Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Oh Jake, How Could You?
Some of you may be suffering from inauguration overload (particularly if you have watched even the smallest amount of network/cable news coverage of today's event, where each news station tried to outdo all the competitors with delivering the greatest commentary on the "levity of the moment" or to show how today's event had international implications (ABC broke away several times to Indonesia, where a group of elementary-aged students stared bleary-eyed at a television set, at nearly 12 in the morning their time, all the while feigning interest of their own). If you could stomach it, you turned to cable news, where MSNBC tried desperately to signal to the new administration that they were ready to carry their water, much in the same way Fox News did for the Bush administration (Chris Matthews paused on the image of Dick Cheney being wheeled out of the White House as a metaphor for the way the Bush administration was leaving the presidency). I stayed with C-SPAN for much of the day--if you are a political junkie, C-SPAN is where it is at. There you could tell your kid who the important folks were assembled on the inaugural stand or you could pipe up that Obama made a mistake by declaring that 44 men had stood where he did, taking the oath of office (43 men have been elected president, though Obama is the 44th president--Grover Cleveland is the discrepancy).
I waited until 6:15 p.m. to turn the local news on. By that time, it was safe that the locals were talking weather and sports. There is very little more aggravating than watching local news readers attempt to supersede their network peers. At 6:30, I turned to ABC News, which is flush in money and thus could afford a prolonged, 90 minute special on the days events (6:30 to 8 p.m.). It was then that I heard something disappointing from a reporter I normally like (there are so few). Jake Tapper, who will be covering the Obama White House as the White House correspondent for ABC, made a crack about keyboards missing their "W's" when the Bushies left office today. If you didn't understand the significance of the inside crack, turn your clock back eight years. Then it was George W. Bush moving his things into the White House. The Republicans controlled Congress, and the Clinton administration had just tarnished its reputation further by granting a last minute pardon to a millionaire fugitive from justice whose wife had dumped a pile of money into the Clinton library. Furthermore, there was a moment late in the day on the 20th, 2001, that the Clinton administration might not vacate the premises. Clinton held a number of "goodbye" ceremonies that some saw as an attempt to upstage the incoming Bushies.
That set the tone for a series of stories that ran for several days about rampant vandalism/theft/debauchery by the outgoing Clinton administration. Here are some of the highlights that drew the press right in, lock, stock and barrel:
And given the nature of the MSM in America, this fit in precisely for what is regarded as newsworthy--conflict and sensationalism.
Andrea Mitchell, a correspondent for NBC titled her report: Transition of Power to Bush Administration Marred by College Pranks and Vandalism by Departing Clinton Team. She referred to "sources" who said that "phone lines were cut, drawers filled with glue, door locks jimmied so that arriving Bush staff got locked inside their new offices, obscene messages left behind on copying machine paper."
Other sources told the White House Press Corps that "Air Force One" would "replace glasses and hand towels taken by passengers traveling with the Clintons" to which Sean Hannity blustered: "They strip Air Force One of the china and everything else that wasn't bolted down."
Even Tipper Gore, wife to VP Al Gore, phoned the Bush administration and apologized for all the damage down by the outgoing staff.
If you recall, this was an administration that won the presidency under the worst possible circumstances. And it was taking over for an administration that was popular with most Americans. How best to shift public opinion than to let the American public see what the Clinton's were really about. The Republican Congress, ever willing to help out, demanded that an investigation be done and the taxpayers reimbursed for the money it would take to fix all the damages. Republican Bob Barr, one of the leaders in the Clinton impeachment, ordered the GAO--then called the General Accounting Office and changed in 2004 to the Government Accountability Office--to undertake such an investigation.
And what did the GAO find out? That this "scandal" was an invention of the Bush White House, part of a strategy (used over and over again) to snow the MSM in the United States. At the center was Ari Fleischer, master manipulator, who used "unnamed sources" to lure the press in, and outside conservative media (Drudge Report, Fox News, and Talk Radio) to keep the story going as part of an "echo chamber" effect--that as it bounced from one conservative outlet to the next, it eventually found its way onto the pages of our newspapers and onto our television stations.
As Fleischer and the rest of the Bush communications operatives understood it, and rightly so, the media has a strong taste for the unusual, a strong desire for being first, and a very short memory. Just days after taking office, Fleischer told the White House press that they would be cataloging all of the abuses that took place, which signaled to the press that this incident went beyond a simple "prank":
I doubt you will see a replay of that episode in the new Obama administration. It is unfortunate that more was never really said about it in the first place, because it clearly was evidence of things to come--using the media to completely dupe the rest of America. It is one of the reasons, I think, of why the administration will get high points from communications strategists while simultaneously receiving low marks from those who judge such things as a "legacy."
But in closing, it is disappointing that Tapper repeated this low point since he was one of the firsts to catch on to the dubious nature of Fleischer and the White House Office of Communications.
