Posted on 02/28/2013 12:36:28 PM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Woodward, Lanny Davis, and now Ron Fournier. How come it’s the older, more established D.C. hands who are piping up about being strongarmed by the White House and not the younger, less established ones? Is it because the young’uns have developed a thicker skin from being challenged more often? Because they’re small enough potatoes that Team Hopenchange doesn’t bother wasting much time yelling at them? Because Woodward and Fournier are better positioned career-wise to challenge the White House? Or because younger liberal journos are “team players” for The One in a way that older reporters simply aren’t?
Anyway. Another ray of sunshine:
I decided to share this encounter because it might shed light on the increasingly toxic relationship between media and government, which is why the Woodward flap matters outside the Beltway…
The official angered by my Woodward tweet sent me an indignant e-mail. “What’s next, a Nazi analogy?” the official wrote, chastising me for spreading “bull**** like that” I was not offended by the note, mild in comparison to past exchanges with this official. But it was the last straw in a relationship that had deteriorated.
As editor-in-chief of National Journal, I received several e-mails and telephone calls from this White House official filled with vulgarity, abusive language, and virtually the same phrase that Woodward called a veiled threat. “You will regret staking out that claim,” The Washington Post reporter was told…
Once I moved back to daily reporting this year, the badgering intensified. I wrote Saturday night, asking the official to stop e-mailing me. The official wrote, challenging Woodward and my tweet. “Get off your high horse and assess the facts, Ron,” the official wrote.
He ends, as did Woodward and as any indictment of White House boorishness evidently must as a matter of professional obligation, by noting that St. Barack would surely frown upon such treatment — even though Obama chooses to surround himself with people like Rahm Emanuel and Fournier’s source and he not-so-secretly disdains the media despite their adulation of him. Let’s pick a narrative, guys. Either (a) this sort of antagonism is wholly unremarkable for modern presidential administrations when dealing with the press behind the scenes, in which case there’s no reason to assume Obama doesn’t know or approve of it, or (b) it is remarkable in its nastiness, in which case either Obama’s a much nastier customer than thought or he’s lost control of his inner circle vis-a-vis media relations. Reason’s Mike Riggs spent some time today compiling stories from the past few years about Obama lackeys freaking out or even cutting off access over coverage that threw a little sand in the gears of their image-management machine. Is that normal for the White House in eras past, or is it so crucially important to the Celebrity Presidency that his aides are forced to get a bit rougher with reporters than usual? Only the media knows, but between the risks of losing access, harming their careers, and hurting “the cause,” they have little incentive to come clean. You need someone like Woodward or Fournier who’s well established and particularly pissed off to gain any insight. Otherwise, you’ll have to settle for hints:
Woodward himself is now toning things down a bit, per Erik Wemple at WaPo:
Pressed moments ago on whether he’d ever used the term “threat” or “threatened” by the e-mail, Woodward responded, “No, I have not….I am uncomfortable because it is not the way to operate,” he said. When asked whether he felt there’d be payback on this front, Woodward declined to get into that matter.
But there already has been payback, not from the White House but more broadly from what Matt Welch labels Planet Liberalism. NBC’s now calling Woodward a “temporary spokesman” for one of the two major parties with not a hint of irony. Like Noah Rothman says, whether it’s Team O or just their fans in the media doing the dirty work, Woodward will end up regretting this.
Update: Via Josh Kraushaar, no threats, just a little reputational tear-down:
“Inside the West Wing, Woodward is viewed, one top Democrat said, as a “self-righteous kook,” while an administration official said he “has been going nuts for no good reason.”
Potlach has blessed us with a nice Graphic....outh to be spread around.
I agree, for what its worth. Every liberal eventually has their moment of realization, some admit it, most don’t. I don’t see how a conservative can be critical of him, he is going public with what we have always known about Obama. He has the credibility as well as an audience.
Large as it is I forgot to put in that Woodward mentioned Obama’s “madness”. That would have stung Obozo good, lol. It does need to be spread that sequester WAS Obama’s idea - and then he lied about it. Drudge has more links up - the dems are irate, hehehe...
Thanks for your kind words.
-We apologize for any perceived threats.
-We will fully investigate the matter.
-We will remove any personal who made any conceivable threatening remarks.
When such a scandal happens to an illegally operating and dysfunctional government organization, the response is typically the following.
-Deny the threat happened even though there are email records.
-Attack the accuser.
-Offer no apologies.
-Claim that the opposition party also did the same.
-etc. etc.
You've been here a long time.......
No reason to go kooky on us, is there?
Kagan is just the type to be able to slip a suicide belt into the court without suspicion ~ you can just imagine how ungainly Ruthy or that crazy latina would look ~ entirely too thin ~ no girth.
No time to slip back into pre-911 ways of thinking.
Might be more material coming..~!!!
They warned Woodward he would regret it.
Here comes the character assassination assault.
Rules for Radicals - Saul AlinskyRULE 13: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
Crazy nut job talk!!
Okay...You've officially gone off the rails into KOOK land!
Look FReeper's muawiyah has gone crazy!!
Just the thing the left that monitor FR are looking for.....
Congrats.....
Thanks Ern, I saw that on Special Report too! Hope we hear more!
He ends, as did Woodward and as any indictment of White House boorishness evidently must as a matter of professional obligation, by noting that St. Barack would surely frown upon such treatmentYeah, that's because they're Partisan Media Shills; they're coming out about this treatment (and what do they expect, they claim they are journalists and are supposed to have an adversarial relationship with politicians and bureaucrats) but the idea that Zero isn't behind every bit of it is no more credible than the idea that he had no involvement in the smearing of Jack Ryan.
Besides, it's all in good fun ~ imagining Kagan as a potential terrorist mad bomber is certainly far more rational than blaming George Bush for everything.
Besides, Kagan is her own worst enemy ~ she can shed those extra 250 pounds if she really wants.
Great.
But my B.S. meter is still pegging......
You swerved into kookland...and maybe have attempted to swerve back here....to "save" yourself.
Fair enough...but I've seen this type crap before.
I ran a thing about Ruthy Ginsberg being a high risk to her (Now dead) hubby for 15 years ~ concerned the prospect of her poisoning his coffee.
That started out based on a story of how cozy this little thorn bush was at home ~ actually made her husband morning coffee every day before she went out to destroy America and enslave the people.
All in good fun with leftwingtards (that word's misspelled lest you missed that part).
If you can't have fun poking stinging barbs into your opponents' hearts and butts, well, that's just a life not worth living is it.
I notice all the leftist media trying to defend the admin tend to leave out what the subject matter was that put the burr under the admin’s saddle.
The burr was referring to the “madness” of Obama misusing the sequester as an excuse for not deploying an aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf.
I don’t know what to say.
She certainly will if she presses the button on that instant fat remover strapped around her chest.
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