AAR: Boston Glob Reporter Forgot American Hero, but Knew Who Cindy Sheehan Was (WHCA FReep, 4/29/06)

Honor roll for tonight's FReep include: Jimmy Valentine's Brother, Mr/Mrs Mason-Dixon, bstein80, Doctor Raoul, staytrue, kristinn, tgsltakoma, angelwood, billf, sauropod, exit148, DollyCali, Wheelbarrow, bert, albion wilde, christopher lincoln, bufordp; dinasour, hellinahandcart and gunsareok.

Compared with other years, this year's WHCA FReep was no disappointment. The theme of our counterprotest this year was "Pulitzer Prizes for Treason" given that Dana Priest and others are receiving Pulitzer Prizes for reporting illegally leaked information. There were several signs that alluded to what is going on (only in America), including this brilliant one by BufordP:

This point was further reinforced by our very own Doctor Raoul appearing in front of the Washington Hilton as Boris Badanov and asking the partygoers in tuxes, wrinkled noses and furrowed brows where his Pulitzer was, since he had been working so long to help bring down America, just like them.

Kristinn used a sign to illustrate a point about what the MSM selectively chooses to emphasize. The sign had a picture of Cindy Sheehan and SGT Paul Smith on it. The sign asked, "Why are these two people notable?"

Kristinn's point was that everybody knew who Sheehan was, but very few people knew who SGT Smith was (Only Medal of Honor winner in the current action, died in battle at Baghdad Airport). Kristinn started asking partygoers this pop quiz (with a prize of a $5 Starbucks coupon as a reward for the correct answer). One fellow from the Boston Glob said he did not know who SGT Smith was. When Kristinn told him, he remarked, "Oh yeah, I wrote a story about him."

Think about this. The reporter that wrote a story about a true hero couldn't remember who he was.

There was only one winner for the evening, FoxNews' Bret Baier, who answered correctly immediately.

We saw quite a few other luminaries strolling up to the Hilton. They included Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing, James Rosen (FNC), David Schuster (PMSNBC), Bill Plante, Michael Barone (US News and World Report), an infobabe from ABC (could not place her name), Steve Doocy in a cab, and Julian Bond (NAA of Some CP).

I was holding a sign that showed a picture of Dan Rather and Katie Couric (with middle finger extended) and it simply said, "Different hosts, same bias. See BS." Doocy gave the thumbs up from the cab when he saw the sign. I had my camcorder along for the FReep and think I have this on tape.

When I saw Schuster crossing the street, I was trying to man the camcorder and did not ask him about his excreble reporting on Chrissy Matthews show. However, I did score a personal best when BufordP spotted Julian Bond on the opposite side of Connecticut Avenue. I had enough time to get the camcorder fired up, and when Bond reached the median strip, I asked him "Hey Julian, how's the race hustling business going?" I also told him that if we were really the right-wing Taliban, that we had a burka just his size waiting for him. I think i got this on video also.

GunsareOK currently resides in very southern Virginia and came up to Dee Cee just for this event.

Staytrue did his usual stellar effort with posters for the counterprotest. Here are a couple he put together:

Our local yokels were in attendance as per usual. Here is Jimmy Valentine's Brother.

We had a couple of folks from Protest Warrior attend. One guy dressed up like David Gregory.

He had a lot of fun directly in front of the Hilton, greeting Our Rulers were arriving to attend the dinner.

Now, the piece de resistance' (as they say) was Doctor Raoul's brilliant idea of obtaining a bunch of large binkies for the White House Pimp Corps because they complained one day on Air Force One about the TV always being on Fox News. Here is the relevant exchange (posted on exposetheleft.com and originally attributed to The Hotline):

The "Q" making a big deal out of this is Washington Post’s White House Correspondent and frequent Countdown guest, Jim Vandehei:

Q It’s come to my attention that there’s been requests--this is a serious question--to turn these TVs onto a station other than Fox, and that those have been denied. My question would be, is there a White House policy that all government TVs have to be tuned to Fox?

MR. McCLELLAN: Never heard of any such thing. My TVs are on four different channels at all times.

