Huntsman goes after the media
For months, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman’s presidential campaign has arguably been kept afloat by the media. Fundraising has lagged and his national poll numbers are still at about 2 percent — the same as when he entered the race in June. Yet Huntsman has received lengthy and favorable profiles by the New York Times magazine, Newsweek, Esquire and Vogue — coverage that Buddy Roemer or Gary Johnson, who have registered similar poll numbers, or Ron Paul, who has much better ones, could only dream of.
But that didn’t keep Huntsman from lashing out at the media today while campaigning in Nashua, N.H. “My hot button is when the media have me come across as cool and collected, because I’m not,” said Huntsman, in response to a question about what makes him angry. “When I’m placed on the end of the debate stage and get three minutes of time because everyone is focused on who lights their hair on fire in the debate.”
Huntsman praised his “Lincoln-Douglas” debate in New Hampshire last week with Newt Gingrich as a model of civilized discourse because neither he nor Gingrich were asked any “gotcha questions.” But he lamented the media’s analysis of the debate. “There wasn’t any blood on the floor, how come you didn’t kill each other?” he said. “This is what we’ve come to.”
Huntsman may have a fair point about the media’s coverage of the election as a “horse race,” but he may not want to cite an event at which his own daughter fell asleep as an example of an ideal presidential debate.
Washington spinmeisters start BP’s damage control
The new public relations gurus hired by BP couldn’t have started at a better time. The team, headed by Anne Womack-Kolton — a former spokeswoman for Vice President Dick Cheney and the White House — had just started work when they had to deal with an unfortunate statement by BP chief executive Tony Hayward.
On Sunday Hayward infuriated many of those struggling to deal with the impact the massive oil spill has had on their lives and livelihood when he said he wanted his “life back” and wanted the oil spill mess to be over. So today his office issued the following email:
I made a hurtful and thoughtless comment on Sunday when I said that ‘I wanted my life back.’ When I read that recently, I was appalled. I apologize, especially to the families of the 11 men who lost their lives in this tragic accident. Those words don’t represent how I feel about this tragedy, and certainly don’t represent the hearts of the people of BP – many of whom live and work in the Gulf – who are doing everything they can to make things right. My first priority is doing all we can to restore the lives of the people of the Gulf region and their families – to restore their lives, not mine.
So what do you think? Does it work to issue such an email? Can Washington pubic relations officials really do anything to fix BP’s image?
For more Reuters political news, click here.
Photo credit: REUTERS/Sean Gardner (Garret Graves with the Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority shows his hand after collecting oil samples in Pass A Loutre near Venice, Louisiana on May 26, 2010)
Why don’t these schmucks spend the money on working blowout preventers instead of spin merchants? Seems to me it would have been better to prevent the problem than to explain it away.
Question raised by Obama-Calderon presser: Was that it?
It was definitely not a press conference and it was barely a Q-and-A.
For a White House that is more agile than any predecessor in new media –Twitter, blogs, video — it seems to be getting a bit out of practice with the traditional question-answer format with real, live reporters.
President Barack Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon faced the media in the White House Rose Garden.
They took a total of two questions, both were on border issues. Obama answered lengthily about his concerns with the current U.S. immigration system, the fight against drugs, and the positive coordination with Mexico. All ground covered by the administration many times. Not exactly headline-making.
What about Tuesday’s primaries since Obama is after all the top Democrat in the land and had earlier supported Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter who lost? What about the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico which is still spreading? What about the rioting in Thailand in which people have been killed? There’s Germany banning naked short sales in its war on speculators, what about that and the financial state of European allies? What does the president think about the latest words from Iran on a draft U.N. resolution to expand sanctions?
Well we don’t know, because no one got a chance to ask.
The last time Obama held a full-scale, formal news conference at the White House was in July 2009.
Obama chides media for healthcare impatience
President Barack Obama, whom critics often complain gets an easy ride from the so-called liberal media, has pointed the finger of blame at the press for holding him to unrealistic expectations about the benefits of his milestone legislation.
“Every single day since I signed the reform law there’s been another headline that says ‘Nation’s still divided on healthcare reform’, ‘Polls haven’t changed yet.’ Well, yeah. It just happened last week. It’s only been a week.”
“Can you imagine if some of these reporters were working on a farm,” he said to a rally in Portland, Maine. “Planted some seed. they came out the next day and look – nothing’s happened! There is no crop. We’re going to starve…it’s a disaster.”
For more Reuters political news, click here.
Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Obama speaks at rally in Portland, Maine)
Obama, a news junkie?
Lots of American presidents liked to pretend they didn’t dwell on the news — too busy attacking big problems for such a trifling. But then they would reveal themselves as news junkies (See 1992 presidential campaign and George H.W. Bush’s slogan: Annoy the Media — Re-Elect Bush).
President Barack Obama’s predecessor, George W. Bush, publicly boasted about ignoring most of what the press wrote and said about him. In reality, he had read the major newspapers by 6:45 a.m., while not paying much attention to television news.
Which brings us to Obama. He is making no bones about being a real news hound — even while holding the craven media mavens at arm’s length, as shown by his having avoided holding solo news conferences for seven months until a surprise appearance on Monday.