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I waited until 6:15 p.m. to turn the local news on. By that time, it was safe that the locals were talking weather and sports. There is very little more aggravating than watching local news readers attempt to supersede their network peers. At 6:30, I turned to ABC News, which is flush in money and thus could afford a prolonged, 90 minute special on the days events (6:30 to 8 p.m.). It was then that I heard something disappointing from a reporter I normally like (there are so few). Jake Tapper, who will be covering the Obama White House as the White House correspondent for ABC, made a crack about keyboards missing their "W's" when the Bushies left office today. If you didn't understand the significance of the inside crack, turn your clock back eight years. Then it was George W. Bush moving his things into the White House. The Republicans controlled Congress, and the Clinton administration had just tarnished its reputation further by granting a last minute pardon to a millionaire fugitive from justice whose wife had dumped a pile of money into the Clinton library. Furthermore, there was a moment late in the day on the 20th, 2001, that the Clinton administration might not vacate the premises. Clinton held a number of "goodbye" ceremonies that some saw as an attempt to upstage the incoming Bushies.
That set the tone for a series of stories that ran for several days about rampant vandalism/theft/debauchery by the outgoing Clinton administration. Here are some of the highlights that drew the press right in, lock, stock and barrel:
- Numerous keyboards were missing the letter "W"--in fact, an business supply store sent the Bush administration 500 "W's" to help make up for the losses;
- The cords were cut to telephones, fax machines, and computers at a cost of at least $10,000 just to get the phones back up and running;
- Desks were turned upside down and file cabinets had some gooey substance dumped into them that appeared to be a mix of glue and vaseline (and symbolically as a stand in for semen);
- Above one office hung a sign: "White House Office of Strategery," a play on a SNL skit during the election;
- The message machines contained the outgoing message: THIS IS AL GORE'S OFFICE. DUE TO A CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS, I'LL BE OUT FOR THE NEXT FOUR YEARS;
And given the nature of the MSM in America, this fit in precisely for what is regarded as newsworthy--conflict and sensationalism.
Andrea Mitchell, a correspondent for NBC titled her report: Transition of Power to Bush Administration Marred by College Pranks and Vandalism by Departing Clinton Team. She referred to "sources" who said that "phone lines were cut, drawers filled with glue, door locks jimmied so that arriving Bush staff got locked inside their new offices, obscene messages left behind on copying machine paper."
Other sources told the White House Press Corps that "Air Force One" would "replace glasses and hand towels taken by passengers traveling with the Clintons" to which Sean Hannity blustered: "They strip Air Force One of the china and everything else that wasn't bolted down."
Even Tipper Gore, wife to VP Al Gore, phoned the Bush administration and apologized for all the damage down by the outgoing staff.
If you recall, this was an administration that won the presidency under the worst possible circumstances. And it was taking over for an administration that was popular with most Americans. How best to shift public opinion than to let the American public see what the Clinton's were really about. The Republican Congress, ever willing to help out, demanded that an investigation be done and the taxpayers reimbursed for the money it would take to fix all the damages. Republican Bob Barr, one of the leaders in the Clinton impeachment, ordered the GAO--then called the General Accounting Office and changed in 2004 to the Government Accountability Office--to undertake such an investigation.
And what did the GAO find out? That this "scandal" was an invention of the Bush White House, part of a strategy (used over and over again) to snow the MSM in the United States. At the center was Ari Fleischer, master manipulator, who used "unnamed sources" to lure the press in, and outside conservative media (Drudge Report, Fox News, and Talk Radio) to keep the story going as part of an "echo chamber" effect--that as it bounced from one conservative outlet to the next, it eventually found its way onto the pages of our newspapers and onto our television stations.
As Fleischer and the rest of the Bush communications operatives understood it, and rightly so, the media has a strong taste for the unusual, a strong desire for being first, and a very short memory. Just days after taking office, Fleischer told the White House press that they would be cataloging all of the abuses that took place, which signaled to the press that this incident went beyond a simple "prank":
The cute story that had appeared in the Post earlier in the week had officially ballooned into one more tawdry Clinton scandal. Now, according to the Post, "Bush officials described serious damage that has taken taxpayer money to repair." There was a full accounting of the pranks that some Democrats now, on background, confirmed: the missing "W" keys, the placement of phony signs on certain doors with titles like "Office of Strategery," "Office of Subliminable Messages" and "Division of Uniting," and reports that Clinton staffers had "interspersed blank photocopy paper with a fake Time magazine cover -- widely circulated on the Internet during the Florida recount litigation -- featuring a photo of an unhappy Bush saying "Oh shit."
Allen's front-page story included even more damaging allegations, quoting one unnamed Bush official who accused Clinton staffers "of taking White House paintings and trying to have them shipped to themselves. Others are said to have steamed official seals off office doors and tried to have them shipped." In fact, according to the story, "the incoming Bush administration ordered all packages X-rayed starting at noon" the day it moved in.
I doubt you will see a replay of that episode in the new Obama administration. It is unfortunate that more was never really said about it in the first place, because it clearly was evidence of things to come--using the media to completely dupe the rest of America. It is one of the reasons, I think, of why the administration will get high points from communications strategists while simultaneously receiving low marks from those who judge such things as a "legacy."
But in closing, it is disappointing that Tapper repeated this low point since he was one of the firsts to catch on to the dubious nature of Fleischer and the White House Office of Communications.
