Message delivery was a
big theme at the White
House yesterday.
First, Karen Hughes was over for breakfast. The
president's finest spinner is headed back onto the public payroll with
a new and challenging goal: Improving Bush's image in the Muslim world.
Then at the
mid-day briefing, Press Secretary Scott McClellan officially confirmed
that the White House is blowing off the Government Accountability
Office's finding that prepackaged administration video news releases
constitute illegal covert propaganda.
Prepackaged Video Reports
Here's
Brian
Williams
on the NBC Nightly News last night: "If the White House is struggling
with the public relations effort in the Middle East, here at home some
say they are perfecting the craft of public relations disguised as news
-- and it's getting a lot of air time."
Then Andrea Mitchell
reported that "for millions of viewers, the government has found the
best way to spin the news is to produce the stories itself. . . .
"On issues from Medicare to farm prices,
hundreds of
local stations are running stories extolling Bush administration
policies, reaching tens of millions of people.
"But all these reports were written and
distributed
by the administration and its public relations firms -- not by
journalists."
Christopher
Lee
writes in The Washington Post about the memos the White House sent out
last week, insisting "that it is legal for federal agencies to feed TV
stations prepackaged news stories that do not disclose the government's
role in producing them."
Those memos essentially overruled a Feb. 17 memo
from
Comptroller General David M. Walker. Lee writes: "In an interview
yesterday, Walker said the administration's approach is both contrary
to appropriations law and unethical.
"'This is more than a legal issue. It's also an
ethical issue and involves important good government principles, namely
the need for openness in connection with government activities and
expenditures,' Walker said."
Here's McClellan
addressing the issue in his briefing yesterday: "As long as this is
factual information about department or agency programs, it is
perfectly appropriate," he said. In fact, he added, "I think agencies
and departments have an obligation to provide the American people with
factual information about their programs."
Here's how Ken
Herman
reported it for Cox News Service: "The White House, intent on
continuing to crank out 'video news releases' that look like television
news stories, has told government agency heads to ignore a Government
Accountability Office memo criticizing the practice as illegal
propaganda."
Karen
Hughes is in the House
So can someone even as uniquely talented as Karen Hughes put a good
face on American public diplomacy in the Middle East -- when the
current face is sometimes that of a hooded torture victim at Abu Ghraib?
Her welcome back to Washington yesterday
certainly couldn't have been much more gushy.
Bush released an effusive announcement:
"Karen Hughes has been one of my most trusted and closest advisers, and
she has the experience, expertise, and judgment to lead this critical
effort. Her return to public service in this important position
signifies my personal commitment to the international diplomacy that is
needed in these historic times."
The White House released a photo
of Hughes having breakfast with Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice in the president's private dining room.
Here's the transcript
of Rice and Hughes' joint appearance at the State Department.
Rice declared: "The time has come to look anew
at our institutions of public diplomacy. . . .
"I can think of no individual more suited nor
more
suited for this task of telling America's story to the world, of
nurturing America's dialogue with the world and advancing universal
values for the world than Karen Hughes."
And Hughes gave a first taste of how she'll
approach the job.
"If confirmed, I look forward to working with my
fellow citizens to share our country's good heart and our idealism and
our values with the world. This job will be difficult. Perceptions do
not change quickly or easily. This is a struggle for ideas."
But will Hughes solely try to spread the word of
U.S.
accomplishments -- or will she express humility over some of its
failures? There was a brief hint of the latter, when she said: "America
has often struggled to live up to our own ideals and we have much to
learn about becoming better citizens of the world."
But apparently she didn't mean torture. "We must
do a
better job of teaching our children to learn about different languages,
and cultures, and faiths," she explained.
Farah
Stockman
writes in the Boston Globe that the Hughes nomination is "a move that
officials said is meant to aggressively tackle the plummeting image of
the United States abroad, particularly in the Arab world."
David
Gregory
explained the Hughes mission this way, on NBC: "One source close to the
White House says the president is playing for legacy now. He doesn't
want to be remembered as, quote, a war monger."
AFP
writes: "Rebuilding the US image abroad after the Bush administration's
unilateral decision to invade Iraq two years ago will be a challenge,
however, even for someone as formidable as Hughes."
John
Roberts
noted on the CBS News that Hughes "does have a pretty unique talent for
humanizing White House policy." He also reported that in spite of the
apparent urgency of her task, Hughes is "not going to start it full
time until later this summer."
Helen
Thomas Watch
It has been noted a lot recently that Hearst columnist Helen Thomas
frequently asks questions in the briefing room that suggest a certain
lack of confidence in the Bush administration's policies.
Yesterday's exchange with McClellan was a
classic:
"Go ahead, Helen.
"Q Diplomacy depends on policy. You can't sell
what
is unsaleable. If the policy remains that we will engage further in
preemptive war, you cannot sell it to the Middle East, I'm sure, or
anywhere else. So are you going to change any policy?