His news predilection is shown in small ways, like his recent speech in Tampa, Florida.
“I do also have to just mention — I’m going to mention — you know I love you in the media, but I will mention this little aspect of our media. Our friends with the pads and the pencils — last week I went to Ohio and I started saying what I’m saying now, which is, I’m going to fight for your future. And they got all worked up. They got worked up last week. They said, is he trying to change his message; is he trying to get more populist; is this a strategy that he’s pursuing to boost this, that and the other; is this something new?”
And then in Baltimore when he went toe-to-toe with House Republicans:
“So just a tone of civility instead of slash and burn would be helpful. The problem we have sometimes is a media that responds only to slash-and-burn-style politics. You don’t get a lot of credit if I say, ‘You know, I think Paul Ryan is a pretty sincere guy and has a beautiful family.’ Nobody is going to run that in the newspapers.”
At least we have a President who can step back and admit mistakes. Then if nothing works retry from a different angle.
The economy was in far worse shape then anybody thought is was, so it will take some reangling to get it fixed.
And with the republicans not wanting to do anything President Obama and the Congress have alot they are putting up with from the repubs.
Media naysayers troubling Obama again
Those media naysayers are troubling President Obama again.
The U.S. leader, who hasn’t had a prime-time news conference in six months, made clear his aggravation with the scribblers in remarks Thursday to a Democratic fundraiser at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
As the tony crowd, who were asked to pay $30,400 per couple, dined on beet salad, beef and Brussels sprouts, the president laid out his case against the unruly nabobs of negativism.
They were the ones who declared his presidential campaign dead about a dozen times.
The ones who wrote him off after Hillary Clinton pulled out a surprise upset in New Hampshire a couple of years ago.
The ones who clucked about his naivete, said he was doing too much and thought Obama couldn’t bring change to Washington.
“Nobody gave us a chance. This campaign was declared dead, what, 10 times,” Obama told the 140 guests at the Democratic National Committee dinner.
More ‘Hope-Nosis’ served up by the Fresh Prince of Thin Air. Truly hilarious how much the elitist left will pay to be encouraged. I suppose having a ‘supermajority’ for a year is no reason to expect more ‘Progressive’ policy to
have been installed before Scott Brown came to town. With the money raised perhaps now BO can afford to pay Springfield Ill money owed from his 2008 campaign. Snip:
Obama’s presidential campaign was sent a bill for $68,139, and still owes the city $55,457, according to Ernie Slottag, the city’s spokesman. The city has been trying — unsuccessfully — to collect payment, Ken Crutcher, the city’s director of office of budget and management told aldermen recently. “We’ve spoken to a lot of people and have found a lot of circles,” Crutcher said. … “We’ve been kind of bounced from place to place with respect to that particular event.” Attempts to get a comment for this story from the Obama campaign were unsuccessful. The White House referred comments to the Democratic National Committee. A spokesman at the DNC didn’t respond to questions sent via e-mail. Oh Snap I forgot, leftists only spend other peoples money…
How Obama’s Nobel speech played in Washington
For a man who just won the Nobel Peace Prize, President Barack Obama didn’t look all that happy as he strode to the lectern in Oslo. He had that downturned smile that was almost an acknowledgement of all the critics who say the award is premature — especially for a commander-in-chief who has just vowed to send 30,000 more U.S. troops into harm’s way in Afghanistan.
The speech itself didn’t make much of a splash on morning television in Washington. None of the major TV networks carried it live, though CNN did, cutting away from Obama from time to time to show an audience listening attentively, with a few eyelids drooping. But viewers didn’t have many options if they wanted to see the speech as it happened. They could see a blink of Obama sandwiched in between the televised feature stories — Dillie the Deer, a taped interview with first lady Michelle Obama, a duel interview with Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman to promote their new movie.
The Washington Post ran a live feed on its Web site; after the speech ended, there was a story and a photo slide show. The New York Times posted a text of the address. The Drudge Report – a one-stop online gateway for some in Washington — ran two small headlines about the Nobel ceremony (“Obama defends US wars as he accepts peace prize…” and ”Norwegians Incensed Over Obama Snubs…”) over the main story. Just after the speech it was “SNOW DRIFTS TO 15FT!” but later it changed to “DEMS TO LIFT DEBT CEILING BY $1.8 TRILLION!”
Before the chattering classes start weighing in on how he did, let’s hear what you think? Was it statesmanlike or disappointing? Or something in between?
Photo credit: REUTERS/John McConnico/Pool (President Barack Obama poses with Nobel Peace Prize medal and certificate, Oslo, December 10, 2009)
“I have seen college students receive college degrees who did not earn them, I even heard of a law and accounting student receiving their license that had not passed the BAR and CPA Exam”
Then they did not deserve their degrees or licences. And they are a small minority who devalue the efforts of the many people who earnt their qualifications through hard work.
“Sometimes you can give an award on potential and a direction or as a sign of support”
No. An award has always been for the recognition of something worthy. Not the belief that the recipient will do something worthy of the award at a later date.
Imagine if university degrees were handed out because of four years of study you have yet to do.
