Watch the video:
This isn't the first time Obama and his merry band of bandits have tried to control the media and it is good to finally see the reporters calling their hand on it.
CNSNews reports:
Following a testy exchange during today’s briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas told CNSNews.com that not even Richard Nixon tried to control the press the way President Obama is trying to control the press.
“Nixon didn’t try to do that,” Thomas said. “They couldn’t control (the media). They didn’t try.
“What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said. “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.”
Thomas said she was especially concerned about the arrangement between the Obama Administration and a writer from the liberal Huffington Post Web site. The writer was invited by the White House to President Obama’s press conference last week on the understanding that he would ask Obama a question about Iran from among questions that had been sent to him by people in Iran.
“When you call the reporter the night before you know damn well what they are going to ask to control you,” Thomas said.
“I’m not saying there has never been managed news before, but this is carried to fare-thee-well--for the town halls, for the press conferences,” she said. “It’s blatant. They don’t give a damn if you know it or not. They ought to be hanging their heads in shame.”
During today’s briefing, Thomas interrupted a back-and-forth between Gibbs and Chip Reid, the White House correspondent for CBS News, when Reid was questioning Gibbs about who was going to decide what questions would be asked of President Obama in a townhall meeting that was scheduled to take place in Annandale, Va., today.
Just as Obama's healthcare infomercial barely allowed for anyone but him to get a word in edgewise, where he filibustered the majority of the show without giving any true answers with substance, these so-called open town halls are seeing the audience members hand picked so that only one side of the issue is actually being presented to the American people.
So we jump to the actual town hall, the one where Gibbs told reporters to wait for before asking questions about controlling the media.
One of those questions was 53 year-old Debby Smith who has cancer and cannot hold a job nor get insurance because of it.
Obama called her "exhibit A" in an unsustainable system that is too expensive and complex for millions of Americans.
Power Line points us to who exactly Exhibit A is, which is provided in the AP article above:
Smith, of Appalachia, Va., is a volunteer for Organizing for America, Obama's political operation within the Democratic National Committee. She obtained her ticket through the White House.
For the record, no one is casting aspirations on Ms. Smith, nor claiming her story isn't true, but the principle behind the reporters questions to Gibbs and their comments about the selection of participants in a supposedly "open" town hall meeting, were spot on.
Smith was invited BY the White House, volunteers for a political operation within the DNC.
Even Wapo mentions the "stagecraft" of the Obama events:
In the stage-managed event, questions for Obama came from a live audience selected by the White House and the college, and from Internet questions chosen by the administration's new-media team. Of the seven questions the president answered, four were selected by his staff from videos submitted to the White House Web site or from those responding to a request for "tweets."
The president called randomly on three audience members. All turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration: the Service Employees International Union, Health Care for America Now, and Organizing for America, which is a part of the Democratic National Committee. White House officials said that was a coincidence.
It is about time they started calling Obama's white house out on this type of theater.
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