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White House compounds PR gaffes

ceo_esq

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Did you catch the contentious White House press conference after Bush's embarrassingly scripted exercise talking to soldiers in Iraq today? It was like watching two consecutive train wrecks.

Forget about Harriet Miers' qualifications. Scott McClellan is manifestly unfit to hold his job.
 
bush-talk.jpg

In all fairness, don't you think the gunfire goin' on between Andy Card and Karl mighta made it a little hard to hear in there?
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Here's the story on the informal chat

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=1210691

President Bush Teleconference With U.S. Troops Was Choreographed to Match His Goals for Iraq War

By DEB RIECHMANN Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON*Oct 13, 2005 —*It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday's vote on a new Iraqi constitution.

"This is an important time," Allison Barber, deputy assistant defense secretary, said, coaching the soldiers before Bush arrived. "The president is looking forward to having just a conversation with you."

Barber said the president was interested in three topics: the overall security situation in Iraq, security preparations for the weekend vote and efforts to train Iraqi troops.

[snip]

"OK, so let's just walk through this," Barber said. "Captain Kennedy, you answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?"

"Captain Smith," Kennedy said.

"Captain. Smith? You take the mike and you hand it to whom?" she asked.

"Captain Kennedy," the soldier replied.

And so it went.

"If the question comes up about partnering how often do we train with the Iraqi military who does he go to?" Barber asked.

"That's going to go to Captain Pratt," one of the soldiers said.

"And then if we're going to talk a little bit about the folks in Tikrit the hometown and how they're handling the political process, who are we going to give that to?" she asked.
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Yeah, they still don't get it.

This is the sort of thing that just pisses me off. If you're going to have a "conversation," be willing to take the chance that someone might say something you might not like to hear. That would make more sense, and show something resembling guts.
 
Roadtoad said:
This is the sort of thing that just pisses me off. If you're going to have a "conversation," be willing to take the chance that someone might say something you might not like to hear. That would make more sense, and show something resembling guts.
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And maybe have that conversation with people who won't destroy their careers if they speak their minds.
 
Maybe someone can point me to the point where they "scripted" answers.
What I saw was some Pentagon PR employee setting up the order of questions, what the soldeirs could expect, and where the microphone goes when they were done with it. How is this any different than any other presser?
 
Cylinder said:
Maybe someone can point me to the point where they "scripted" answers.
What I saw was some Pentagon PR employee setting up the order of questions, what the soldeirs could expect, and where the microphone goes when they were done with it. How is this any different than any other presser?
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It's not clear that the government scripted the answers. However, the tape indicates that the soldiers not only got to hear the questions (not just the speaking order) in advance, but at least some of them also practiced their answers in front of Allison Barber.
 
If you actually listened to the 'practice' session, then heard the real one, you wondered how Bush ever got the job as President. The 'coach' sounded switched on, intelligent, alert. Then you hear Bush ask exactly the questions, he loses his place mid sentence, appears to forget what he is talking about entirely, stumbles, is inhoherent, rambles.
 
ceo_esq said:
Did you catch the contentious White House press conference after Bush's embarrassingly scripted exercise talking to soldiers in Iraq today? It was like watching two consecutive train wrecks.

Forget about Harriet Miers' qualifications. Scott McClellan is manifestly unfit to hold his job.
Click to expand...


Before deciding to get really devoted in litigation(sic) I worked as a lobbyist and PR for an ex PM. I am shocked that you found the whole episode odd. This is how it works ( at least in the Balkan democracies :p )
 
a_unique_person said:
Then you hear Bush ask exactly the questions, he loses his place mid sentence, appears to forget what he is talking about entirely, stumbles, is inhoherent, rambles.
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Which is the problem with getting amateurs to follow scripts. He'd probably sound more credible if he was just allowed to talk to them normally. I assume he can do this, since I can't imagine he'd get where he was today if he wasn't at least a decent conversationalist.
 
ceo_esq said:
It's not clear that the government scripted the answers. However, the tape indicates that the soldiers not only got to hear the questions (not just the speaking order) in advance, but at least some of them also practiced their answers in front of Allison Barber.
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Do you really object to that? If so, why?

Let's say that you work for a large multi-national as a PR rep. Your CEO places you in charge for a televised Q&A with 12 employees working in Timbuktu via satellite. You know that the participants are production workers for the most part with no media training, they have never spoken to the CEO and they have never appeared on television. What would you do different?

Are nightly news interviews scripted or does the interview subject know what the topic of the discussion will be? Does that make them dishonest?

