Brit journos miffed at Gibbs rant: 'apologize'

[BlueJessamine]

Source: Politico

During yesterday's White House briefing, Robert Gibbs shot down a Daily Telegraph report detailing sexual abuse and rape in Iraqi prisons — a piece which included on-the-record confirmation by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, a distinguished military vet whose investigation exposed the horrors of Abu Ghraib.

But did Gibbs attack Taguba? No. Instead, Gibbs bashed the British press as a whole.

The Telegraph's Nile Gardiner writes that Gibbs should apologize for his "sneering and condescending rant," and that Obama "should disown his views."

snip

That wasn't all. The Telegraph's U.S. editor Toby Harnden called it "an extraordinary attack." And James Delingpole, also in the Telegraph, took Gibbs apart in a cleverly titled rant of his own: "Memo to Obama attack dog Robert Gibbs: stop pooping on our lawn."


Read more: http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelcalderone/0509/Brit_journos_miffed_at_Gibbs_rant.html

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The Telegraph's Nile Gardiner

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/nile_gardiner/blog/2009/05/29/robert_gibbs_should_apologise_to_the_british_press_for_his_sneering_rant

The Telegraph's U.S. editor Toby Harnden

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_harnden/blog/2009/05/29/robert_gibbs_rattled_by_telegraph_story_lashes_out_at_british_press

The Telegraph's James Delingpole

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/james_delingpole/blog/2009/05/29/memo_to_obama_attack_dog_robert_gibbs_stop_pooping_on_our_lawn

[Tempest]

1. So not only is the Pentagon calling Taguba a liar

Now the administration is calling Taguba a liar.

Obama needs to sit down in front of a mirror and decide if he really wants to go down this road.

[BlueJessamine]

2. Dan Froomkin on Gibbs:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/white-house-watch/obamas-not-so-open-government.html?wprss=white-house-watch

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs apparently considers his role as primarily defensive and treats questions like things that need to be fended off, rather than engaged. The result has been a race to the bottom in the briefing room, where substantive queries are often a waste of time, and Gibbs instead yuks it up with the (mostly) boys in the front row. (Politico's Patrick Gavin documents the press room hilarity, as reflected by the 600 instances of laughter reflected in the transcripts of Gibbs's briefings so far -- or more than 10 per day.)

As Rainey writes in his LA Times story: "It's nothing new for an incoming administration, particularly a popular one, to be aggressive about presenting information the way it wants. But the media has an obligation not to play along."

Indeed, the media should aggressively push back. We should be demanding better answers, refusing to enable the anonymice, and constantly asking why the White House isn't living up to Obama's promise.

I realize that despite Obama's lofty words, transparency presents some powerful downsides for the White House press operation. In our modern political media culture, "controlling the message" has become the ultimate Washington goal. Indeed, the media actually reward politicians who "control the message" way more than those who are frank and forthcoming and potentially "off message."

h/t Greg Sargent:

http://theplumline.whorunsgov.com/president-obama/happy-hour-open-thread-12/

* Politico counts up the amount of times Gibbs has made reporters laugh.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/23015.html

[dionysus]

3. but bush's spokesliars were hunky dory?

[Enrique]

9. Froomkin was top notch on calling out the Bush folks n/t

[No Elephants]

13. My thought exactly. What do they expect from press briefings, anyway? Whatever happened

to real journalists? Now we have stenographers and "pundits," who simply repeat and bloviate about what we just ourselves heard people say.

[Enrique]

14. Froomkin details what he expects

he isn't reflexively attacking Obama.

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but it seems you are reflexively defending Obama if you need to ask "what they expect" when the post you are responding to details exactly Froomkin's issues.

But when it comes to transparency, the White House should be leading by example. Or, more accurately, the White House does lead by example -- and the example it's setting is way short of what Obama led us to expect. With some notable exceptions, Obama's White House hasn't been dramatically more transparent than the notoriously secretive one before it.

There is still a tremendous predisposition against disclosure there. Internal records stay internal, while the distribution of key public documents is actually less reliable than it was in the Bush years -- especially on the White House Web site.

[No Elephants]

16. You are wrong; and I do forgive you. I was responding to Reply #3,.

I never reflexively defend Obama. I have criticized him on many things. I have also praised him when I find reason so to do. So far, that has not been as often as I had imagined, which has left me very sad.

However, I think this particular thread presents two separate trains of thought, one being the hypocrisy of the RW press. I did not follow Dana Perino much, but Ari Fleischer, Scott McClellan and Tony Snow were as opaque and unresponsive as it gets. Yet, I don't recall WAPO, Politico or others doing a routine on any of them.

