Cheney's crying game
Spoiler - it's got a big dick.
Craig Crawford’s 1600: Undigestible Sound Bites By Craig Crawford, CQ Columnist
You know things are going badly for this administration when the best excuse it can make for its PR mistakes is to blame the Associated Press. There’s a lot wrong with the media these days — and the Bush White House has every right to point it out — but the AP headline writers are not yet among the malefactors.
The White House came out slugging the past couple of weeks when critics of the Iraq War — suddenly emboldened by Pennsylvania Democrat John P. Murtha’s call for a quick withdrawal of U.S. troops — stepped up their attacks on the administration’s early war planning. The White House, backed by some overtly partisan nincompoops in the House, ripped into Murtha’s character and patriotism as if those Marine decorations on his own lapel were purchased at the local Wal-Mart.
Then, when administration “strategists” decided that its partisan attacks on war critics were backfiring, out comes Vice President Dick Cheney to suggest that the media had overblown the attacks in the first place. Cheney’s latest maneuver on this front was absurd. In the opening lines of a Nov. 21 speech defending administration Iraq policy, he complained about an AP headline from his earlier speech launching a new White House war of words against critics. “Within hours of my speech, a report went out on the wires under the headline, ‘Cheney says war critics ‘dishonest,’ ‘reprehensible.’ . . . I do have a quarrel with that headline.”
The headline accurately quoted him. And the story made it clear that he was not saying that all criticism was “dishonest” and “reprehensible,” only charges that the White House had misled the nation into war. But that did not stop White House supporters from picking up the cue to bash the media. And it didn’t stop the vice president, either. After complaining about use of the words “dishonest” and “reprehensible” in that headline, Cheney went on to again use the same words in labeling his critics.
Politicians have always sought to distract the public from their failings by claiming the media got it all wrong. Whenever this White House gets in a bind, the instinct is to blame the media. If the war news is bad, its accuses the media of ignoring the good news. Never mind that reporters in Iraq cannot safely travel around the country to cover the news, good or bad. For most Americans, news of insurgents killing U.S. troops should always trump the opening of a school or a library.
Media-bashing has worked quite well for the Bush White House. Public trust in the media has been declining for years, presenting a receptive marketplace for those who want to turn the tables on the press corps. When administration handling of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath became news, Press Secretary Scott McClellan deflected criticism by repeatedly accusing the media of playing “the blame game.”
Shooting the Messenger
Presidents since Thomas Jefferson have targeted the press. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln even ordered the military to shut down a New York newspaper and put its reporters and editors in jail. But the Bush team has gone to this well so often that it’s about to run dry. For starters, it is difficult to see how anyone with Cheney’s stature and experience can really be surprised if such incendiary words end up in a headline. He was, after all, accusing his foes of lying. Isn’t that what “dishonest” means?
Surely, the vice president and his speech writers intended those words to be widely reported when he originally used them. Cheney and the president had stepped up their rhetoric against Democrats on Veterans’ Day in a new strategy to combat war critics. White House aides eagerly promoted the move to show they were fighting back.
So they were surely pleased with the coverage — until the polling showed that the harsh rhetoric was not playing so well. But what a stretch to then turn around a week later and say the wires were wrong to quote your words in a headline.
Taking responsibility — even for one’s own words — seems to be off the table for the Bush team. We still have no explanation for why the White House originally claimed that Karl Rove and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby were “not involved” in the outing of a CIA covert agent. It often comes up in press briefings, but instead of answering the question, McClellan engages in a tug of war with reporters.
Libby’s experience with a federal grand jury shows what happens when anti-media spin is taken to its extreme. He testified that he originally heard about CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity from NBC’s Tim Russert. This was in line with a White House whispering campaign as the CIA story unfolded that reporters were the ones who compromised Plame, that administration officials only heard about it from the media.
Libby carried that tactic into the grand jury room and is paying a price for it. It makes you wish that politicians could always be under oath when they try to spin a story to blame the media.
