Even Fox News couldn’t take it

October 14, 2005

How ridiculous was the White House’s scripted teleconference yesterday? Even Fox News Channel blasted the Bush gang. Via Dan Froomkin, here’s what Shepard Smith told FNC viewers last night:

“At least one senior military official tells Fox News that he is livid over the handling of U.S. troops in Iraq before their talk by satellite live with the president. […]

“As the White House tries to prop up support for an increasingly unpopular war, today — to hear it from military brass — it used soldiers as props on stage.

“One commander tells Fox it was scripted and rehearsed — the troops were told what to say to the president and how to say it. And that, says another senior officer today, is outrageous.

Seriously, this ran on Fox News. What’s more, FNC’s Carl Cameron — who, a year ago this month, stooped making things up about John Kerry — piled on.

“First, the White House and the Pentagon claimed it was not rehearsed. But for 45 minutes before the event, the hand-picked soldiers practiced their answers with the Pentagon official from D.C. who, in her own words, ‘drilled’ them on the president’s likely questions and their, quote, ‘scripted’ responses.

“There are folks here at the White House now walking around shaking their heads about how badly it appears to have gone.”

And to think, stagecraft was the one thing the White House was good at…

Yeah, well CB, you’re right, they WERE good at it……that is before
poor Karl got deeper and deeper into his own troubles and left the
other boys and girls and W to themselves to work things out. Sad really,
“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain……”

  • You think that all the spit-shined generals who think they’re in charge of operations in Iraq would be a little miffed if the Douchebag-In-Chief went under their heads and asked for strategy assessments and field reports from a bunch of captains and sergeants without even telling them about it first, live and in public?

    I know if I was one of the big brass, I’d be spewing molten lava after this little stunt. Nice work, Georgie-boy.

  • So, we have Hume shilling for the administration’s pick for the Supreme Court while anchors at FNC are calling the press conference for what it is.

    Could FNC go the same way as the rest of the Republican Party? Divided? Where’s the top-down going to side on this? This could also get to be fun.

    I think that as they realize (along with the rest of the MSM) that they backed a losing horse, we’ll see more and more questions about this administration and our questions will begin to stick.

    Where the hell have all of you been? I can’t wait for the media outlet to say, “You know, those left bloggers, they did have some good questions.”

    Yeah, right…

  • Just goes to show you how much Fox (and other neo-cons) feel let down by the nomination of Miers. I think it also shows that for Fox, it’s not the person, its the message. They were more than willing to be complicit with Bush when he was turning their talking points into action. Now that he’s missed on a few important ones, they’re ready to throw him to the dogs.

    Ah, loyalty and fealty can only get you so far. But when someone shows weakness/dishonors the family in “la cosa nostra” you can always be sure that someone is going to get whacked.

  • I’ve always suspected that Fox’s loyalty was to the holy dollar, not the sacred elephant. FNC might not necessarily be on the same philosophical wavelength as the rest of Fox and News Corp, but you can’t look at Fox’s entertainment lineup and be a happy right-winger.

  • With Bush giving old-style, country-club conservatism a bad name by pursing his expensive personal agenda (getting Saddam) and the Religious Right realizing that they have been snookered once again, today’s conservatives can only blame each other; it’s like watching the large edifice of an old sports stadium implode–only slowly.

  • Dan Froomkin (WAPo White House Briefing) linked to video of the President’s little “Q & A” with the troops, and watching brought home (again) the full extent of his willingness to use the young men and women of our military to bolster his image and further his political agenda. I guess I must have long ago grown jaded about this Bubble Presidency and the stage “craft” to which we are subjected on a daily basis. I thought his Jackson Square address was as low as it could go, but, sadly, I was mistaken. Before watching the video of Bush’s “give and take” with the troops, I merely felt satisfaction that, at last, an example of his blatent mendacity would find its way into the MSM and before the public at large. But, when I watched the video, this sense of satisfaction dissolved into a mixture of deep disgust and sorrow.

    Bush, after thanking them for taking the time to meet with him (with a false humility that was sickening right out of the gate) proceded to “share some thoughts” with the young officers assembled as his props for a haltingly delivered and unconvincing re-hash of the “Stay the Course” mantra. As much as I cannot stand – in my role as an average citizen – to be lectured by the President, there was something especially disheartening about watching him lecture these troops with his propaganda. I actually felt the shame that this man is incapable of feeling. When he finally got around to asking the troops questions, there was not a shred of concern or attention paid to anything except shoring up the Commander-in-Chief’s political status. Basically, it was a “How’s my policy workin’? Freedom’s on march, right?!” bunk. This man does not care for these men. He took up their precious time for rehearsal and then used them like scenery in a false one-act play scripted wth talking points. I have to say I would have felt this way even if footage and audio of the “warm up” had not made it to the public domain, nobody watcing that “exchange” could have seen it for anything other than what it was – another (but more desperate than past) effort by a cowardly president to wrap himself and his failed policies in the troops he has failed so badly.

  • I don’t think the Bush people were “good at stagecraft”. I think they were just blatant and no one called them on it. Now they’re starting to get called on it. And I don’t think Rove was any help. If Bush hadn’t picked him up he would have been just another two-bit poliitical hack with no college degree and no skills. Heck, the guy ain’t even a lawyer.

    It’s time for Bush to take the position: the Nixonian fetal position

  • Calvin is having second thoughts. Instead of paying no attention to the man behind the curtain, perhaps, we should.

    That’s the person who left the switch open and beamed the truth to newsrooms across the country and exposed the Bu$hco chicanery.

    Can we get him/her into witness protection?

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