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Why Was The NY Post Alone in Reporting ‘White Coat-gate? Because It’s Not True

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by Tommy Christopher | 5:53 pm, October 7th, 2009

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obama1--300x300 The NY Post alleged yesterday that the Health Care event held on the White House lawn Monday was fraudulent and staged, specifically claiming that white lab coats were passed to attending doctors by WH staffers.

Yesterday we tried to answer Ed Morrissey’s question “Why Was NY Post the Only Outlet to Report ‘White Coat-gate?” Initially, we thought the answer was that the story simply wasn’t newsworthy. It turns out it wasn’t even true.

According to the Post, the White House wanted all of the doctors attending Monday’s Rose Garden speech to wear white lab coats, and when some of the doctors forgot to bring theirs, “the White House rustled up white coats for them and handed them to the suited physicians who had taken seats in the sun-splashed lawn area.”

They also ran this photograph, with the caption, “OOPS! A crowd of 150 doctors gathers in the Rose Garden to support the health-care overhaul — as White House staffers scramble to hand out camera-ready white coats to those who forgot their own.”

The picture bothered me, because I didn’t recognize the staffer who was handing out the white coats.

I checked on it, and a White House source told me that the White house did not provide the extra lab coats. Doctors for America paid for and brought the extras. OOPS!

Ed Morrisey, Hot Air, NY Post, Tommy Christopher, White Coat Gate, White House

rmbltmbl

Gee, I thought it was silly before.. now it appears to be astroturf, but that’s okay with Pelosi, here, I am sure.
JunkJunk

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story…
http://www.facebook.com/people/Alex-Lawson/5321694 Alex Lawson

@rmbltmbl

Oh my gosh, are you telling me that a press event on the White House lawn was stage managed!!!

Oh no, that is so disingenuous, most press conferences on the White House lawn are spontaneous and just kinda happen. It is not right for Obama to contact an organization that is made up of doctors who support reform, in order to bring together a group of doctors who support reform.

The rule is you have to just find all the people for your press conference the day of with no preparation, otherwise it is staged.
rmbltmbl

And everyone knows that Lawson.. /sarc correction

This is a perfect example of why no one trusts government.. dem doctors listening to obama pitch socialized medicine?? He’s doing this?
arlenearmy

This was mentioned on Hannity tonite. Malkin weighed in on this.
rmbltmbl

When was the last time Obama was in front of the press corps instead of Gibbs anyway? I should ask that question lightly though I wouldn’t want any Iranians showing up ‘spontaneously’. Oh wait.. he took questions in Copenhagen, didn’t he? And after, I would speculate he scolded his appointed top man in Afghanistan about saying what he thinks. I guess this all comes back to what I thought about Obama when he did NOTHING about the Iran elections.. if he doesn’t care about Iran’s freedom, how much does he care about your freedom?

Give me liberty or give me death.
ingenieux

rmbltmbl – what??
http://www.facebook.com/people/Chris-Jones/1384303476 Chris Jones

Like that makes it any less phony