Posted on 03/20/2012 7:37:25 AM PDT by Zakeet
After it was reported Monday that Malia Obama was going to Mexico for spring break with 25 Secret Service agents, people began to notice that such reports were being scrubbed from the Internet.
Politico's Dylan Byers reported Tuesday this was done at the request of the White House:
The AFP page for the story now links to a story titled "Senegal music star Youssou Ndour hits campaign trail," as does the Yahoo page. The Huffington Post page now links directly back to the Huffington Post homepage. The Daily Mail, Telegraph, and Australian stories now lead to 404 error pages, reading "page not found."
In an update, Byers explained who was responsible for the scrubbing:
Kristina Schake, Communications Director to the First Lady, emails to confirm this was a White House effort:
From the beginning of the administration, the White House has asked news outlets not to report on or photograph the Obama children when they are not with their parents and there is no vital news interest. We have reminded outlets of this request in order to protect the privacy and security of these girls.
Must be nice to command such an obedient media.
Exactly!! When I'm forced to pay the bills for a 13 yr old to go on a Mexican Vacation, for her and 20+ of her friends, plus 25 Security (something I can't afford to take my wife on, let alone any 'guests'); being told to STFU about it, does nothing but further infuriate me.
If the Obamas were to pay for this trip (minus security, I'll grant ANY sitting president security for himself, and his immedate family) - then I'd agree. Where she goes, what she does isn't any of my business. The Obamas can easily afford to do this - however, I cannot afford to do this. So, when this exhorbinate 'perk' is foistered upon the 51% of the population, who pays taxes; we have a RIGHT to know how our tax dollars are being spent. In this case, it's being spent entertaining a spoiled brat and 20 of her equally spoiled friends - on my dime.
The hell with that,that is news if the vacation is being paid for by the Tax payer.
Every jaunt the obama’s go on are probably on our dime.I sure want an accounting to prove otherwise.
Agreed. In this case however, the information published was in the public domain (and likely VERY well known in Mexico!) AND was in no way derogatory. This, there is no legitimate "Security" interest and her privacy has not been invaded.
The Great Scrub serves only one purpose - to expunge an embarrassing situation where the WH must explain why it is AGAIN necessary to have the taxpayer pay for such extravagances.
Exactly, so why on earth would you pick the place for a vacation??
The truth should be broadcast here if the lame-stream refuses to drive the points in this thread home (imho).
What is not off-limits is who is paying the bill?
Obama has Air Force One, Wide Load has Air Force First lady and now malia has Air Force Malia?
That is not off-limits.
Who is paying the bill
25 Secret Service Agents is a great expense.plus the cost of an Air Force plane.
Armored cars there? Who knows?
If Obama is catering this affair -—fine. If we are paying the bill that is not off limits.
First: I detest just about everything from Barry and his American hating wife and his administration.
Second: I do not trust the media, even FOX (that is a shame) to be our watchdog. They are big government lapdogs.
With that out of the way, I see no reason to place his children at additional risk via media coverage especially when their parents have so little regard for them to allow them to go to this drug war crazed hell hole.
What should happen, if my “Second” comment were not true, is the media could report fully what if any cost the US Taxpayers incurred for the royal family’s ill advised trip after they are safely home.
+1
Amen Brother.
This is BS.
This trip will cost the American taxpayers over a million dollars.
I R a Sister!
+1
Is it off limts to ask how much WE paid for a kid’s Spring break vacation with a dozen or so friends and a crew of USSS chaperones, or is the information about the cost of such a trip equally off-limts?
Well at least she will not be able to eat any fatty foods since her mommy said they were bad for children.
Oh wait, I forgot we were talking about one of mac dadddies chldren, that does apply to them.
That part of the story is entirely in-play on FR and, given the Obama's two-faced demand for privacy for their kids while using them as campaign props, is probably why they wanted to have the larger story yanked in the first place, given all the bad press their high-cost-to-taxpayer vacations have earned them. It's a shame for Malia that her parent's lack of restraint and consideration for taxpayers has made this kind of scrutiny of a school trip come to pass, but it is what it is.
The FR mods are only pulling posts that make it personal about the kids, and pulling threads where such posts are just getting too pervasive. There is no Eric Holder batphone to the mod lounge tell us what to do, we had this standard back in the Clinton Admin years with posts about Chelsea.
LOL
Sooo, Obozo can pull his daughters out of the hat anytime he wants for political purposes, a la the Fluke phonecall, but can invoke “daughter’s privacy” when the repotage on the daughters doesn’t help him. Wonderful!
“(minus security, I’ll grant ANY sitting president security for himself, and his immedate family)”
I disagree - especially when it comes to deliberately going to dangerous places and paying for the security to be stupid. The Presidency should come with sacrifices the family agrees to; it should not be the gorging smorgasbord of worldwide luxury travel the Obamas have made it.
Heck, we'll provide the paintballs. Meghan McCain is an adult, albeit not acting like one.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.