That is what I was thinking when I came upon Reply #3. So, I responded to Reply #3, starting a sub-thread on the topic of Reply #3.

[RufusTFirefly]

20. Earth to dionysus: This isn't about Bush's spokesliars. Attempts at misdirection won't change that

It's about whether Gibbs decided to launch an ad hominem against the British media in order to avoid calling Maj. Gen. Taguba a liar directly.

If I rob a bank and get away with it and you rob a bank and get caught, the fact that I didn't get caught is irrelevant. You still robbed a bank whether I was caught or not.

[high density]

11. Froomkin new to WH press briefings?

Race to the bottom? How did Bushco briefings not fall under the same "substantive queries are a waste" umbrella? I think more of the problem is that people are trying to lecture or query Obama and Gibbs on the result of halted Bushco doctrines. Where were these questions when a Bushco press secretary was at the podium? I think there is a push to make Obama retroactively responsible for things that happened years ago, much like they did with Clinton's penis.

[BlueJessamine]

4. Vyan has an update...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5742711

These are NOT the pictures you're looking for...

This may be why - and here I'm admittedly speculating the way the Telegraph did - both Gibb's and the Pentagon felt so free to simply attack the Telegraph's reporting and completely avoid addressing the issue of the Rape pictures themselves. (Then again, without the pictures and documents in hand speculation is inevitable...)

[leftynyc]

5. Please correct me if I'm wrong

but isn't the Telegraph a Murdoch paper? About as sympathetic to Democrats as the illustrious (blech) NY Post?

[Bluebear]

6. Gibbs insulted the whole British press though:

Gibbs also cautioned reporters against the reliability of the British press. "I want to speak generally about some of reports I've witnessed over the past few years in the British media and in some ways I'm surprised it filtered down," Gibbs said.

"Let's just say that if I wanted to look up, if I wanted to read a writeup today of how Manchester United fared last night in the Champions League Cup, I might open up a British newspaper," he continued.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/05/28/gibbs_slams_british_press_and.html?wprss=44

[leftynyc]

7. Gibbs has a point

Other than the Guardian and the London Times, British papers are all what I would consider tabloids. I'm stunned they are all able to stay in business but someone is sure buying that shit. And the Telegraph complaining is a joke.

[oldironside]

15. Not fair to the British Fourth Estate!

Now, that's hardly fair. Sure, the Sun, Mail and Express are just fascist propoganda sheets, and The Times doesn't print anything that Mr Murdoch would disagree with, but the Independent and Guardian are intelligent reads that most DUers would appreciate. I may strongly disagree with The Telegraph's politics, but it's still a quality read and The Mirror (a genuine tabloid) was giving the true story of the Iraq invasion at a time that the New York Times was still publishing Judith Miller's lies.

[high density]

8. Substitute Fox News for "British media" and people here would be cheering

Who cares if Gibbs is slamming the British media?

[FiveGoodMen]

19. I care.

[oldironside]

12. Murdoch Press

Murdoch owns the Sun, Times, and various other British newspapers, but the Telegraph is owned by the Barclay brothers, a reclusive pair who live in a castle on one of the Channel Islands.

[Enrique]

10. I predict he will apologize

his comments were so outrageous I don't think they're sustainable. Depends I guess on how our press handles it.

[No Elephants]

17. Regardless of the substance, Gibbs has already become the story too often. Obama

does not need that. In fact, the country does not need that. It's a fruitless distraction. Gibbs needs to "smoothen" up.

[chill_wind]

18. Let's see...which country's media informed the world that the Iraq invasion was based on a pack of

American LIES?


Which country's media exposed the State Dept memos attempting to pressure the UK government to keep quiet about secret renditions, triggering a huge high-level investigation in the UK?

Which country's media exposed the DOD redacting of memos and interference with UK legal group communications directed to President Obama regarding Guantanamo detainee conditions?

Which country was responsible for forcing the high profile release of Binyham Mohamed by the Obama admin, by mounting forceful and relentless media saturation regarding his wrongful detainment and daily coverage of the ongoing abuse during his captivity?

Oh what a headache the UK press is for the American Pentagon, the CIA and the Robert Gibbs's of the world.

One more question: Which country's newspaper of record did Judith Miller work for again, Mr Gibbs?

After Gen. Taguba Alleges Existence of Prisoner Rape Photos, Robert Gibbs Attacks. . . British Media
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5739476#top

[chill_wind]

21. ...