Contributing Editor Craig Crawford is a news analyst for MSNBC, CNBC and “The Early Show” on CBS. He can be reached @anemailadress
Craig Crawford’s 1600: Undigestible Sound Bites By Craig Crawford, CQ Columnist
You know things are going badly for this administration when the best excuse it can make for its PR mistakes is to blame the Associated Press. There’s a lot wrong with the media these days — and the Bush White House has every right to point it out — but the AP headline writers are not yet among the malefactors.
The White House came out slugging the past couple of weeks when critics of the Iraq War — suddenly emboldened by Pennsylvania Democrat John P. Murtha’s call for a quick withdrawal of U.S. troops — stepped up their attacks on the administration’s early war planning. The White House, backed by some overtly partisan nincompoops in the House, ripped into Murtha’s character and patriotism as if those Marine decorations on his own lapel were purchased at the local Wal-Mart.
Then, when administration “strategists” decided that its partisan attacks on war critics were backfiring, out comes Vice President Dick Cheney to suggest that the media had overblown the attacks in the first place. Cheney’s latest maneuver on this front was absurd. In the opening lines of a Nov. 21 speech defending administration Iraq policy, he complained about an AP headline from his earlier speech launching a new White House war of words against critics. “Within hours of my speech, a report went out on the wires under the headline, ‘Cheney says war critics ‘dishonest,’ ‘reprehensible.’ . . . I do have a quarrel with that headline.”
The headline accurately quoted him. And the story made it clear that he was not saying that all criticism was “dishonest” and “reprehensible,” only charges that the White House had misled the nation into war. But that did not stop White House supporters from picking up the cue to bash the media. And it didn’t stop the vice president, either. After complaining about use of the words “dishonest” and “reprehensible” in that headline, Cheney went on to again use the same words in labeling his critics.
Politicians have always sought to distract the public from their failings by claiming the media got it all wrong. Whenever this White House gets in a bind, the instinct is to blame the media. If the war news is bad, its accuses the media of ignoring the good news. Never mind that reporters in Iraq cannot safely travel around the country to cover the news, good or bad. For most Americans, news of insurgents killing U.S. troops should always trump the opening of a school or a library.
Media-bashing has worked quite well for the Bush White House. Public trust in the media has been declining for years, presenting a receptive marketplace for those who want to turn the tables on the press corps. When administration handling of Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath became news, Press Secretary Scott McClellan deflected criticism by repeatedly accusing the media of playing “the blame game.”
Shooting the Messenger
Presidents since Thomas Jefferson have targeted the press. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln even ordered the military to shut down a New York newspaper and put its reporters and editors in jail. But the Bush team has gone to this well so often that it’s about to run dry. For starters, it is difficult to see how anyone with Cheney’s stature and experience can really be surprised if such incendiary words end up in a headline. He was, after all, accusing his foes of lying. Isn’t that what “dishonest” means?
Surely, the vice president and his speech writers intended those words to be widely reported when he originally used them. Cheney and the president had stepped up their rhetoric against Democrats on Veterans’ Day in a new strategy to combat war critics. White House aides eagerly promoted the move to show they were fighting back.
So they were surely pleased with the coverage — until the polling showed that the harsh rhetoric was not playing so well. But what a stretch to then turn around a week later and say the wires were wrong to quote your words in a headline.
Taking responsibility — even for one’s own words — seems to be off the table for the Bush team. We still have no explanation for why the White House originally claimed that Karl Rove and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby were “not involved” in the outing of a CIA covert agent. It often comes up in press briefings, but instead of answering the question, McClellan engages in a tug of war with reporters.
Libby’s experience with a federal grand jury shows what happens when anti-media spin is taken to its extreme. He testified that he originally heard about CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity from NBC’s Tim Russert. This was in line with a White House whispering campaign as the CIA story unfolded that reporters were the ones who compromised Plame, that administration officials only heard about it from the media.
Libby carried that tactic into the grand jury room and is paying a price for it. It makes you wish that politicians could always be under oath when they try to spin a story to blame the media.
Contributing Editor Craig Crawford is a news analyst for MSNBC, CNBC and “The Early Show” on CBS. He can be reached @anemailadress
posted by professor rat at 8:39 AM
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