In earlier comments, I took Mark Knoller to task due to his passive acceptance of prop status during a scripted Bush press conference during the lead up to the Iraq war.
I would now like to mollify my comments somewhat, after observing Mr. Knoller ask a tough question in today's White House press conference regarding Obama's reversal on releasing torture photos. I appreciate his current attempts to perform as a journalist should.
Looks like Obama is offering him a job to protect the high seas. He seems to have a knack for having the wolf protect the hen house. Posted by specialty8 at 12:38 PM : May 12, 2009
maybe, he's being courted into running for the Senate in Pennsylvania.....you know Pittsburgh?
I don't get it. Granted this gag is a lot cheaper than the flyover but why are they wasting my tax dollars on a gag? Surely both of these guys have something more important to do. If being funny is that important, why didn't we elect McCain? He was hilarious at that big dinner just before the election.
But I absolutely insist that you at least look at the first 5 minutes of Bill Moyers' superb production, "Buying the War":
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html
In this video, you will see a presidental press conference given less than two weeks before the US went to war with Iraq. You will see the author of this pirate article, Mark Knoller, raising his hand along with all the other "reporters", apparently attempting to get the president's attention to ask a question. However, as Moyers reveals, the entire "news conference" was fully scripted---the "reporters" all knew ahead of time what questioners were to be called on, what order they would be called on, and what the questions would be.
This deadly serious "news conference" on the eve of war was in fact a fraud perpetrated on the American people by the White House. And Mr. Knoller was complicit in this fraud by serving as a prop and pretending that he was a real reporter intent on asking real questions.
I then ask you to look at Mr. Knoller's own response to the fraud controversy:
Our democracy depends on a free and active press. But in recent times the White House and the reporters that cover it have become conspiratorial, not adversarial. We see Tim Russert declaring that any conversation with an official is off the record unless stated otherwise; we see David Gregory dancing with Karl Rove; we see Bush jokingly looking in lampshades trying to find the missing WMDs, etc. Meanwhile, We The People, the great unwashed, are expected to be mollified with fun features about a pirate costume.
We need to demand that the White House press corp do their jobs. That's why my tone was not quite as "light" as some would like it.
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I would now like to mollify my comments somewhat, after observing Mr. Knoller ask a tough question in today's White House press conference regarding Obama's reversal on releasing torture photos. I appreciate his current attempts to perform as a journalist should.
Posted by specialty8 at 12:38 PM : May 12, 2009
maybe, he's being courted into running for the Senate in Pennsylvania.....you know Pittsburgh?
yar.
Posted by TheMasses03
Only to be polite, dat der's black beard, ya don't disrespect a cut throat like that, arrrgh...
But I absolutely insist that you at least look at the first 5 minutes of Bill Moyers' superb production, "Buying the War":
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/btw/watch.html
In this video, you will see a presidental press conference given less than two weeks before the US went to war with Iraq. You will see the author of this pirate article, Mark Knoller, raising his hand along with all the other "reporters", apparently attempting to get the president's attention to ask a question. However, as Moyers reveals, the entire "news conference" was fully scripted---the "reporters" all knew ahead of time what questioners were to be called on, what order they would be called on, and what the questions would be.
This deadly serious "news conference" on the eve of war was in fact a fraud perpetrated on the American people by the White House. And Mr. Knoller was complicit in this fraud by serving as a prop and pretending that he was a real reporter intent on asking real questions.
I then ask you to look at Mr. Knoller's own response to the fraud controversy:
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2007/04/26/publiceye/entry2730924.shtml
Our democracy depends on a free and active press. But in recent times the White House and the reporters that cover it have become conspiratorial, not adversarial. We see Tim Russert declaring that any conversation with an official is off the record unless stated otherwise; we see David Gregory dancing with Karl Rove; we see Bush jokingly looking in lampshades trying to find the missing WMDs, etc. Meanwhile, We The People, the great unwashed, are expected to be mollified with fun features about a pirate costume.
We need to demand that the White House press corp do their jobs. That's why my tone was not quite as "light" as some would like it.