Is the Million Dollar Challenge a fraud? It is scripted.

BUSH: Let's get started here. Hand someone the microphone. Tell us your name, soldier, and tell us where you're from.

SOLDIER: CPL Smith, Sir, I'm from Lawton, Oklahoma.

BUSH: Glad to meet you Smith. I just wanted to know how you think things are going for the training of Iraqi Security Forces. Tell me what you see every day.

SOLDIER: Lots of flat tires, sir.

BUSH: Flat tires?

SOLDIER: Yes, sir. I work in the motor pool and I have a stack of flat tires I need to fix. My platoon Sergeant gets pretty pissed about the flat tires stacking up like that, but I was busy doing this valve job on a HUMMVW. Then I got 2 more that need oil changes before they can go back on patrols. It pretty much sucks to be me around the shop these days, Sir.

BUSH: Thanks, CPL Smith. Hand the microphone to the soldier next to you. I'm certain you're doing the best you can soldier and I appreciate your hard work.

SOLDIER: Thank you, sir. Uhmm. Do you want me to pass it to my left or my right?

BUSH: Left. Tell us your name soldier and where you are from.

SOLDIER: 2LT Jones, Sir. I am from Atlanta.

BUSH: Thanks for being with us today.

SOLDIER: It's an honor to be here, Sir.

BUSH: Many people here at home are wondering how the soldiers in Iraq are holding up. With the upcoming constitutional referendum and the increased security detail that entails, I was wondering what is on your soldier's mind today.

SOLDIER: Chicken Tetrazinni, Sir.

BUSH: I'm sorry, I don't think I understand.

SOLDIER: Sir, the MRE cases we are getting have too many Chicken Tetrazinnis in them. You can't give those things away. I try to offer a twofer over the Chili Mac or Spaghetti and Meat Sauce, but it's impossible. We have like 500 Chicken Tetrazinni packets in this big box. Hell, even the insurgents we captured last week would not eat them.

That might be a little exaggerated, but not by that much. I submit that it is the responsibility of these soldier's leadership to help them work out in advance what would happen and give them a chance to polish it up a bit instead of leaving them with "it" hanging out to get stepped on.

There are two kinds of leaders - those who take care of their soldiers and those who do not.
 
Every day brings a new White House blunder!

The fact of the fake conversation is mind-boggling enough, but that the Bushies may have thought they could get away with it, what with TV cameras recording the dress rehearsals, is even more astounding. The multiple dimensions of Bush's stupidity become more apparent daily.
 
Melendwyr said:
What's even more amazing is that people are trying to excuse this, too.
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So what is your objection? Can you cite any other example of instances where a person unfamiliar with the media is asked question on national television without the same kind of prep? Even those who do this for a living are prepped for television appearances.

MATTHEWS: But we still don‘t know—when we talked in the dressing room before we went on the air—and I want to nail this down—the original charge was two administration high officials were identified by Bob Novak, the prince of darkness, in his syndicated column as having told him about the undercover agent‘s identity.

ISIKOFF: Right.
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Chris Matthews. Micheal Isikoff. You think those guys have media experience? Is Hardball faked?

Why would Chris visit Mikey in the dressing room? Was this example of an interview prep as standard media practice or a case of pillow talk?

This is the single most moronic argument I have heard in some time. We're talking Whitey Blew the Levee stupid.
 
Faked? No, Hardball is precisely what it seems to be: a group of highly vocal talking heads following loosely prepared scripts.

Having the POTUS engage in "conversations" with soldiers when the questions are pre-arranged...
 
Melendwyr said:
Having the POTUS engage in "conversations" with soldiers when the questions are pre-arranged...
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Is what? No-one has clarified the objection for me yet. Do you think the soldiers should expect to know beforehand what questions were being asked?

Why do real media types do this?
 
Oh MY GOD! Are there really people who are the blind!
I was going to write a long note but Ijustcan't seem to find a way to do it
without violating rule 8.

CLUE - ever heard of PROVDA?????
 
Magyar said:
Oh MY GOD! Are there really people who are the blind!
I was going to write a long note but Ijustcan't seem to find a way to do it
without violating rule 8.

CLUE - ever heard of PROVDA?????
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I'm not familiar with PROVDA.

I guess it's very lucky for me that the Rule 8 prevents you from responding with clearly asserted argument possibly backed up with some supporting evidence. Man, I really dodged a bullet on that one.

I'll ask again - are you asserting that it's not common media practice to discuss the content and technical issues of a nationally televised interview before that interview takes place - even among persons with substantial media experience?
 
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