Saturday, May 2, 2009

'You report, we deny'

Sweet how the White House denies -- and everyone in the WH press corps except ABC's Jake Tapper ignores -- the accusation by an attorney that "Steve Rattner, the leader of the Obama administration’s Auto Industry Task Force, threatened . . . an investment bank, that if it continued to oppose the administration’s Chrysler bankruptcy plan, the White House would use the White House press corps to destroy its reputation."

Glenn Reynolds has a roundup, including a link to Nick Gillespie of Reason. Also, Jimmie Bise at Sundries Shack is on it, and there's lots more at Memeorandum.

Just imagine the outrage if the Bush administration had threatened to sic Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity on its political opponents. But the obedient steno clerks in the White House press corps just do as they're told nowadays. If Robert Gibbs needs a shoe shine, there are at least three network correspondents who'll be happy to do the job.

UPDATE: "First they came for the businessmen . . ."

UPDATE II: Newt Gingrich says "it's embarassing to watch" how the White House press corps has "taken a dive" for Obama. It's embarassing to me as a journalist, particularly remembering how Gingrich was demonized by the media in 1994-95.

That was clearly not a Change They Could Believe In.

UPDATE III: Welcome, Instapundit readers! Sorry it took me nearly an hour to realize I'd been 'Lanched, but I've been busy pondering the economy, and also trying to find new ways to offend feminists.

Also linked by Dad 29 and the Rhetorican. Thanks! If nothing else, the Obama administration seems to be working hard to fix my linky-love recession.

UPDATE IV: When it rains it pours: Linked at AnnCoulter.com! Also linked by Paco and at The Macho Response.

17 comments:

  1. Fox's White House correspondent also stated the Obama admin threatened retribution against him because his network choose not to carry the President's address.

    I think I see a pattern.

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  2. I spoke to my brother about this and here's what he had to say:

    "Everybody [i.e. all administrations, from Washington to Bush 2] do this so it's no big deal--why are you so upset?"

    That's the kind of apathy we have to face when dealing with 'moderates' and the so-called a-political.

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  3. "If Robert Gibbs needs a shoe shine, there are at least three network correspondents who'll be happy to do the job." with their tongues no doubt too.

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  4. Don't forget the newsweek cover portraying a green and gollum-esque Newt as the "Gingrich who stole christmas" after the big win in 1994.

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  5. every administration does not, the Bush administration did not retaliate or even threaten to against CBS for Rathergate or for going after Bush's children, when they always were hands off every other President's children.

    Yet again Bush proves he has more class than Obama. Or at the least, the people they surround themselves with.

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  6. Remember this was the line re: Monica. "They all do it." Apparently this means that everyone in politics does something objectionable. Well no, they don't all do this. And what actions by the Washington Administration could even be comparable is mysterious. With the astonishing historical ignorance endemic in the population bromides like that circulate without challenge. But this incident, emblematic as it is, will recede, unprovable as it is. But there will be another and another and another. Will any person of consequence who is not an O-bot have an unrecorded conversation with the WH in the future? Only the stupidest of them and their education is ongoing.

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  7. Robert Gibbs is the operational definition of the pundit's quip that "Politics is show business for the ugly".

    Under what imaginable circumstances would anyone give this maggot a microphone, let alone focus a camera on him, if he weren't the propoganda apparatchik of this "administration"?

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  8. I've never seen a WH press corps so in the tank for the sitting president. It's not news any longer now... simply advertising.

    I remember what they did to Bush and the Gingrich congress in the 90's. That left a sour taste in my mouth.

    Then I listened to Rush...

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  9. Or maybe *gasp* it's JUST NOT TRUE.

    Hey wingnut echo chamber, do you have any proof to back up your allegations. Or did you hear this from a friend of a friend who heard it from a friend who read it on a blog written by a partisan hack?

    And now it's gospel - White House denies it! They must be lying! PUT UP OR SHUT UP, with proo that is, you rightwing whores.

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  10. Well, we could ask the folks over at Perella Weinberg about Ratzo's threat. That is, if they're not intimidated into silence by now.

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  11. Hey wingnut echo chamber, do you have any proof to back up your allegations. Or did you hear this from a friend of a friend who heard it from a friend who read it on a blog written by a partisan hack?

    ---Look! Isn't that nice? A liberal who cares about the truth or falsity of an allegation. How about Trig Palin was Sarah's kid? How about Bush was going to stop elections and be President for life? How about Bush did an inside job on 911?

    Buddy, you guys degraded the Truth as in making it meaning less. Too bad, I kind of liked it.

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  12. Very odd that a major Democratic donor us wingnuts by making the accusation that he was threatened.....


    The denial, however, is merely a bald assertion. Lauria is the head of the bankruptcy group at White & Case, and a Democrat who contributed $10,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2008. In that sense, you could say that he helped to bring about the corrupt regime that is now bullying his clients. But his credibility vastly exceeds that of an administration spokesman who, having no knowledge of the facts, is sent out to issue a blanket denial.

    http://www.powerlineblog.com/

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  13. They would do a shoe shine with their tongues.

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  14. 3. DEHUMANIZATION: One group denies the humanity of the other group. Members of it are equated with animals, vermin, insects or diseases. Dehumanization overcomes the normal human revulsion against murder. At this stage, hate propaganda in print and on hate radios is used to vilify the victim group. In combating this dehumanization, incitement to genocide should not be confused with protected speech. Genocidal societies lack constitutional protection for countervailing speech, and should be treated differently than democracies. Local and international leaders should condemn the use of hate speech and make it culturally unacceptable. Leaders who incite genocide should be banned from international travel and have their foreign finances frozen. Hate radio stations should be shut down, and hate propaganda banned. Hate crimes and atrocities should be promptly punished.

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  15. FROM: OSAMAS PAJAMAS

    Hey, look, we are ruled by cheap, lying thugs, with guns --- bloodsucking, predatory humanitarians. OhBummer's thuggishness was on display during the campaign, so no one who was awake at the time should be surprised, today.

    But how can we damage and destroy his administration --- given that it has rolled over to authoritarian in a few 100 days and that with his unindicted co-conspirators in the media giving him cover and transmitting his propaganda, it could quickly become totalitarian?

    Yi Ha ***
    Minister of Information
    Peoples' Capitalist Republic of Whizbangistan

    *** Pronounced "YEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

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  16. On the subject of threats by the Obama adminstration, does anyone (journalists included) care to look into whether the Obama team pressured Freddie Mac to get rid of or impugn recently deceased CFO David Kellemann? He insisted on reflecting the true cost of the Obama housing plan, and he ends up dead by his own hand. Knowing what I know of Mr. Kellermann, I am sure there was Obama pressure involved. There's a good line of questions for Jake Tapper.

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