Posted on 08/09/2009 10:06:41 AM PDT by carenot
Following a testy exchange during Wednesday’s briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas told CNSNews.com that not even Richard Nixon tried to control the press the way President Obama is trying to control the press.
“Nixon didn’t try to do that,” Thomas said. “They couldn’t control (the media). They didn’t try.
“What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said. “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.”
Thomas said she was especially concerned about the arrangement between the Obama Administration and a writer from the liberal Huffington Post Web site. The writer was invited by the White House to President Obama’s press conference last week on the understanding that he would ask Obama a question about Iran from among questions that had been sent to him by people in Iran.
“When you call the reporter the night before you know damn well what they are going to ask to control you,” Thomas said.
“I’m not saying there has never been managed news before, but this is carried to fare-thee-well--for the town halls, for the press conferences,” she said. “It’s blatant. They don’t give a damn if you know it or not. They ought to be hanging their heads in shame.”
During today’s briefing, Thomas interrupted a back-and-forth between Gibbs and Chip Reid, the White House correspondent for CBS News, when Reid was questioning Gibbs about who was going to decide what questions would be asked of President Obama in a townhall meeting that was scheduled to take place in Annandale, Va., today.
Gibbs then had an exchange involving Reid and Thomas that went as follows:
Gibbs: “… But, again, let's--How about we do this? I promise we will interrupt the AP's tradition of asking the first question. I will let you [Chip Reid] ask me a question tomorrow as to whether you thought the questions at the town hall meeting that the President conducted in Annandale—“
Chip Reid: “I'm perfectly happy to—”
Helen Thomas: “That's not his point. The point is the control--”
Reid: “Exactly.”
Thomas: “We have never had that in the White House. And we have had some, but not-- This White House.”
Gibbs: “Yes, I was going to say, I'll let you amend her question.”
Thomas: “I'm amazed. I'm amazed at you people who call for openness and transparency and—”
Gibbs: “Helen, you haven't even heard the questions.”
Reid: “It doesn't matter. It's the process.”
Thomas: “You have left open—”
Reid: “Even if there's a tough question, it's a question coming from somebody who was invited or was screened, or the question was screened.”
Thomas: “It's shocking. It's really shocking.”
Gibbs: “Chip, let's have this discussion at the conclusion of the town hall meeting. How about that?”
Reid: “Okay.”
Gibbs: “I think—“
Thomas: “No, no, no, we're having it now--”
Gibbs: “Well, I'd be happy to have it now.”
Thomas: “It's a pattern.”
Gibbs: “Which question did you object to at the town hall meeting, Helen?”
Thomas: “It's a pattern. It isn't the question—”
Gibbs: “What's a pattern?”
Thomas: “It's a pattern of controlling the press.”
Gibbs: “How so? Is there any evidence currently going on that I'm controlling the press--poorly, I might add.”
Thomas: “Your formal engagements are pre-packaged.”
Gibbs: “How so?”
Reid: “Well, and controlling the public—”
Thomas: “How so? By calling reporters the night before to tell them they're going to be called on. That is shocking.”
Gibbs: “We had this discussion ad nauseam and—”
Thomas: “Of course you would, because you don't have any answers.”
Gibbs: “Well, because I didn't know you were going to ask a question, Helen. Go ahead.”
Thomas: “Well, you should have.”
Reporter: Thank you for your support.
Gibbs: “That's good. Have you e-mailed your question today?”
Thomas: “I don't have to e-mail it. I can tell you right now what I want to ask.”
Gibbs: “I don't doubt that at all, Helen. I don't doubt that at all.”
Thomas, 89, has covered the White House during every presidency since John F. Kennedy’s.
LOL. Good one!
LOL. Good one!
Yes, that is the kind of questions I like. You notice Ms. Perrino never answered her? Maybe she was afraid to answer? I would be afraid. He was "The Decider", after all.
Will Obama leave like Nixon?
“What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said.