Imagine if you were given an Oscar for a movie you have not even made.
Imagine if you were given the medical nobel prize for a cure you have not yet invented, the physics nobel prize for a theory you have not yet discovered, or the literature nobel prize for a book you have not yet written.
No. There is no way that this situation can be salvaged or justified.
If you think Obama’s popularity and the opinions of Europe are important, then fine. But the nobel peace prize didn’t need to be sacrificed on an alter for their sake.
Anti-Americanism at play in Italian verdict?
Did anti-American sentiment play into the guilty verdict for American exchange student Amanda Knox?
Her family and a prominent U.S. senator are crying foul. Knox was sentenced last week to 26 years in prison for murdering her British roommate during a drunken sex game.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, from Knox’s home state of Washington, says she has “serious questions about the Italian justice system and whether anti-Americanism tainted this trial” and said she plans to pursue that with U.S. and Italian officials.
Her family has said they will appeal, and her father Curt Knox said unfavorable media coverage led to the guilty verdict.
“Frankly, I believe it was the huge media perception and literally the character assassination that took place of her, and a completely different judicial system where jurors and judges are not sequestered,” he said on NBC’s “Today” show on Monday.
Criminal defense lawyer Theodore Simon told ABC’s “Good Morning America” show that the evidence against Knox was scant. “The real problem here was … an avalanche of negative pretrial publicity, combined with an enormous amount of negative character assassination,” Simon said.
Judy Bachrach, who has covered the case for Vanity Fair, said some jurors said they found Knox guilty before the trial ended. “There is the feeling that she is the classic American seductress. She’s been called in the newspapers a vampire, a praying mantis, and these are all forms of anti-Americanism,” she said on ABC.
I don’t think it is anti-americanism.
But Italy has certainly been anti-murder for some time now. So this kind of thing shouldn’t be too unusual.
But then again, Europe got confused when we tried to punish a pedophile for child sex crimes. So perhaps it is just a funny world.
Or perhaps people simply don’t respect the legal systems outside their own?
He’s powerful… And you’re not?
Maybe it was a sign that someone wanted to put the press corps — or possibly the White House staff — in their place.
Who knows, but at the beginning of the daily White House press briefing on Wednesday, a disembodied voice sounded in the briefing room, saying: “THE PRESIDENT IS POWERFUL.”
Reporters and White House staffers in the room laughed, and White House spokesman Robert Gibbs joked about it, to more laughter. But no one offered an explanation for the pronouncement.
“Was that happening just in my head, or did you all — did you all hear that, too?” Gibbs asked.
“We didn’t hear anything,” someone answered.
“Wow. Wow. That’s — that was interesting, if inexplicable,” Gibbs said.
And then, apologizing “for not having an equally grand introduction by which to call on the first reporter,” he plunged into the usual routine of responding to, if not answering, questions on Afghanistan, healthcare reform and a news report that Democratic donors were being given special access to the White House.
I guess the White House can better spend their time solving the economic issues that had plagued the rest of the world rather than indulge in such nonsense.
Obama, honoring Cronkite, yearns for old style journalism
NEW YORK – He called him “Mr. Cronkite” and wished they had been friends.
But more than anything, President Barack Obama, speaking at Walter Cronkite’s memorial service, honored the standards the veteran CBS anchorman used as a journalist — and seemed to long for them again.
“We also remember and celebrate the journalism that Walter practiced – a standard of honesty and integrity and responsibility to which so many of you have committed your careers,” Obama told the audience, which included many of the U.S. media elite.
“It’s a standard that’s a little bit harder to find today.”
Is it? Has journalism changed for the better or the worse since Cronkite’s day?
Obama acknowledged the troubled state many news organizations face.
“Even as appetites for news and information grow, newsrooms are closing. Despite the big stories of our era, serious journalists find themselves all too often without a beat, ” he said.
hi eric h unfortunately we all suffer from the same complaint,we tend to believe what we want to believe,and the different media are catering to this reality.We can throw back different stats to prove that our side has the moral high ground till we are blue in the face.But in the end ,the out come of events will determine how history is written.If Iraq becomes a stable democracy and a strong supporter of America then Bush will get the credit.If the Obama presidency ends up like the Jimmy Carter term then the socialist experiment will hang around the democrats neck for many years.I will not try to make political capital out a possible another terrorist attack, but that will be a cliff hanger for dems as well.But if socialism comes to America and it is all that Obama believes, and he is right then he will be considered one of the greatest,But in meantime i will watch Fox and you carry on reading the New York Times.
There are a couple problems with Jon Huntsman. He has us focusing on how little time he gets on the debate stage and whether or not he lights his hair on fire. What he doesn’t have us paying attention to his how much PAC and SuperPAC money he gets, and how much money his dad and Huntsman Corp funnel into his SuperPAC. Like we’re supposed to believe that isn’t coordinated? Plus he believes our relationship with China is the future. We need a President who is Free To Lead, who doesn’t accept PAC or SuperPAC money, who will demand Fair Trade, not Free Trade, especially with countries like China, who use slave, child and sweatshop labor. We need Governor Buddy Roemer.