Gibbs To Media: Please Balance Your Hyping Of Palin’s Lunacy With Some Reality
White House press sec Robert Gibbs went on the offensive against the media today, demanding that attention to Sarah Palin’s “death panel” comments be balanced by GOP Senator Johnny Isakson’s claim in an interview that Palin’s charge is, well, insane.
Gibbs pointed to the Isakson interview, and according to the White House transcript, added:
Is there a constant struggle because you guys would rather cover Sarah Palin saying something that Johnny Isakson says is nuts? Sure, there’s always a struggle in that.
Later in the briefing, a skeptical reporter asked whether the White House isn’t secretly glad about Palin’s comments, because they amount to “a shiny object that distracts from the actual debate.” To which Gibbs replied…
I think they serve to make a certain segment of charges outlandish, there’s no doubt about that. But I think we’d all be served better if the coverage of that was less about the personality of the former governor and more about the fact that even Republicans think what she said isn’t true.
Jonathan Martin today described Gibbs’ broadside this way: “It’s the media’s fault, Vol IV, Chapter Nine.” Look, there’s always a bit of schtik involved when the White House pressures the media and it’s fair to regard it with some skepticism.
That said, come on now: Palin accused Obama of trying to set up government death panels who would determine who lives or dies based on how productive they are in society. Sometimes the most whacked out claims are, perversely, the ones that get less scrutiny because they’re almost too whacked out to process.
But judging by anecdotal evidence from town halls around the country, elected officials are getting hit by a host of sincerely intentioned questions from constituents about variations of the “death panel” nonsense. That should matter. As it happens, two Republicans — Senator Isakson, and also Susan Collins — have introduced their own end of life measures.
Forget for a moment that it was the White House that asked the press to balance coverage of Palin’s lunacy with these basic facts. Is it really an unreasonable request?
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Sarah Barracuda is suddenly concerned about how people should get full healthcare protection from cradle to grave.
How Ironic!
This is the same Sarah who, when she was Mayor of Wassilla, Alaska,
To give props where they are due, with a nod to Brendan Fraser who posted the link below, here’s a good rebuttal piece from your very own WaPo:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/06/AR2009080603854.html
And good on Gibbs. It’s about time – ridiculous that such rumors even made it out of the beauty parlor in Mudflap, Alabama.
Sarah Barracuda is suddenly concerned about how people should get full healthcare protection from cradle to grave.
How Ironic!
This is the same Sarah who, when she was Mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, who forced rape victims to pay over $1200.00 dollars for their own medical rape treatment, and investigation kits.
Palin is a prime example of why the Republican Party has sunk so low. She did not have a shred of compassion for rape victims in her own town, where she forced them to pay for kits that the police dept. used to investigate the rape crimes.
Notice how he talks of it ONLY costing us 1Trillion over 10 years….? That makes me feel so much better.
By the way, under this plan, how many people will be served using the 100 billion/year number?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31377268/ns/politics-capitol_hill/
Oh about net 16MM people…ooooh, thats a lot of money for so few people.(16MM divided by 300 million people..oh that’s a whopping 5.3%)
Yes, money well spent.
Sarah Palin has literally made a career out of media bashing, but at THIS these guys take umbrage!
Damn “librul media.”
Oh, *there* you are, Joe!
Still hoping you and sbj will respond to the Pearlstein piece. How about it?
Joe,
Do you have the CBO of the final bill? Or are you just going to post the old score of a partial bill?
Can you please explain what the notation of “MM” means? I’ve got a minor in mathematics and have never seen that notation. Does it stand for “a million million” or perhaps a “mega-million”?
Joe still refuses to answer my question: Would Jesus provide health care for all, or is Jesus a Republican?
I love how the right is all over how much things cost.
NOW.
I will remind the GOP and the rest of the right one more time that Clinton handed George W Bush the largest budget surplus in history and Bush and the Republican Congress turned that into the largest deficit in history.
The right has absolutely no leg to stand on to talk about the national budget. Period. End of story.
And yet, Tena, regrettably, continue to blather hypocritically these amoral blowhards will.
@schrodingerscat
If I must….It comes from Latin “Mille” meaning “thousand”, so MM is a “thousand thousands” which equals one million.
Didn’t Gibbs just give Palin a golden opportunity to get another boatload of PR?
