Should any administration control the press?

jimpeel

jimpeel

Well-Known Member
Should this administration, or any administration, control the press?

SOURCE

Top White House Official Says Obama Team 'Controlled' Media Coverage During Campaign

FOXNews.com

Monday, October 19, 2009

The Obama campaign's press strategy leading up to his election last November focused on "making" the media cover what the campaign wanted and on exercising absolute "control" over coverage, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn told an overseas crowd early this year.

In a video of the event, Dunn is seen describing in detail the media strategy used by then-Sen. Barack Obama's highly disciplined presidential campaign. The video is footage from a Jan. 12 forum hosted by the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development in the Dominican Republic.

"Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn't absolutely control," Dunn said, admitting that the strategy "did not always make us popular in the press."

The video drew attention after Dunn kicked off a war of words with Fox News last Sunday, calling the network "opinion journalism masquerading as news." The White House stopped providing guests to "Fox News Sunday" in August after host Chris Wallace fact-checked controversial assertions made by Tammy Duckworth, assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Dunn complained about the fact-checking last Sunday. In the January forum, she provided details about the lengths to which the Obama campaign went to control the media message.

She explained that the campaign favored live interviews so that Obama's words could not be edited -- "so that what the voters heard we determined, as opposed to some editor in a TV station."

She said Campaign Manager David Plouffe put out Web videos so the campaign could avoid talking to reporters and focus the media message.

"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," she said. "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. ... 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."

Click here to see the video of Dunn.
Click to expand...
 
A better question, do you believe for a minute that the press hasn't always been controlled ... by 'money'?
 
There's a big difference between a person stepping on you and having a 747 land on your head, but the difference isn't all that important to an ant.
 
Bad analogy. Controlling the message you give the press is not the same in the end as controlling the press. The Italian leader can control the press because he owns much of it and can actually exert control. Controlling your message is what any person or business with PR needs does.
 
The government should control the car companies, banks, wall street,
mortgage industry, your healthcare and the non-free press.

Basically every facet of your life.
Sheesh where do you think you are, America?
 
Hmmn...they don't control the car companies, banks, wall street, mortgage industry, or healthcare, or the press. I like the fear mongering though. Those industries that did need bailed out due to financial collapse do give up a little control until the taxpayers get their money back though. Many have already given it back thankfully.

Back to the press though, there is nothing here showing them controlling the press. Just their message.

Now if they had actually intentionally to manipulate the press with lies like the Bush administration did when they planted military officers posing as independent commentators when they were actually put there by the administration with an agenda to push I could see the bitching. I imagine that must have made you furious.
 
neener neener

Boosh boosh boosh

neener neener

Boosh didn't gimme healthcare and neither will Osama

The press beat up on Boosh for eight years.
They’re beginning to realize they to look more and
more like fools for continuing to sing the praises of an administration
that the American people in ever increasing numbers do not want.
 
Winky said:
The press beat up on Boosh for eight years.
They’re beginning to realize they to look more and
more like fools for continuing to sing the praises of an administration
that the American people in ever increasing numbers do not want.
Click to expand...

Actually the press gave Bush a pass on way too many things for way too long. Obama is under more scrutiny.
 
Winky said:
neener neener

Boosh boosh boosh

neener neener

Boosh didn't gimme healthcare and neither will Osama

The press beat up on Boosh for eight years.
They’re beginning to realize they to look more and
more like fools for continuing to sing the praises of an administration
that the American people in ever increasing numbers do not want.
Click to expand...

image50499151640x480k.jpg
 
I'm not sure you understand irony. The people that troll a lot typically have a lower level of discussion than the people that use facts and reason. It's not really surprising.
 
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