Is Rove scheming to create new WH press room to "neuter" reporters more?

[DeepModem Mom]

Editor&Publisher: How to Inspire (Even More) Fear and Loathing in the Press Room
One can't help but suspect that Karl Rove is already scheming with GOP architects -- and interior designers -- to create a revamped White House Press Room that will further weaken the press corps it so successfully neutered much of the time in the previous one.
By David S. Hirschman

(August 04, 2006) -- It's hard not to be somewhat skeptical of the Bush Administration's move to revamp the White House Press Room. Yes, the old one was clearly decrepit and out-of-date, but one can't help but suspect that Karl Rove is already in a super-secret bunker in Bethesda scheming with GOP architects -- and interior designers -- about ways to use the new room's design to further neuter the Washington reporters the administration has so successfully managed, spun, and blamed for the past five-and-a-half years.
Perhaps because there is no shortage of bad news to spin, PR spending has more than doubled under Bush; one can bet that, in designing a new dungeon for the despised press, Rove and Co. will be similarly liberal in lavishing taxpayer dollars to make the room as administration-friendly in its design as possible.

Already there have been reports that the new press room will be equipped with a video monitor, with which White House Press Secretary Tony Snow will be able to screen footage while he fields questions. One can picture him answering a question about the possiblity of civil war in Iraq by simply pointing to a video clip behind him of smiling Iraqi children throwing flowers at the feet of American troops. Rather than distributing administration-produced video news releases and simply hoping that local television stations will run them without sourcing, now any time a clip of Snow is run on the nightly news it can have an artful "Mission Accomplished" banner waving on the screen in the background, or a photo of the President pinning a purple heart on the chest of a smiling Marine....

***

In terms of overall discomfort, the last press room was not bad on certain counts. Rove may decide to preserve the room's poor air circulation and could perhaps even arrange for the reporters' gallery to have less oxygen than Snow does at the podium, creating a feeling of weakness and languor in the press that could further inhibit tough questioning....

***

Snow is already quite good at ignoring reporters' questions (or at least talking around them), but it might also be valuable to have partitions around individual reporters so that they couldn't see their colleagues. This would allow the White House's PR gurus to pump in softball questions from stereo speakers around the room without having to plant shills like Jeff Gannon in the gallery to actually ask them. They could simply have Rove in the wings asking the questions himself....

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/newspaper_2point0_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002950216

[Solo_in_MD]

1. The author must go through a lot of tinfoil

The current room is in desperate need of an overhaul (which he was gracious enough to admit), but the riff about Rove in a bunker scheming about the layout of the press room is insane. A video screen is somehow insideous, and the chair might be uncomfortable or not aligned with feng shui so the reporter might feel discomforted or threatend? Finally the continuous "Rove...".

I hope it was in jest and I missed the sarcasm...AM coffee has not kicked in yet.

[DeepModem Mom]

6. I think its' "tongue in cheek" -- mostly. nt

[tanyev]

7. A new press room is sorely needed, but I will admit the first time I

read about the video screens I instantly figured they would use them to create the inspirational backdrop du jour.

[DeepModem Mom]

11. Constantly vigilant for new ways to "catapult the propaganda" --

they never miss a trick do they?

[w4rma]

19. The author was obviously exaggerating to make less obvious possibilities

more noticeable. People like Rove think this way: Optimizing everything for their advantage over others.

[Frustratedlady]

2. It's bugged, that's one guarantee. n/t

[Solo_in_MD]

9. It a press breifing rooms o of course it has microphones!

Its designed for the briefings to be recorded while being given.

[Frustratedlady]

18. Oh, I thought they were redoing the entire press area

including their "booths" or roomettes? I guess I'm on the wrong channel, here.

[orleans]

20. that was my thought exactly

of course they'll wiretap the room--they're doing it everywhere else. and this way they'll turn up the volume on reporter's whispered & taped conversations and discover who their real enemies are...and not renew the press pass

changing democracy one reporter at a time

[msongs]

3. WH press corps has neutered itself voluntarily - room is irrelevant

it allows itself to be called condescending derogatory pet names, names used to make the media look like silly children and the name giver look like a kindly father(pet names given out by bush)

it refuses to ask tough questions that simple americans would ask (simple americans -that's me and you)

it allows the president to avoid answering the question that was actually asked.

it refuses to bring the conversation back to the original issue (see above)

it would rather be insider toadies than stand alone independent operatives. as in, getting access for no good reason is better than being outsiders who are doing the job the press is supposed to do -be independents in search of truth for the good of the nation.

who cares what kind of room the press is in if it is NOT doing its job. brown nosers and toadies don't need any special surroundings.

Msongs
www.msongs.com/2007politicalcalendars.htm

[gulliver]

4. Is the Pope German?

They already moved talent (technically speaking, Snow is "talent") straight from Fox News. What is so surprising about them giving him the slanted multi-media backup he is used to? It won't be a press room any more so much as a broadcast center.

[DemonFighterLives]

5. The Ministry of Truth

Comfy chairs to fall asleep in. :boring:
Subliminal messages piped in and Big Brother on the screens at all times
Less Nessman or whatever his name is will always be allowed to ask his long, off the wall questions.
:hurts:

[TahitiNut]

8. Maybe they'll call it "The Situation Room"??

:dunce:

[DeepModem Mom]

10. Good point! nt

[idgiehkt]

12. or

the masturbation room?

[TahitiNut]

14. No, that one's oval in shape.

[MrCoffee]

13. Someone's been watching too much West Wing

This was a storyline

[johnaries]

15. I think he got the idea from Clobert's "audition" video.

Of course, he's also decided to add trap doors to drop "certain" reporters into the old WH swimming pool below. It's been refilled and stocked with sharks with freakin' lasers on their heads.

[Nikki Stone 1]

16. I don't think this is tin foil at all. It makes good PR sense

PR is all about controlling the message, shaping it and shaping its consumption by outsiders. I have a good friend who does exactly this kind of thing and EVERYTHING counts, from the chairs in the room to the color of the presentation slides.

My guess is that everything will be done in this new press room to insure that the press is physically comfortable though continuously reminded architechturally of their low station. (Sort of like large gothic churches reminding everyone how little they were compared to God and the church.) There will be video capability to both distract the press and to watch it, because essential to PR is seeing how the message is being taken in. The message can be tweaked in real time if the system is sophisticated enough.

PR is all about manufactured consent. And the WH will be doing everything to prevent critical thought.

[OzarkDem]

17. My impression

The WH is planning to move more campaign operations into the WH and doesn't want the news media to see.

[cynatnite]

21. Now, if Rove arranged for recliners, a bar and lap dancers...

then I would be suspicious...but seriously, I do think a new press room is in order.

If Rove thinks Helen Thomas will be in a better mood with a new one, he is sorely mistaken :evilgrin: