Did The White House Really Admit To ‘Controlling’ The News Media?

by Tommy Christopher | 1:40 pm, October 19th, 2009

» 10 comments

drudge_wh The Drudge Report is carrying the headline “White House admits: We ‘control’ news media…,” with a link to a WorldNetDaily story about the right wing’s target du jour, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn.

What we really have here are 2 questions: Does the White House control the media, and does the White House admit to controlling the media?

The WorldNetDaily article also claims to have the goods on the White House’s “admission,” in the form of a video of Dunn speaking at a conference in the Dominican Republic. Here are the money quotes:

“Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn’t absolutely control,” said Dunn.

“One of the reasons we did so many of the David Plouffe videos was not just for our supporters, but also because it was a way for us to get our message out without having to actually talk to reporters,” said Dunn, referring to Plouffe, who was Obama’s chief campaign manager.

“We just put that out there and made them write what Plouffe had said as opposed to Plouffe doing an interview with a reporter. So it was very much we controlled it as opposed to the press controlled it,” Dunn said.

The problem with this story is that the conference took place on Jan. 19, 2009, before President Obama took office, and Dunn is clearly referring to the campaign, not the White House press office.

Dunn has drawn fire from conservatives for her assertion that Fox isn’t a real news network, a sentiment now echoed by others in the Obama administration.

Although Dunn was referring to the campaign, and in the context of a variety of smears against candidate Obama that were amplified by mainstream news coverage, her remarks do contain causes for concern. They belie a hostility toward reporters that could be seen as the current that powers the White House’s attempts to manage the press.

This is a phenomenon that has been observed by others in the White House Press Corps, as well. In July, Helen Thomas and Chip Reid tag-teamed Robert Gibbs over the administration’s tight control over the press:

While Gibbs fires off an amusing line about not being able to control the press in the form of Helen Thomas, that doesn’t mean the White House isn’t trying to control the press. What Anita Dunn calls “message discipline” often ends up looking more like “evasion.”

The job of the Press Secretary is no longer to give information, but to stay on message, and the White House reporter’s job is now to try like hell to throw him off-message. The extent to which this remains true depends entirely on the press’ comfortability with it. If more reporters dug in like Helen Thomas, and refused to accept the non-answers that have become the status quo, this would change.

There’s also the tightly managed stagecraft involved in White House events like the recent health care speech to lab-coated doctors in the Rose Garden. The press, again, play a large part in deciding whether such concentration on “optics” is really all that important. The media’s emphasis on the bare surface of the news necessitates the use of such tactics.

The Obama White House didn’t invent media management, but they are very good at it. I’m sure they would argue that, given some of the things Fox News throws at them, they damn well need to be. However, there is a fine line between that and naked hostility toward a free press. In a relationship that’s supposed to be adversarial, Robert Gibbs is a worthy adversary. With some of these comments, I’m starting to feel like Anita Dunn is more of an enemy.

Here’s the video of Dunn’s remarks:

Tommy Christopher

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For interest sake, I just checked Fox Nation whether they had covered it too:
“WH Admits: We ‘Control’ News Media”
http://www.thefoxnation.com/white-house/2009/10/18/wh-admits-we-control-news-media
Basically just a copy/paste off of Drudge Report.

And as stated here on Mediaite – this was said before Obama took office and was about the campaign – not the current White House. Something that can easily be fact-checked (as long as it doesn’t reaffirm pre-existing views, right?).

How can there be any doubt about Fox News conservative bias at all?
CaptainAmerica

These words were said on the eve of the inaguration and its so true, they did control ALMOST all the news media and still do. That’s why they are trying to attack FNC so hard because its the only voice of reason and sanity.

Obama’s joke at the WHCD was accurate about all the people there voting for him. That wasn’t a joke.

Now, we are paying a tremendous price with the clueless one in office. Had he and his policies just been vetted by the media during the campaign, he never would have gotten in office. Heck, his relelection number right now is only 43%.
Agent Orangutan

WorldNetDaily… wow, Drudge knows no bounds.

BTW, are they still promoting the anti-Semite Jerome Corsi? Why yes, yes they are.
TfT

january 19th…Oct 19th….what difference does it make? She admitted to controlling the media and you have no problem with that?

Admit it — MSM are the guarddogs/lapdogs for the One and they have no problem being patted on the head by Axelrod and/or Emanual and/or Obama.

Gosh, I would have thought the media would have taken the WH statement on face value and viewed them as a threat. Don’t do what FNC does (reports facts about NEA, ACORN, VanJones) or we will ostracize you too.

But it appears the author of this article is defending Dunn rather than questioning her.
peter2

Anita Dunn is a moron.

1. Picking a fight with a news organization has got to be a loser’s game… Is she trying to teach Murdoch a lesson?

2. Her speech trying to rehabilitate Mao, the mass murderer of 70 million (3.5 x worse than Adolf) people at a high school graduation speech has got to rank right up there with Van Jones and the Safe School Czar.

The bigger question here is ‘What kind of people does Obama surround himself with?’
- Avowed communists, admirers of mass murderers and former school teachers keen to provide inappropriate advice to minor children clearly engaging in illegal and exploited relationships (did you wear a condom?).
- Not to mention communications directors that refuse to communicate choosing instead to declare war on the messenger.

Anita should resign. She’s obviously incompetent and a disgrace to her party, her president and her calling. What a loser. Is she supposed to be the best the dems can find? Yikes!
alexiaalline

I was looking for some other content but found it and it was my pleasure reading this post.green tea weight loss
ingenieux

So, this p.o.s. comes from a piece on the Drudge Report, with WorldNetDaily as it’s source? Wow. Talk about NO CREDIBILITY. You’re a joke, Tommy, and Dan Abrams – wtf?

But the real beef you have is with the White House having a well-qualified Media-Relations department? That’s how one gains control of the media, moron. If the WH had a bad MR dept then you should be worried. But for now you’re just an idiot and this is the saddest thing I’ve read in a while.
Sunnyr

The Minister of Propaganda, Robert Gibbs, gets dressed down by the old Leftist Troll, Helen Thomas. What a freaking joke this administration has turned out to be. They have to control EVERYTHING, including the media. This is why they are trying to diminish Fox News! Fox will NOT roll over and be their lap dog the way CNN, NBC, ABC and MSNBC have done. When Helen Thomas complains about the lack of transparency and free speech in this administration, you know it has to be bad! Throw all these Marxist bums OUT in 2010 and 2012! Send them back to the corrupt Chicago Cesspool from whence they came.
andreaburke

Interesting to see Tft and Peter leave comments using Beck’s logic, wording, point. If you’re interested in what Republicans have quoted Mao, you can see this post: http://cornucopia2009.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/the-war-on-fox/
ImNotBlue

I find it interesting that not ONE of the “defenders” here could talk about the video. All about the sources which FOUND the video. Now sure, Drudge, FOX Nation, or WND aren’t really responsible for the video content… they only re-published it. And sure, they didn’t create this story, only brought it to light… but hey, we can’t have anything that makes the White House look as petty, shallow, and foolish as they really are!

So keep going guy! Spin spin spin!