And this is supposed to be shocking?
A presidential teleconference with troops was staged:
It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday’s vote on a new Iraqi constitution.
Complete with a rehearsal! Why is this surprising or newsworthy? We live in a country where the presidential debates are essentially staged.
October 14th, 2005 at 8:31 am
SayUncle,
I got to admit: I care not a whit about this. If the Lefties are given free reign for staging their own events in opposition to the war (Sheehan tool), why shouldn’t GW be given the right to get his side of the story out?
We all know that the MSM couldn’t completely cover their backsides with a tarp, much less completely cover a newsworthy issue. A lot of good is happening, some major strategic goals are being met, and we have a lot of local support. All we hear from the MSM is how many people were bombed, how many people disagree with the mission, and how many self-aggrandizing, camera-hogging, dimwit mothers can completely disregard their dead sons’ wishes and turn them into victims as opposed to heroes.
Why not let him work under the same rules? The fact that this is an issue completely annoys me. Thanks for bringing this up. You have so much common sense, one might think you live in TN or something.
October 14th, 2005 at 10:09 am
It’s interesting that when the media manipulates the information they give you (i.e. Dan Rather and 60 Minutes), you get completely bent out of shape. When your president does it, you yawn.
The priorities should be exactly reversed. The president has a duty to play straight with us. The media, less so.
October 14th, 2005 at 10:13 am
Err, I’m far from yawning. You can go read the post I linked regarding the staged debates and how pissed I was about it. But the media saying this incident was staged while not addressing the staging of the debate is quite questionable.
And I concur that the pres should play it straight. I think you’re off-base regarding what I’m yawning and pissed about. I’m pissed about both.
October 14th, 2005 at 10:30 am
Well, they lied about it. The Press Corps asked if the questions were scripted and rehearsed. McClellan said no. There is audio to disprove this. A handler says the words “in the script.”
Feeding soldiers questions is pretty cheap and misleading, but expected. Lying about it just compounds that.
October 14th, 2005 at 10:37 am
US Troops have been in that situation since World War One. When I was in Bosnia they asked us all kinds of BS questions…about the UN, NATO, the ahem…effectiveness of European peacekeepers and so forth. Truthful responses were cut.
If the media doesn’t have some fourth estate quality to be truthful, then why do they get alll bent out of shape when the blogosphere beats them at their own game ie factchecking?
October 14th, 2005 at 11:11 am
Someday told me Bush had made a big blunder on TV, so I hit Google and found stories about the staged teleconference. I thought, “that’s business as usual” and kept looking for an actual blunder. Turns out this person thought the staged news event was a blunder. Whatever.
I’m happy to see the media pulling the curtain back. That’s always a good thing. But I agree with Uncle, this kind of crap goes on all the time, and it’s hardly newsworthy. Anyone who spends time reading political blogs knows every press event is slathered in crap to some level of thickness, but maybe the political audience that is less engaged needs reminders like this periodically.
The real story here is complementary to what is being talked about. The real story is that 99% of the time, the press dutifully laps up these events without any hint of how manufactured they are. The scandal is how often the story is told as scripted without the journalist making any effort to dig a little deeper or think a little harder.
October 14th, 2005 at 12:08 pm
Gee it looks like our wunderbar media has scripted in a bit of their own amnesia to boot: Reporter helped orchestrate GI’s query to Rumsfeld
October 14th, 2005 at 12:38 pm
. If the Lefties are given free reign for staging their own events in opposition to the war (Sheehan tool), why shouldn’t GW be given the right to get his side of the story out?
What did Sheehan stage? She straight up sat in a tent outside the President’s ranch. She managed her . The President claimed to be asking soldiers off the cuff questions, when in fact the answers were stage managed.
Eg..the media scripted nothing. He helped the guy formulate a tough question for Rumsfeld and made sure he got a chance to ask it. Its something that was on the soldiers mind and something he wanted answered. Its a lot different from giving scripted answers to questions from the President.
October 14th, 2005 at 1:12 pm
Remember the picture of Sheehan with Al Sharpton? Oh, and the 20 or so reporters and cameras behind them? That wasn’t staged? Or her arrest in DC? Just my opinion.
It’s one thing to be against the Iraq war, quite another to get rolling when the cameras are on you and denounce our efforts in Afghanistan then trot out the tired Israel-Palestine card. Her 15 minutes should have been up long before she whined that Hurricane Rita should not take coverage away from HER protest in Washington.
October 14th, 2005 at 1:36 pm
Next we are gonna hear that it was a plastic turkey.
October 14th, 2005 at 3:35 pm
Virtually everything the media does is scripted or rehearsed. I don’t see what the issue is. Just another lame attempt at Bush bashing.
If you want to bash Bush, bash him on homeland security and immigration. That’s where he needs a swift kick.
October 14th, 2005 at 5:05 pm
Remember the picture of Sheehan with Al Sharpton?
your point is what? Sheehan was standing beside Al Sharpton, nothing more nor less. Bush was asking for the troops honest opinion and was answered with pre-rehearsed answers.
Or her arrest in DC?
Granted that was a publicity stunt, but again she was arrested for essentially loitering in front of the Whitehouse and she has never represented her arrest as anything but.
October 15th, 2005 at 11:24 am
Drake, you were in Bosnia in WWI? Did you see that guy shoot Franz Ferdinand?
[Just kidding.]
October 16th, 2005 at 3:25 pm
If you would like to read an account of what ACTUALLY happened from an Army blogger who participated in the interview, go here:
http://278medic.blogspot.com/2005/10/speaking-with-president-bush.html
………Mr. C.
October 17th, 2005 at 8:17 am
[…] I’ve mentioned the supposedly staged teleconference president Bush participated in. SGT Ron Long was there. He says it wasn’t staged but they had a rehearsal. […]