Saturday, March 08, 2008
When The Cat's Away...
I have written before about the Bush media strategy of releasing bad information on a Friday, so named the "Friday news dump" because it allows the information to hit the news over the weekend when most people aren't watching, rather than during the week when it has the opportunity of greater recognition AND a better chance of the opposition making it a bigger issue than it may be.
The news dump applies to any information released over the weekend and not necessarily on Friday--and this weekend, with a major blizzard hitting a large chunk of the country (including where I am sitting--we have roughly 13" of snow with 2-3 inches more on the way) is the perfect opportunity to release bad information. Case in point is the subject of President Bush's Saturday Radio Address, which he used to announce his veto of H.R. 2082--the "Intelligence Authorization Act for FY 2008," which passed the House last December and cleared the Senate in the middle of February, and was officially sent to the President on the 29th--a full 8 days ago. Which means he could have vetoed it at any point during the week, but instead waited until the weekend to announce his veto. Adding to the evidence that this was designed to temper reaction is the way the announcement is displayed on the White House webpage where this type of news is announced. Through most of the day, all that was displayed was the link to the "Radio Address" and an special "In Focus: Defense" link. By noon, all that was added was a link: "Message to the House of Representatives." Nothing about this particular bill and his veto. In past vetoes, it was clear by reading the "News" section of the White House webpage that a veto was taken, as was the case with his veto last December of the Defense bill that drew a great deal of criticism because it came without any notice that a veto was coming.
Thus the White House is consistent to the end of herding potential negative information to the weekend, and I think when they have left the building, we will be able to conclude that it is another area where they have set a record (which includes, of course, the number of constitutional challenges spelled out in the signing statements).
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The news dump applies to any information released over the weekend and not necessarily on Friday--and this weekend, with a major blizzard hitting a large chunk of the country (including where I am sitting--we have roughly 13" of snow with 2-3 inches more on the way) is the perfect opportunity to release bad information. Case in point is the subject of President Bush's Saturday Radio Address, which he used to announce his veto of H.R. 2082--the "Intelligence Authorization Act for FY 2008," which passed the House last December and cleared the Senate in the middle of February, and was officially sent to the President on the 29th--a full 8 days ago. Which means he could have vetoed it at any point during the week, but instead waited until the weekend to announce his veto. Adding to the evidence that this was designed to temper reaction is the way the announcement is displayed on the White House webpage where this type of news is announced. Through most of the day, all that was displayed was the link to the "Radio Address" and an special "In Focus: Defense" link. By noon, all that was added was a link: "Message to the House of Representatives." Nothing about this particular bill and his veto. In past vetoes, it was clear by reading the "News" section of the White House webpage that a veto was taken, as was the case with his veto last December of the Defense bill that drew a great deal of criticism because it came without any notice that a veto was coming.
Thus the White House is consistent to the end of herding potential negative information to the weekend, and I think when they have left the building, we will be able to conclude that it is another area where they have set a record (which includes, of course, the number of constitutional challenges spelled out in the signing statements).
