oww!
and a piece of shit.
Some stuff you can't make up!
That was extremely disingenuous of CNN.
Reminds me of my favorite Doctor Who episode, "Blink" where he describes time as not a linear uni-directional series events, but rather "a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey...stuff." It's humorous in the context of him trying to dumb down the complex concept of time for easy digestion.
It's not humorous with Palin because it's simply vapid snark. I think if Palin dumbed it down anymore, there might be some kind of causality violation and time would start moving backwards. We will certainly start moving backwards if she ever gets elected for anything again.
As long as the Dems remain spineless cowards who will not call out the Rethugs and their enablers, and let the bullies kick sand in their faces, they do not deserve an ounce of sympathy.
and corporate lackeys.
Some stuff you can't make up!
Lacks a sense of humor. Palin is a public figure. She puts herself in the spotlight. If Palin wants to run with the big dogs, then she needs to piss with the big dogs, too.
.
The United States aspires to democracy, but no true democracy is attainable when the process is determined by economic power.
Personally, I just thought the joke was badly done. It was funny, but he drug it on for too long, then he went on to *explain* it.
His only "crime" (drum roll)....was poor timing!(rim shot)
*cue Ed McMahon laugh*
"To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And,
at the same time, unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between,
plus some things I can't remember, all rolled into one big "thing."
This is truth, to me. "
-Jack Handy
grow up and unclench those sphincters. It's Washington, it's politics, it was a lame attempt at a joke. Why must you always sensationalize every political moment. Oh yean, ratings in the shitter, I forgot.
Why must you always sensationalize every political moment.
Because the corporate media doesn't employ any actual journalists anymore. They are entertainers and the modern day equivalent of gossip columnists.
Professional wrestling has had consistently good ratings for years,
so the corporate media has used that model for their "news" and "political" programming.
IF only they had 'The Rock' conducting the interviews in character, their ratings would go through the roof.
CNN doesn't want to admit that many of their Republican regulars and co-hosts are gross, despicable, excuses for human beings. It must be tough to be CNN. Poor CNN. Clean up your act CNN. Get with the median at least!
I have no sympathy for CNN as long as CNN reporters remain spineless cowards who will not call out the Rethugs and their enablers.
"Keeping them honest" my ass. you're keeping the wrong people honest Cooper.
How's that going for you Campbell? you catching lots of Republican lies each and every day? Like we beseech you to do? Like you did one time during the election?
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
Listen -
Until the Republicans and conservatives start bringing forth some serious people with credible ideas, they deserve to be ridiculed. Sarah Palin, Michael Steele, Michelle Bachman, Mark Sanford, Rudy Giuliani, Karl Rove, Virginia Fox, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Michelle Malkin, Dick Cheney, Liz Cheney, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Monica Crowley, Newt Gingrich, Pastor Wiley Drake, Orly Taitz, Tom Tancredo, Pam Geller, John McCain, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor, Bobby Jindal, Joe Scarborough, Fox News, Peggy Noonan, Chris Wallace, Alan Greenspan, Pat Buchanan, Bay Buchanan, Richard Shelby, Dick Armey, James O'Keefe, The Supreme Court Bush appointees, Scott Brown, Pat Robertson, Andrew Breitbart, Frank Luntz, Bill Kristol, David Vitter, Roger Ailes, John Cornyn, George W. Bush, Jim DeMint, Andre Bauer, Mary Matalin, Ted Haggard, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Katherine Harris, George Will, Peter King, Rick Santorum, Paul Wolfowitz, corporate media, Greta Van Susteren, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, John Yoo, etc., etc, ad nauseum.
Look this list over. It's filled with liars, hypocrites, crooks, and vermin. I'll bet you can name dozens more that I missed. It can be made to stretch past the horizon, and go back in time to Reagan, Nixon, Hoover...
These are the people we're supposed to treat with respect? Yeah. Right.
The Democratic Party has plenty of losers *cough* *cough* *Blue Dogs* *cough* *Lieberman* *cough*, but nothing compared to the wackos on the right. I say just keep pounding their asses into the sand.
Fuck the press core. They willingly took all of Bush's stubby little dick for eight years. They have no right to question anybody.
He didn't give the finger she deserves.
Since when did the WhiteHouse press corp become the Sarah Palin fan club? Or is it just because she's a girl? Just a poor dumb girl.....who wants to run the United States!!!! You dumb f#cking reporters! Shut the F up and do your goddam jobs!!!!
Since when did the WhiteHouse press corp become the Sarah Palin fan club? Or is it just because she's a girl? Just a poor dumb girl.....who wants to run the United States!!!! You dumb f#cking reporters! Shut the F up and do your goddam jobs!!!!
They ARE doing their jobs!
Their job is to 'catapult' the stupid.
You're mistake is considering them to be journalists.
Those days are long gone.
...to mock Palin no matter how much she deserves it. He should know by now that media in this country is very much conservatively biased and moving more right all the time.
He is supposed to be a professional and he should act that way at all times. The fucking WH press corps are yearning for the day they can get another right winger in the WH and they're never going to give Gibbs a break. He needs to realize that.
Leave the mockery to the comedians, they're better at it anyway.
While I agree with the sentiment of all the posters above, Gibbs and the WH should be careful about sinking to the oppositions level. In the long run this wasn't the way to point out hypocrisy.
On another note, all the criticisms of Chuck Todd are right on the money. this new show with Savannah Guthrie is horrible because of him. The other day they had Kit Bond on there and Savannah challenged about every single talking point he spit out on the UW bomber and Chuck Todd looked like he could of shit himself. Let that girl loose, she's prepared for the interview and had him scarmbling through his papers looking for the talking point answer, it was classic. Todd was too slow to stop her, she had to shoosh him a couple times, I hope someone here can find that interview and post it. We should be congratulating this kind of effort.
"Of course, President Bush and his spokesmen could mock his opponents with impunity."
Frankly, I don't recall anyone saying that was a good thing. It made them all look like idiots doing a bread and circuses routine. Gibbs simply screwed up. He wasn't even the first to the gag which makes it even lamer. Leave that kind of nonsense for the punditry. Given how much of a fool Palin is in the first place, it's embarrassing that anyone in this administration feels the need to give her the time of day considering what else is happening now. This juvenile garbage certainly won't do anything to get me back on this administration's side.
but it's not like it's a serious mistake...
Like invading a sovereign nation under false pretense causing, was it a 100,000 deaths? who knows we don't keep track of THOSE kind of things,
I guess it's not that important..
or ignoring a "Bin laden determined to strike the U.S." memo,
or shooting your friend in the face with a shotgun after having only "one beer"
But consistency in political critiquing died a long time ago.
I couldn't believe the hissing and pearl-clutching when Gibbs shot back at the odious and moronic attacks by Sarah Palin. Of course, Ms. Palin REPEATEDLY refers to President Obama as "That guy" and "Obama", as if he is a despised condo board President, rather than the President of the United States! She hasn't the faintest clue that it is not only patriotic, but expected that all Americans show a modicum of respect for the office of President! This is the type of thing that keeps Liz Cheney in high demand for weeks, but try as I have, I've yet to hear her complaining about Sarah Palin on this one. She's another demented hypocrite.
Ah, life in the United States during a Democratic Administration at least proves to even the dimmest citizen how terrifyingly right wing the entire right wing media really is.
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