Well, yes they do, in fact. But that might be because till now every one of them has let the White House pull their strings.
Yes, as to the quality. No, to the quantity.
:)
Dang, yer right!
Thanks for the reminder.
You know this was interesting the first time it was posted back about 36 days ago but it has worn off. She hasn’t confronted him again and she lets him get away with this health care crap and beating of American Citizens. Until she stands up and asked some really hard questions she is just the same old battle axe to me.
Gibbs: “Helen, you haven't even heard the questions.”
< snip >
Thomas: “Your formal engagements are pre-packaged.”
Gibbs: “How so?”
< snip >
Thomas: “How so? By calling reporters the night before to tell them they're going to be called on. That is shocking.”
Gibbs: “We had this discussion ad nauseam and—”
Thomas: “Of course you would, because you don't have any answers.”
< snip >
"They ought to be hanging their heads in shame.”
Give 'em hell, Helen!
I have searched but I couldn’t find it posted here. I would like to read it.
I think they've kissed and made up already.
Obama said he would no longer call on Huffington Post reporters before her.
Thank you for the post!
However, HELEN THOMAS ONLY ULTIMATELY CARES ABOUT HELEN THOMAS.
THAT’S really all to be learned here....and at age 89, what does she really have to lose by taking on Gibbles-N-Bitz?
Did she just now find out that they plant all the questions they answer?
It doesn’t matter if it was posted before or not, that wasn’t my point(it was posted BTW), my point was, she hasn’t said anything since then to keep her attitude going. She still takes his crap and lets him abuse taxpayers and citizens, calling for thugs to beat us at rallies etc. She says nothing about that or about the health care that will cause the premature death of many, many seniors.
Good stuff all! At least we can laugh and these idiots.
Oh, in case you didn’t know, the FG spinoff, “The Cleveland Show” will have a character voiced by Arianna Huffington. I’m drawing the line at that one and won’t be watching.
Thank you for reading and responding. I had forgotten how much fun it is, to post an article and have a discussion about it.
Think of how she had to have fought to get ANY kind of important assignment. I have seen pictures of her when she was young and she was too homely to have slept her way to the top. :) She must have worked hard to have achieved what she has. And she must love it. Most people would have retired long ago.
How did she help?She's part of the problem which elected these goons in the first place.
That is what reporters are supposed to do.
All very well to say. But the Homogeneous - they like to call themselves "associated" - press is a propaganda monopoly, and has been since the Civil War era. Its central feature is the taboo it enforces against any challenge to the claim that it consists entirely of nothing but objective journalists. Which is why Dan Rather was so sure that he could stonewall when his "Texas Air National Guard Memo" hoax was exposed within minutes of its broadcast, and thoroughly disproved within days. Rather was wrong in his belief that in 2004 he could perpetrate that hoax as an "October Surprise" on GW Bush, but you have to admit that he was correct in his assumption that it was impossible to create significant journalistic criticism of Dan Rather or of CBS News for broadcasting that hoax and stonewalling the subsequent Internet criticism.The opposite was the case, tho, when the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth told the truth about John Kerry. Any newsman who had backed the SBVT for telling the inconveniet truth about John Kerry would have instantly been drummed out of the profession. As it is, the term "swift boating" is a way for Democrats and reporters, to slur on both the SBVT and whoever else tells the truth about a Democrat.
So while reporters may ask legitimately challenging questions of Republicans, they reserve the softball questions for the Democrats, and outright hoaxes (see "Palin, Sarah") targeted at Republicans. Had reporters done the slightest bit of investigative journalism and analysis from anything other than a left-wing perspective, the electorate would have known before November that Obama's best friends were racists and/or terrorists.
...But after putting things in perspective (and reading RetroSexual's full post-#12) I now understand that while on one level Thomas is right in her offense at journalists being controlled by politicians, but as Retro correctly pointed out, it was she and others like her who let the animals out of the barn and now it's far too late to close the door.
They have nothing to worry about. She is old enough now to be expendable.
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