MR. McCLELLAN: Every TV in the White House also has channels every--has a split screen, where they can--

Q Well, they always seem to be tuned to Fox, and there’s been requests, and these are paid for by taxpayer dollars. And my understanding is that you guys have to watch Fox on Air Force One. Is that true?

MR. McCLELLAN: First time I’ve ever heard of it. First time you’ve brought it to my attention, meaning the first time the press corps has brought it to my attention. In fact, I’ve watched other channels on here.

MR. McCLELLAN: Hang on, Jim, come on. I’ve watched other channels on here, so I don’t know where you’re hearing that. But it’s the first time anyone in the press has raised that question with me.

Q I’ve never seen--they’re always turned to Fox, which a lot of people consider a Republican-leaning network.

Q Scott, is it one--on the airplane, is it one for all? I mean, if it’s tuned for Fox here, is it Fox everywhere?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think that certain areas may be interconnected, but I’ll have to double-check which.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the conference room, or the senior staff office, the staff office, they’re different TVs, and you can switch to different channels. I’m not sure if some of these in the back are connected to some of the others that are watching right here, right now. It doesn’t look like it to me. I’ve never known anyone that’s raised a complaint about a request from back here to watch a different channel.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I’m going to go see if we can change the channel for you. Have you called up?

Q I was the Fox victim, and I was told--the quote was, "No," when I asked for CNN.

MR. McCLELLAN: I don’t know who you talked to, so--it didn’t come to my attention. You don’t know who you talked to either?

MR. McCLELLAN: The magic people at the other end of the phone. Well, I’ll see if this cabin is--

MR. McCLELLAN: As I said, it’s hard to respond to something when I don’t know who it is you talked to.

MR. McCLELLAN: I find this all quite amusing, to tell you the truth. I mean, there are a lot of people on this plane that do watch that channel.

MR. McCLELLAN: First time you brought it to my attention. I’ll go see what we can do on it.

MR. McCLELLAN: We just called up. They’re going to be changing it, at your all’s request, to the channel that you requested, which is CNN —from the press corps.

What a BUNCH of WHINERS! To institutionalize this, Doctor Raoul developed the Jim Vandenhei award. The WH Press Corps were quite taken with these:

This was the first year that I have attended this famous FReep, and I must say to anyone considering it next year, it was an inimitable chance to remind the media elites that real people are hearing and reading what they dish out. We had a perfect sunny day with a light breeze and clear skies, the better to see all the high and mighty from the White House Correspondents Association and their celebrity guests arriving for their annual dinner and roast of the President, a Washington tradition since 1914.

Here are some of the notable moments that struck me during our 4-hour FReep of the arriving media people:

The event was for 2,700 guests, and possibly as many as 35 to 40% passed by the southeast corner where most of us stood. It is a five-points intersection at Connecticut and P Streets NW, with vehicles converging from four directions and fancily-dressed pedestrians from all five directions to get to the hotel. Doctor Raoul, lurker Lauren and BStein80 (as David "Crybaby" Gregory) captured more of the traffic from their northeast corner.

There were long lines of cars, cabs and limos, most of them black, carrying the formally-dressed press revelers. Many of the cars and limos had the names of news organizations affixed to the dash or front window, such as "Newsweek Car 3", Newsweek Car 5", "Reuters", "Daily News", et cetera. This made it easier for us to FReep certain news outlets, such as shouting "Bring back John Leo!" at all the U.S.News&WorldReport cars. Personally, I enjoyed giving the thumbs-down to the many Newsweek cars, which had black windows completely obscuring who was inside, as did most of the stretch limos. Many of the other vehicles had lightly tinted or regular windows, and we spotted Wolf Blitzer and various other talking heads as they passed.