Mr. Sixpack enjoys bean-counting. People and their health amount only to dollar signs in his world.
Critical/ethical analysis? Not so much.
Still waitin,’ Joe. What would Jesus do?….
“Still waitin,’ Joe. What would Jesus do?”
You’ll be waiting awhile on that one. I’m still waiting for the moral argument that supports the right of the rich to better health care than the poor.
It amounts to about the same thing as WWJD, I guess.
@benton
ok, ok, can’t imagine that you’re so excited to hear MY comments, but ok.
Pearlstein…not exactly as you state…He’s not as right wing as you’d like to sell us on, however he makes very interesting points. However b/c he provides NO specific language or area in the bills being proposes, his whole article is wasted as just rhetoric too. Just like yours.
I gave you critical analysis…you ready to pay 1 Trillion over 10 years so 16 million people can have insurance? So if we go to this all perfect single payer plan, will it cost us 20 Trillion dollars to insure everyone?
I’m pretty sure we don’t have the money for that unless we start drilling in Alaska.
Jesus would help those who help themselves. Go to church.
@tena
I’ll ask you again…what do you mean by better health care? Better nurse/doctors, better hospital, better country?..what?
OK Joe Sixpack, I”ll bite – I’ll start with a medical system in which doctors don’t kill 100,000 Americans a year. That’s what is happening here in the country with “the best health care in the world.” We also have an infant mortality rate significantly higher than Cuba’s.
I think health care is a right that belongs to everyone and I don’t think that leaving it up to a “free market” makes any sense at all because our health is not a commodity that should be valued in market terms.
Not everything in this country has to make a profit. The profit motive is behind about 98% of those doctor caused deaths a year.
@tena
please don’t use quotes from “Sicko” as your reference.
While the infant mortality rate is better than the US(assuming a communist country doesn’t fudge the numbers), did you know that for ever live birth in Cuba, there is almost 1 abortion. Any question, doctor just does an abortion. Also, did you look at the maternal mortality rate vs USA? 4 times higher? Gee, so the mom doesn’t live in high risk deliveries….that’s what I want!
Mortality rate for children 1-5 is 34% higher than the USA. So the good news is that they bring children into the world alive better, they just aren’t good at keeping them around long and neither the mother too.
Stings doesn’t it. Facts usually do.
Geico has just ended their advertising on Beck’s Fox show. That’s four advertisers gone in one week.
The decline in political discourse has a number of discernible causes but one of those discernible cause is Rupert Murdoch (he had this effect in England previously). Talk radio, by itself, did not produce what we are now witnessing. It took a cable network to magnify what talk radio had done and get things to this state.
“please don’t use quotes from “Sicko” as your reference.”
I’m not – I haven’t seen it.
And when you bring facts, we can discuss hurt. You sure are trying hard, dude, and you sure are getting nowhere fast.
Is it really an unreasonable request?
Of course it’s unreasonable! How are they going to do their stenography work if you expect them to actually be journalists?
Jesus would help those who help themselves. Go to church.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That qoute (”God helps those who help themselves.”)?
That isn’t in the Bible anywhere! (Go check. I’ve read the Bible cover to cover more than once.) That is a perfect example of Benjamin Franklin at his sarcastic best!
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
oddjob – I bow in your direction! (-.-) (_ _) (-.-)
@oddjob
You’re the one that brought Jesus into this…never profess to know everything in the bible, but I’ll take your word for it.
However, nice of you, Tena, Mike, Schrodinger and others to ignore ALL the facts I have brought to our conversations today.
I bet you all are upset because you’ve had this site to talk amongst yourselves and now that you’re being questioned by facts it isn’t that fun anymore.
I bet Greg doesn’t mind as his traffic has probably skyrocketed b/c of all the goings on…Thanks for the venue Greg.
@Greg:
“Is it really an unreasonable request?”
It’s not…if you’re talking about NEWS organizations. But let’s face it, we’re not talking about journalists in the press corp anymore. It’s sad, but the 4th estate was foreclosed on years ago – until someone new moves in and re-establishes some ethics in reporting, it’ll sit empty and rotting.
Even Keith Olberman, who had a great rant lambasting those in the media for peddling this kind of ****, not-so-shockingly failed to mention anyone on his own network. As if nothing subtly encouraging this nonsense hasn’t made it’s way onto MSNBC.
