True Lack of Transparency?
I found it interesting how Robert Gibbs was recently grilled over the Obama administration's supposed "lack of transparency" in regard to the health care town hall conducted in Annandale, VA. Did we hear this same outrage when President Bush went to Iraq to stage a town hall and handpicked the soldiers and told them what to ask? Was Scott McClellan grilled about that?
How about the whole Jeff Gannon debacle? Here's a guy who was given daily access to the White House press room and served up softball questions meant to make President Bush look good. And Gannon wasn't even a real member of the press. Now THAT's what I call a true lack of transparency.
But, what really gets me about this situation is the complaint about the lack of transparency on President Obama's part. True lack of transparency would have meant that Obama's team would have chosen the methods for fielding questions for the town hall, but wouldn't have been honest about how it was done.
The fact that Chip Reid was able to question Gibbs about the way the town hall was being conducted proves that it was transparent. They knew beforehand how it was going to work. Everything about the process was out in the open for all to see. While you may not like the way the town hall was conducted, you can't say there was a lack of transparency to it.
The same goes with the recent question asked of President Obama by Nico Pitney of the Huffington Post. In this case, President Obama's team was aware of Pitney's reporting on Iran and wanted to get a question directly from someone in Iran. Pitney provided them with that question. The White House didn't know what the question was going to be, just that Pitney would be getting the question for them. That's nowhere near the same as what happened in Gannon's case, although I've heard some on the Right try to make that comparison.
Sorry, Nico Pitney wasn't a "plant" (like Gannon), he was merely passing along a question from Iran. A question that was unknown to anyone in the White House before it was asked.
Seems the press and all the right wing commentators are reaching to find things to complain about with the Obama administration. That's cool, let them continue reaching to make their points. It only exposes their hypocrisy given everything they let go for the last eight years.
How about the whole Jeff Gannon debacle? Here's a guy who was given daily access to the White House press room and served up softball questions meant to make President Bush look good. And Gannon wasn't even a real member of the press. Now THAT's what I call a true lack of transparency.
But, what really gets me about this situation is the complaint about the lack of transparency on President Obama's part. True lack of transparency would have meant that Obama's team would have chosen the methods for fielding questions for the town hall, but wouldn't have been honest about how it was done.
The fact that Chip Reid was able to question Gibbs about the way the town hall was being conducted proves that it was transparent. They knew beforehand how it was going to work. Everything about the process was out in the open for all to see. While you may not like the way the town hall was conducted, you can't say there was a lack of transparency to it.
The same goes with the recent question asked of President Obama by Nico Pitney of the Huffington Post. In this case, President Obama's team was aware of Pitney's reporting on Iran and wanted to get a question directly from someone in Iran. Pitney provided them with that question. The White House didn't know what the question was going to be, just that Pitney would be getting the question for them. That's nowhere near the same as what happened in Gannon's case, although I've heard some on the Right try to make that comparison.
Sorry, Nico Pitney wasn't a "plant" (like Gannon), he was merely passing along a question from Iran. A question that was unknown to anyone in the White House before it was asked.
Seems the press and all the right wing commentators are reaching to find things to complain about with the Obama administration. That's cool, let them continue reaching to make their points. It only exposes their hypocrisy given everything they let go for the last eight years.
If Obama said they were going to start molesting kids in the White House on Tuesdays between 9-10 am, you'd find a way to justify it. I'd like for your next post to be on the C-span issue. He's on tape 8 times telling people he won't have health care deliberations in back rooms. They'll be on C-span & everyone will be invited to the table. Now C-span is wanting to televise it & the liberals are hiding like the cock roaches they are. (you'd probably blame the kids for not being in school during that 9-10am time frame)
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