Some of the exceptional FReep signs included one collage of all the damaging stories Newsweek has run during the War on Terror (whoever did that one should take credit on this thread - it was terrific), including the inflammatory Koran-flushing misinformation that resulted in multiple deaths in the Middle East. Another sign by FReeper Exit148 said "BLOGS (Up arrow) MSM (down arrow)." StayTrue had made half a dozen wonderful signs, including a huge enlargement of the incredibly decadent photo of the sunglassed Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson riding in a convertible originally published by Vanity Fair, with the caption "ABC NEWS PIMPED MY RIDE." My sign said, "MSM: Don't let FACTS interfere with your LEFTIST BIAS." Someone else had one that said, "LOSING SHARE? TRY THE TRUTH."

I was very impressed with the patient way that DC Chapter co-leader Angelwood explained what we were doing to surprised passersby who were not attending the event. She pointed out that readers want the facts and all sides of a story on the news pages, and opinion confined to the op-ed pages, so we can make up our own minds about issues. A journalism student who stopped to talk to Angelwood was incredulous at the idea that the media bias problem has arisen, in part, because the top journalism jobs such as those held by the White House Correspondents are all graduates of the top journalism schools, which reflect the leftist bias of their university settings.

Some passersby were interested and supportive; others were skeptical, sourpussed or openly scoffing at our signs. To a few of them we shouted, "Get this man (woman) a pacifier!" or "Waaa-waaa-waaa! Boo-hoo!" I lost it at one carful of imperious sneerers and yelled, "Wipe those condescending smiles off your face, media elitists!" and "We don't care how you FEEL; we don't care how WE feel; we just want the FACTS!" Another time when the corner became congested with evening-clothes-wearing invitees trying to get through our khakis-and-polo-shirts FReep line, I yelled, "Step aside, scum, and let the elites pass!" These remarks earned me a rebuke from Sauropod, who correctly noted that it's better to keep it funny at a FReep. But then he landed his "race hustling" bomb on Julian Bond, so I guess we were even.

A very enjoyable part of this FReep for me was when non-English-speaking European tourists passed by, wanting to know what was going on. I admit it, I took several foreign languages in school and college to get out of math and science, so I had the pleasure of speaking with Italian and French tourists, who seemed surprisingly interested in the idea of the people standing up to the leftist press.

One of the funniest things to me was Doctor Raoul, dressed as Boris Badinov, waving with his large, white-gloved hand at the long line of limos and cars full of tuxedoed and gowned press mavens, snaking slowly into a huge traffic jam at the hotel entrance. They were a captive audience as he shouted, "WELCOME, COMRADES! WELCOME, COMRADES!" If looks could kill, we'd be attending his wake this week.

When the surrounding police got word that the Presidential vehicles would be arriving, they moved us farther away and cordoned off the block with yellow tape. We could only glimpse the motorcade and armored Cadillac limos with the official seal on the side, as well as Secret Service intelligence-gathering equipment, vans of agents, and even an ambulance arriving, but the President was whisked into the building out of our sight.

No matter; we went into the same hotel and sat in the bar, ordered dinner, and watched the event taking place a few yards away in the ballroom on the bar's big-screen TV monitors, cheering for the President, booing his snide, crass, tasteless detractors, and passing pacifiers around the tables to the amusement of the wait staff.

After the broadcast of the event, we flowed out into the lobby with the bejeweled guests, also leaving en masse. Exit148 and I were walking together, but were rudely separated by Mayor Ray Nagin, who might better have been home reviewing levee repair plans instead of hobnobbing with the elites in DC.

I was thrilled to run smack into Fred Dalton Thompson, the former U.S. Senator who now plays the District Attorney on the television show Law and Order.

Mr. Thompson also works as a media advisor, and he helped Judge Sam Alito prepare for his Senate confirmation hearings. I'm sure he gets told he is loved by television viewers all the time, and I'm afraid I gushed and told him again.

I also got a glimpse of the beautifully gowned and coiffed actress Doris Roberts, who played Marie Barone on the family TV series Everybody Loves Raymond.

She was gorgeous in person, like a peach ice cream sundae with sparkles and whipped cream on top, getting into her limosine.

There was a time in my career, before I had a family, when I actually got invited to galas such as this. It's so much better being a born-again conservative gadfly, out on the sidewalk to remind our media overlords who pays their way.

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