Then the media tries to get all “meta” on us by talking about who is winning the message war and stuff – completely oblivious to the fact that they ARE the message war. They are stating that their manipulation and capitulation is a given…and completely oblivious to the implications of such framing.
Oh, and I’ve flushed more journalistic integrity down my toilet in the past week than Jonathon Martin has displayed during his entire stint at Politico. I’d sooner believe that I’ll get stuck in a traffic jam tomorrow because a unicorn and a gryphon we battling on the highway than I would think that he’s anything but a pathetic right-wing hack.
@tena
bow away, I enjoyed your response to my facts about Cuba….or excuse me lack thereof.
Enjoy this little vid….so much for your free lunch. You’ll still have to pay premiums and copays under your “single payer” system.
That’s not what you wanted…you wanted it flat out free.
Then he throws the USPS under the bus against Fedex and UPS….not a good day for O
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XTi-WdOu2s&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fhotair%2Ecom%2Farchives%2F2009%2F08%2F11%2Fobama%2Dgovernment%2Dhealth%2Dcare%2Dwill%2Dbe%2Dlike%2Dum%2Dthe%2Dpost%2Doffice%2F&feature=player_embedded
Its fading!…uh oh!
Approval numbers now dipping under 50%. So much for the hope and change. Now the Dems are starting to not like this guy.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/daily_presidential_tracking_poll
Oh, by the way, before you dismiss Rasmussen, you’ll want to look at this independant university study.
http://www.fordham.edu/images/academics/graduate_schools/gsas/elections_and_campaign_/poll%20accuracy%20in%20the%202008%20presidential%20election.pdf
History is a moral art, and it is about values, not merely about a collection of facts. It is about the way we put those facts together and the meaning we give them. So I’ll go with a Jesus who would have us help those who stand in need of it. “To help mend this world is true religion.”–William Penn
O JoeSixPack – here’s where I got the numbers you accused me of getting from Sicko’
‘
http://cbs2.com/health/hospital.deaths.medical.2.1121261.html
That’s CBS, in case you’re confused.
The “media” is just that, targeted towards consumption and volume rather than substance and being a check on the power of politicians, corporations and powerful individuals. We get nibbles from people like Greg, Nate, Andrew Sullivan and friends but the only large media entity I still have in trust in is the Economist, and I still find myself frequently bashing their articles in my head.The Village sees what happens in Washington as a game, and supports both sides (though even that is questionable) instead of seeking the underlying truth, I don’t know a single person who trusts nationwide news and with local news becoming less accessible we are all waiting for something to fill the void that the 4th estate left years ago.
Yawn….you guys still talking huh?
Thanks for the CBS data. Interesting, but it didn’t say what percentage that is from….could be high, could be low.
Surprised none of you are upset at O’s comments today regarding your single payer system. Premiums and deductibles, oh my…how will everyone afford that?
Sarah Paling Around With Stupidity – Self-Induced And Chronic
http://msmpost.com/news/127/ARTICLE/1358/2009-08-11.html
Joe Sixpack, the reason you’re surprised by that is that you’ve sold yourself on the idea that the desire is for a socialist uber-program instead of a single-payer system that might aid in reigning in the excesses and abuses of private insurers and HMOs. Secondly, here’s a source about the infant mortality rates directly attributed without an anecdotal skewing of the statistics.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html
Thanks Peacenik,
I saw that too, but did you look below the numbers as I provided on maternal death rates and children over year 1 and their mortality…a little startling and probably not the best example for government healthcare.
Why is it that the Republicans don’t question the cost of nuclear weapons and everything else involved in fighting two wars, but the question the cost of providing health care to America’s most vulnerable people?
Of course, these are the same folks who want to outlaw abortion but support the death penalty. So we will have unwanted babies who cannot get basic health services. Then we will have adults who are not in the best of health and they will be conscripted to fight another war for the Republicans so they can maintain their gas supply.
And the Republicans wonder why we think they are heartless!
The Politico screed is from Ben Smith, not Martin
Tena,
When you are grown up enough to be logical,you are welcome to argue with the big kids, What you said is one of the dumbest,least relevant things I have heard…even from a Democrat. It makes zero sense. Time for a logic check here.