Not even Nixon...

i think that this is happening outside this bbs.

 

What exactly is the criticism here? As far as I can tell, Helen Thomas was complaining that people were being pre-screened - not the questions themselves. The Iran situation was pre-arranged - the White House didn't attempt to hide that or pretend it wasn't. But again, the question wasn't screened - just the reporter.

Obama's held more public press conferences in 6 months than Bush did in 8 years. It's not like he's only answering questions from supporters. He's taken more unscreened questions in a few months than Bush did in two terms. How exactly is that "more of the same"?

 

so a reporter solicits questions from iranians, and iranians email him their questions, then wh asks reporter to ask the questions from iranians

 

this is the stupidest thing about this "issue", last week trader was acting like he caught obama doing this, hilarious

I know right, and he's had to ask some zinger questions, like "why did it take so long" to issue his statement condeming Iran, and there was the question in a presser earlier in the year (forgot what it was) that he responded he likes to know what's going on before speaking about something

 

I think this can't be said enough. There is no comparison between his access and that of Bush. And if the OP doesn't think Nixon manipulated the media to a fair thee well, then basso is younger than I thought.

 

Here's the "Presidential Advance Manual" from the W administration...

http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/freespeech/presidential_advance_manual.pdf

 

Despite some wishing even more transparency, if you can not discern an increase in the transparency of the Obama administration compared to other administrations, then you are willfully ignorant.

 

That's total crap. There is no new standard of transparency. He has refused to release White House guest lists, which was one of our main criticisms of Bush's tendancy towards secrecy. Obama's justification for withholding the Abu G. photos was that their release may cause harm to our troops--a precarious standard to say the least.

Smiling for the cameras and exchanging a few words with reporters is NOT transparency. Opening your books, disclosing associations, and telling the truth even when it may not be politically expedient--that's transparency.

 

From that manual:

Summary: [redacted]

Hilarious. I don't get how Helen Thomas lived through W (maybe she had more time for the spa life for the last 8 years?) and somehow complains about press access now. It just doesn't add up.

EDIT: Okay, I'v read that transcript three times. So her big problem, what is unparalleled, is the calling of reporters the night before things like town hall events or other formal engagements. That's somehow more scripted that the Bush orchestrations? I just don't get it. Plastic turkeys + only FAUX news being given interviews is less galling than these phonecalls to let reporters know they'll be called on? I guess we'd need to hear some of these phonecalls.

If they tried to orchestrate the press conferences (which, in that transcript, you can clearly see they don't), then I could understand the complaint. Or if he didn't have press conferences, and then just had these stifled formal town halls, etc, then I could understand the complaint.

If press conferences are still free, I just don't have a problem here, and I'm very happy to criticize Obama (e.g. Yucca Mountain, for one), but this whole dust up sounds like Thomas not understanding 2009 (with 24 hour news coverage and the dominance of lazy, sound-bite reporting) versus 1979. Any administration would be idiotic to not try to smooth formal appearances. It's called preparation and homework. If PR and image control in politics is distasteful, the 1950's are calling for you.

 

This Presidency is a putrid stain on America's great history. Never has someone so unqualified and phony been elected by those so uninformed and ignorant. It's fraudulent.

 

Helen Thomas is awesome. If you need to be lambasted, she will do it. She spent 8 years tearing into Bush on a daily basis. Check the archive. There were several times when the machinations that the Bushies took to shut her up made news, but she kept on tearing into them, even when they stuck their fingers in their ears and pretended to not listen.

The thing that really doesn't add up here is basso ignoring her for 8 years as she lambasted dubbya on a daily basis and suddenly 'discovering' her now that she doesn't have quite as much to complain about every day as she used to.

From my favorite non-political blog, TYWKIWDBI (Things You Wouldn't Know If We Didn't Blog Incessantly):

[rquoter]
Helen Thomas deserves more flowers

The oldest of old-timers here at TYWKIWDBI may remember my post from April of last year - "Flowers for Helen Thomas." If you're not familiar with this remarkable journalist, please read my previous post. I wrote that to support a Reddit solicitatiion for donations for flowers for her when she was the only member of the White House press corps to challenge President Bush on a controversial topic.

Yesterday, President Obama addressed the hot topic of Neda, the young Iranian woman who was shot and killed during the protests in Teheran. Glenn Greenwald describes what happened next:

[rquoter]
As Obama was answering -- attesting to how "heartbreaking" he found the video; how "anybody who sees it knows that there's something fundamentally unjust" about the violence; and paying homage to "certain international norms of freedom of speech, freedom of expression" -- Helen Thomas, who hadn't been called on, interrupted to ask Obama to reconcile those statements about the Iranian images with his efforts at home to suppress America's own torture photos ("Then why won't you allow the photos --").

The President quickly cut her off with these remarks:
<blockquote>
THE PRESIDENT: Hold on a second, Helen. That's a different question. (Laughter.)
</blockquote>
The White House Press corps loves to laugh condescendingly at Helen Thomas because, tenaciously insisting that our sermons to others be applied to our own Government, she acts like a real reporter...
[/rquoter]

Exactly right (boldface added by me). People do laugh at Helen Thomas because she is almost 90 years old and dares to speak truth to power. She did not bow down before the regal aspects of the Bush presidency, and she does not fawn before Obama.

There's more discussion at the Greenwald column, and a less focused discussion thread at Reddit.

She probably does deserve more flowers. At this point it's not clear whether anyone at Reddit will step forward to implement the idea as someone did last time; if they do (or if a major blog like the Daily Dish takes up the cause), I'll post the relevant info at TYWKIWDBI.
[/rquoter]

She really tore into dubbya over torture. In fact, she really was the one who pulled the debate to mainstream media (from the "Flowers for Helen Thomas link in the story):

[rquoter]
Here's the recent development. Two weeks ago, ABC news reported that President Bush's advisers had approved the use of "harsh interrogation techniques" at Guantanamo Bay, and the President then admitted he approved of these techniques. However, none of the White House press corps have brought up this topic at the White House press briefings - until Helen Thomas did so yesterday. Here is the 1.5 minute confrontation with Dana Perino:

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Perino reiterates the White House position that the techniques were not "torture." Helen Thomas asks "how can you deny that torture occurred when there are pictures of it?" Perino rebuts that Thomas is "misconstruing" events. Cut off from the end of thevideo segment embedded above is Helen Thomas' appeal to her colleagues in the room “Where is everybody? For God’s sakes.”

[/rquoter]

If you want more, go to Youtube and search "Helen Thomas". She tore the Bush WH press spokesman a new one nearly daily. Of course, basso conveniently forgets all that when he valiantly rushes to champion her more recent concerns.

And, to quote Thomas on George W. Bush:

[rquoter]
[George W. Bush] is the worst president ever. He is the worst president in all of American history

[/rquoter]

What with his new respect for Helen Thomas, I'm sure basso heartly endorses those coments as well, right?

 

We are already accustomed to your obsession/fetish.

 

No, you misunderstand... Thomas is neither Dem nor Repub, Lib or Con or Neo-Con. She's not on anybody's team.

She's a journalist first and as such is always questioning and suspecting anyone in power. If you think her criticism of Obama carries more weight because she also criticized Bush, you're just caught in the trap you always find yourself in... assuming people who don't worship your leaders behave the same way and with the same motivation towards the people who are not your leaders as you do towards your leaders.

 

Very well put. basso could learn a lot from you. It's too bad he will probably choose not to.

 

Agree.

 

+1
What a poor excuse for humanity