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Some Perspective on WH Contempt for the Press
Jon Gabriel wrote a thought provoking post earlier today about the schizophrenic response to President Trump’s Thursday press conference. This post, similar to the schizophrenia inducing event itself, turned into a heated debate about the president, his temperament, and his reputed contempt for the press.
While it’s undeniable that President Trump is contemptuous of the press, I would just like to provide a little perspective on what contempt for the press actually is. No, I’m not comparing our fearless leader favorably to Adolph Hitler or any other odious autocrat from history. I would just like you to view a few minutes (or as much as you can stand) of the following White House press briefing led by Jay Carney three days after the Benghazi attacks.
I’m tempted to describe this performance and what it represents, but words fail me. Please just watch a few minutes and marvel. Then we can discuss the concept of contempt for the press with a little perspective from our recent, alternative universe past.
White House Press Briefing September 14, 2012
Published in General
Obama’s press secretaries’ names were delicious: Jay Carney and Josh Earnest.
I dont understand why the media is upset. The NYT (a former newspaper) declared the media to be the opposition party to the Trump administration. He took them seriously – possibly the only man in America to take them seriously – and they’re upset by how he treats his opposition?
My point is that the Obamaites lied with calm, cool demeanor about things that actually mattered: terrorist attacks, healthcare coverage for millions of people, political abuses committed by the IRS. They orchestrated a huge lie about the murder of an ambassador right before an election. The media never minded when it was their president and his acolytes doing the lying. Now they really have no reason to complain.
“…a reprehensible and disgusting video”
What’s reprehensible and disgusting is the lying. Thank goodness it’s being done calmly and politely.
Truly chilling not to mention disgusting. Weeks after Benghazi, after Fox had been reporting on it nonstop, I was talking to a liberal about it, and he acted like I was wearing a tinfoil hat. He truly had zero idea of what had happened because he wasn’t watching Fox. When the rest of the media finally had no choice but to start at least mentioning it, I suddenly became an intelligent citizen with no tinfoil hat.
There’s something about his face that’s missing. Oh, it’s pepper spray and my fist. Pure lies, deception, and a cover up for a likely treasonous event.
It is not treason or illegal when Liberals do it. There is a rule ore something.
Give me just five minutes with him. Your fist. My fist. Your pepper spray. My foot.
I made it to 9:49 and I’m out of wine. Sorry. Can’t take any more.
Listen to formerly fair reporter Jake Tapper discuss the Trump press conference. He can also be seen in the Carney presser linked above asking tough questions about what the Obama’s knew and when they knew it. Jake, buddy, let me help you with this one. Trump lies about little things that can be easily checked: crowd size, electoral college landslides, etc. The Obama’s lied about big things that could not be checked, because the only info available came from the administration. Trump’s sin is vanity. The Obama’s sins are an order of magnitude worse. If you can’t see the difference, then it may be time to get out of this business. Everyone wears a jersey now. That’s the sad reality.
The other thing that strikes me is, Where the hell are all the reporters? The Press Briefing Room is half empty!
Sean Spicer’s PBR looks like this:
One more: Jay Carney has a ‘tell’ when he tells a lie, the way he blinks and his head moves.
Some might think that the ‘tell’ is that his mouth is moving, but it’s a little subtler…
Here is the lie:
The second lie and the first one repeated:
Thanks Wiley. See what I mean about his tell? The looking off to the side, the fluttery eye thing while his shifty brain evaluates the plausibility of various possible falsehoods before coming out with the chosen lie.
Next lie: Libya is pro-America (or is this willful self deception?).
First lie repeated a third time:
First lie repeated a fifth time (I skipped the fourth):
First lie repeated a sixth time (I’m going to need more coffee):
A whole new series of lies about “the president’s red line” about Iran never getting nukes:
I’m only 2/5 into the video and there are just too many lies to link to!
I think this video could inspire a whole dissertation on the psychology of deception or deception in politics.
Wow! Thank goodness for Trump and Spicer! I only went 5 min into that video and know enough to not want to poison my mind anymore.
I know that both Trump and Spicer do that politician thing where they don’t really answer the question asked sometimes, but at least they make an effort. I can understand that there are some soundbites that politician don’t want to give nowadays so I will forgive a little misdirection, but the lies in the Obama (I am not bothering to know the press guys name) video is just astonishing.
On the complete other hand, I have actually watched hours of Spicer without rotting my brain since he at least knows how to make it a little interesting.
And this! I also wondered about this immediately. Wasn’t this right after a major scandal? If not considered a scandal, at least a major international event? So, Trump is more important than American ambassadors dying? Cause reasons….
I must conclude that the press willfully believes certain lies from certain people. The Obama lies seen in the video were told in furtherance of dishonest liberal assumptions: Muslims terrorism is our fault; liberal foreign intervention without national self-interest is the only just form of warfare; our pointless intervention in Libya was a success.
Truer words were never written. I’m at my lowest point as a media consumer when it comes to trusting what is being reported. The traditional cable news outlets of bestooged themselves whether it was Fox putting on the Trump jersey and pretty much everyone else putting on the Democratic jersey.
I’m actually finding @fredcole ‘s work to be increasingly valuable to me when it comes to major news stories. Fred takes one for the team, wades through the nonsense, and gets something concise out in The Daily Shot. That was particularly helpful with this recent Flynn episode.
Youtube’s fault. Nothing the Obama administration could have done better.
Even today hearing those lies makes me mad. I wish we could take Obama, Clinton, Carney, and Rice and drop them deep into ISIS territory and say, “Tell them how you got the video pulled from YouTube and arrested the guy who made the film. I’m sure they’ll like you then.”
Exactly, how can we avoid wearing a jersey? Media bias and corruption is an immutable, indisputable fact of life. Expecting Trump to maintain McRomney-like politeness while the formerly state-run media wages war on the White House is just not an option. Do you want tax and regulatory reform? Do you want a sane healthcare system? Do you want conservative judges? The leftist press does not want any of these things. That’s what’s at stake. Some may say that doing battle with the press is a distraction. These are the same people who said during the election that intensity of support would not propel Trump to victory.
I made it to 2:02, no reason to re-watch what I watch years ago that made me up-chuck. The whole lot of them lying pieces of trash.
I saw this press conference. I thought it was so clumsy and obvious the way he worked in “This was in no way a response to US policy,” which he had plainly been ordered to say. That was the Narcissist-in-Chief’s biggest fear and biggest concern. And it’s why their pleas for help and more security were ignored. Can’t have Obama’s policies questioned, now can we. Dead Americans were a small price to pay. I don’t know why this coverup wasn’t investigated and prosecuted in the manner of Watergate. I mean in Watergate nobody DIED. And people went to prison and a president resigned. Obama should have been impeached over it.