The right-wingers are working the refs hard at this moment, led by Drudge, and five bucks says they'll succeed in making this a big scandal:
ABC TURNS PROGRAMMING OVER TO OBAMA; NEWS TO BE ANCHORED FROM INSIDE WHITE HOUSE
On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care -- a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!
Highlights on the agenda:
ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House.
The network plans a primetime special -- 'Prescription for America' -- originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate....
The Drudge story includes a letter of almost genuine-seeming outrage from Republican National Committee chief of staff Ken McKay.
The charge that ABC plans to "exclude opposing voices" is, you will not be surprised to learn, a crock (emphasis added below):
President Obama's health care push will continue next week with a primetime event at the White House, with ABC's Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer set to moderate a nationally televised event called "Questions for the President: Prescription for America."
The president will answer questions offered by audience members "selected by ABC News who have divergent opinions in this historic debate," as well as some submitted via ABCNews.com, according to the press release announcing the event....
Ah, but you can't blame the right for reacting -- the broadcasts are coming from inside the White House, dammit! Surely "Dr. Goebbels would be so proud" (as this guy says), and this is (per this guy) "Goebbels media" in action. Republicans would never, ever do such a thing, would they?
Except, um, yeah, they did, in 2006:
Two weeks before a pivotal election, the Bush administration brought some of the Republican Party's conservative base to its front yard Tuesday by inviting talk radio hosts to broadcast from the North Lawn of the White House.
About three dozen radio hosts set up inside a huge tent, interviewing administration stars such as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and political guru Karl Rove. The hosts, both national and local plus a smattering of liberals, hailed from New York to San Diego.
... Bush spokesman Tony Snow, himself a former radio talk show host, sat for at least 34 radio interviews in the big white tent. His hit list included national hosts Glenn Beck and Neal Boortz....
... According to Talkers magazine, four of the five top talk radio audiences tune into conservatives: Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and Laura Ingraham. Of those, only Hannity showed up at the White House on Tuesday, and his day included an interview of Vice President Cheney to be run on both his radio and Fox News television programs Tuesday.
... Hannity ... also interviewed Rice, Rumsfeld, Rove and Snow....
There was a similar event less than a week before the 2002 midterms, involving the likes of Hannity and Ollie North.
If you find a right-winger comparing these events to the techniques of Goebbels, let me know.
****
Ah, memories:
No comments:
Post a Comment