White House boasts: We 'control' news media

[DocRock]

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=113347

TEL AVIV – President Obama's presidential campaign focused on "making" the news media cover certain issues while rarely communicating anything to the press unless it was "controlled," White House Communications Director Anita Dunn disclosed to the Dominican government at a videotaped conference.

"Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn't absolutely control," said Dunn.

"One of the reasons we did so many of the David Plouffe videos was not just for our supporters, but also because it was a way for us to get our message out without having to actually talk to reporters," said Dunn, referring to Plouffe, who was Obama's chief campaign manager.

"We just put that out there and made them write what Plouffe had said as opposed to Plouffe doing an interview with a reporter. So it was very much we controlled it as opposed to the press controlled it," Dunn said.

Continued Dunn: "Whether it was a David Plouffe video or an Obama speech, a huge part of our press strategy was focused on making the media cover what Obama was actually saying as opposed to why the campaign was saying it, what the tactic was. … Making the press cover what we were saying."

[Woe Kitten]

Seems fair enough to me. We all know the right wing press are very willing to twist anything any way they can, what she is saying is that they set up their campaign so that people had to report what was being said instead of reporting a whole load of shit they made up about what was being said.

[Major Banter]

In all honesty, not surprised. Government and newspapers work together all of the time when it's in their interests. Price William only got to Iraq because the press was asked to be quiet about it, and they gladly did so.

[Text_Fish]

Well done them. I'd say media Moguls like Rupert Murdoch are likely to be ten times more prone to corruption than the average politician, so it just makes good sense to make sure they can't possibly put words in your mouth.

[ToastFlambe]

Haha, what a misleading headline.

[Terr]

There are plenty of parallels with the last administration: I see this as more of a problem with "The Media" than anything else.

Unfortunately "reporters" nowadays are usually simply stenographers. It takes too much money (and might offend people) to do real reporting and fact-checking. The "safe" route they all follow is to just write down what other people (esp. people with dubious reasons for anonymity) tell them ("A claimed X. B says A is wrong, and that Y is true? Which is it? Perhaps we'll never know.") and they claim that their work is done.

[Noodles]

I find it odd that report comes from Tel Aviv, ja/nej?

[Spas12]

I understand this was only directed to a FOX news administrator, not to all the news corporations.

In that case, fuck FOX.

[joe_dirt976]

eh, you got it backwards. media controls the government. All the major outlets are ultimately owned by six major corporations. If any of them don't want someone in office, it wouldn't be hard to find a flaw in them and cover it like micheal jackson.

[Stubby]

Fox is the only fucking news stations to be asking ANY tough questions.
Which is what is needed.

I'm sick at tired of people calling Fox biased and ignoring the new stations like MSNBC and ABC who are allowed get interview's with the president but ask questions like "WHAT IS IT LIKE BEING BLACK AND THE PRESIDENT?"
Or "WHAT IS YOUR WIFE WEARING TODAY?"

It's absolutely ridiculous, If O'Reilly Got one interview with Obama he could tear him a new asshole and unlike other news stations they would show the interview UNEDITED unlike the rest who interview Sarah Palin and other
conservatives and edit the interviews later to get a point across.

[Ennui]

It's absolutely ridiculous, If O'Reilly Got one interview with Obama he could tear him a new asshole

You are either living in a fantasy land or you're just a myopic retard if you actually believe this statement. O'Reilly is great at being a conservative pundit but that's because he knows how to argue and rile people up, not because he's got logic, reason, or intelligence on his side. He's gotten soundly thrashed in discussions with persons far less intelligent than Obama... who graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law and spent over a decade as a professor. The term "steamrolled" doesn't even begin to describe the carnage that would ensue if Obama actually was willing to waste enough of his supremely valuable time just to put the tard in his place. Luckily, since he's the president, he's got better things to do.

Fox News is a joke. I read their site along with CNN and BBC and aggregate sources every day and it's incredible how much they twist and sensationalize things. Anyone to whom this fact isn't blatantly obvious is not worth trying to convince otherwise, we're better off waiting until they all die out... so long as we make sure to actually educate the next batch of Americans.

[Mr-Jigsaw]

Fox News is a joke. I read their site along with CNN and BBC and aggregate sources every day and it's incredible how much they twist and sensationalize things.

Links please.

[Ennui]

You could have just read the next sentence of my post.

Anyone to whom this fact isn't blatantly obvious is not worth trying to convince otherwise, we're better off waiting until they all die out...

[Mr-Jigsaw]

I did read it, but I wanted to give you a chance not to look like an absolute twit.

[Terr]

Fox is the only fucking news stations to be asking ANY tough questions.

I think you're confusing two things. "having reporters who fact-check assertions and ask tough questions"? No, more like "hiring a bevy of controversy-seeking pundits who spew unsupported assertions while they are deceitfully presented as if they were real reporters".

I have plenty of liberal complains against the Obama administration, but "He's fascist communist muslim an' Amer'ca is bein' taken over OMFG!" is hardly "tough questions". Call me when they actually crack open the text of a bill or something vaguely factual. (But of course, arguing things base on data that just means you're an "ivory tower intellectual"...)

Fox News is a joke. I read their site along with CNN and BBC and aggregate sources every day and it's incredible how much they twist and sensationalize things.

Links please.

Before we go further: Are you interested in whether or not certain non-reporter pundits like Glenn Beck are twisting/sensationalizing, or is that just a given and you are referring to specifically news headlines?