Just like “1984”: White House Sets Ground Rules for Local Interviews

Imagine that.

The Obama Administration attempting to control the DEM/MSM.

From Keith Koffler, a veteran White House reporter:

The White House is doing something with its local TV interviews that it could not easily get away with in encounters with the White House press corps, which President Obama has been studiously ignoring: choosing the topic about which President Obama and the reporter will talk.

In interviews with three local TV stations Monday, two from states critical to Obama’s reelection effort, Obama held forth on the possibility of “sequestration” if he and Congress fail to reach a budget deal, allowing him to make his favorite political point that Republicans are willing to cause grievous harm to the economy and jobs in order to protect the rich from tax increases.

Obama Monday threw the White House press corps a bone by suddenly appearing in the briefing room for 22 minutes and taking questions from a total of four reporters. It was his first press conference at the White House – albeit in miniature – since March, and only his second of the year. Obama before Monday had taken exactly one substantive question from White House reporters since June.

Can you imagine the results had Bush 43 done the following:

– Set ground rules for interviews;
– Avoided the White House press corps for five months?

Yes: 24/7 excoriation would have been the result.

For Obama?  No.  Because the DEM/MSM are “in the tank” for Mr Obama due to his duality: he is Demorat and he is black.  He is, in a media sense, (and continues to be) untouchable.

That said, have you heard or read a portion of how your 2009 “Stimulus” funds were actually spent?  Likely not.  Read it here first:

Now: from the WashingtonTimes.com:

Labor Department spends stimulus funds for ads during Olbermann, Maddow shows

The Labor Department paid out hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal stimulus funds to a public relations firm to run more than 100 commercials touting the Obama administration’s “green training” job efforts on two popular MSNBC cable shows, records show.

The commercials ran on MSNBC on shows hosted by Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann in 2009, but the contract didn’t report any jobs created, according to records recently reviewed by The Washington Times.

Spending reports under the federal Recovery Act show $495,000 paid to McNeely Pigott & Fox Public Relations LLC, which the Labor Department hired to raise awareness “among employers and influencers about the [Job Corps] program’s existing and new training initiatives in high growth and environmentally friendly career areas” as well as spreading the word to prospective Job Corps enrollees.

Ultimately, the firm negotiated ad buys for “two approved spots” airing 14 times per week for two months on “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” and “The Rachel Maddow Show,” according to a project report, which listed the number zero under a section of the report asking how many jobs had been created through the stimulus contract.

David Williams, president of the nonprofit watchdog Taxpayers Protection Alliance, called the contract “questionable” because it created no jobs and because of the placement of the ads on shows viewed as friendly to the administration’s policies.

“Hiring a PR firm does not create jobs and this was obviously meant for selling a particular political agenda,” Mr. Williams said. “The placement really reeks of a political ad rather than a job ad, and taxpayers see through this.

“Taxpayers would be a lot happier at the end of the day to see a completed road rather than a bunch of ads on cable television,” he said.

I say: YOUR FEDERAL TAX DOLLARS AT WORK.
As in: YOU paid “stimulus dollars” for a litany of Obama propaganda advertisements.
As in: YOU, as an American Taxpayer, were once again FLEECED.
This is YOUR money, ladies and gentlemen.  YOUR MONEY.
Do you care?
BZ

 

 

Demorats are frantic; they admit in an e-mail:

[From an official BHO mass e-mailing.]

Dear _____ :

I just got back from Iowa, where we are being outspent 2 to 1 on the air. Voters there mentioned it to me more than once.

We expect Mitt Romney and the Republicans to outspend us.

What I will not abide is getting outspent by a margin that negates all the hard work our volunteers are doing — talking to voters, knocking on doors, making calls.

We are in control of that outcome, but our time to close the gap is dwindling. After three consecutive months of being significantly outraised, it couldn’t be more urgent.

Will you make a donation of $3 or more?

If we win this election, it will be because of what you did.

I don’t get to tell you enough how grateful I am.

Thank you,

Barack

P.S. — In a few weeks, I’ll accept our party’s nomination for president onstage in Charlotte, North Carolina. I wouldn’t be there without you.  Any donation you can make today automatically enters you and a guest for a chance to join me and Michelle as VIP guests of the convention. Hope to see you there.

Oh, the Demorats are stridently, splendidly confident that they’ll win in less than 90 days.

Or are they?

BZ