"MR. McCLELLAN: Our policy is to expand freedom
and democracy and to support the aspirations of people --
"Q By gunpoint?
"MR. McCLELLAN: -- and support the aspirations
of
people in countries around the world that do not have the freedoms that
we enjoy. And, no, Helen, the President made it very clear in his
inaugural address that it is not primarily the use of arms. It is
supporting the aspirations of the people in those countries and doing
all we can to stand with those people as they seek greater freedoms. We
are standing with the people of Lebanon. We are standing with the
people of the Palestinian Territories. We are standing with --
"Q We also invaded Iraq.
"MR. McCLELLAN: -- we are standing with the
people of
Iraq, and the people of Iraq have shown that freedom is a universal
value. They stood up and defied the terrorists and went to the polls.
"Q And we invaded the country.
"MR. McCLELLAN: Go ahead, Terry."
Last
Year's Flap
Hughes herself noted that in her new job, she may need to "varnish"
what some have called her combative style. In the past, she's not
always been what you might call subtle.
Last April, speaking on CNN with Wolf
Blitzer, Hughes got into hot water by seeming to suggest that
supporters of abortion rights have the same values as terrorists.
Here's what she said: "I think after September
11th
the American people are valuing life more and realizing that we need
policies to value the dignity and worth of every life.
"And President Bush has worked to say, let's be
reasonable, let's work to value life, let's try to reduce the number of
abortions, let's increase adoptions.
"And I think those are the kind of policies that
the
American people can support, particularly at a time when we're facing
an enemy, and really the fundamental difference between us and the
terror network we fight is that we value every life."
Hughes later said it was a "gross distortion" to
interpret her remarks as likening abortion-rights advocates to
terrorists.
Another
Move
The White House also announced that Bush is nominating Dina Powell,
the Egyptian-born director of White House personnel, to be Hughes's
deputy.
Social
Security Watch
Jonathan
Weisman
writes in The Washington Post: "While the White House has helped
convince more than two-thirds of those polled that Social Security is
heading for a crisis or possible bankruptcy without change, 56 percent
disapprove of his approach, a survey of 1,001 adults conducted March
10-13 shows.
"Moreover, 58 percent of those polled this time
said
the more they hear about Bush's plan, the less they like it. The latest
polling, combined with detailed interviews last week, shows that Bush's
drive to significantly alter the 70-year-old national insurance program
has run into significant hurdles with every age cohort."
Some more findings from the poll: Of the various
solutions mentioned to Social Security's long-term financing
shortfalls, there was only one that received more than 50 percent
support in the poll: "Collecting Social Security taxes on all the money
a worker earns, rather than taxing only up to the first $90,000 of
annual income."
Increasing the Social Security tax rate, the
only
solution Bush has said is off the table, wasn't popular -- only 32
percent were in favor. But that's still made it considerably more
popular than the only thing virtually guaranteed to be part of Bush's
plan, once he gets around to publicly describing it: Reducing
guaranteed benefits for future retirees. Only 20 percent of those
polled thought that was a good idea.
Here are the poll
results. And here's a chart showing Bush's approval
ratings over time.
A new Gallup
Poll is out, too. It shows Bush's approval rating steady at
52 percent, with 44 percent disapproving.
The
Anti-Bush
In The Washington Post,
Kevin
Sullivan
writes about how Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is something of an
"anti-Bush" -- a fiery populist rallying developing nations against
United States imperialism.
"In a recent televised speech, Chavez described
the
arms purchases and a plan to increase army reserve troops as 'an
honorable answer to President Bush's intention of being the master of
the world.'
"Chavez is the most vocal and visible symbol of
a
rising tide of anti-American sentiment in Latin America. Leaders in the
region are increasingly disillusioned because a decade or more of the
Washington prescription -- democracy and free-market economics -- has
failed to alleviate poverty and economic inequality."
So what is Bush going to do about that?
Andy
Webb-Vidal
writes in the Financial Times: "Senior US administration officials are
working on a policy to 'contain' Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan
president,
and what they allege is his drive to 'subvert' Latin America's least
stable states.
"A strategy aimed at fencing in the government
of the
world's fifth-largest oil exporter is being prepared at the request of
President George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice, secretary of state,
senior US officials say. The move signals a renewed interest by the
administration in a region that has been relatively neglected in recent
years. . . .
"The policy shift in Washington, which a US
military
officer said is at an early stage but is centred on the goal of
'containment', could also have implications for the world oil market."
Treaty Watch
David
E. Sanger
writes in the New York Times: "Behind President Bush's recent shift in
dealing with Iran's nuclear program lies a less visible goal: to
rewrite, in effect, the main treaty governing the spread of nuclear
technology, without actually renegotiating it.
"In their public statements and background
briefings
in recent days, Mr. Bush's aides have acknowledged that Iran appears to
have the right -- on paper, at least -- to enrich uranium to produce
electric power. But Mr. Bush has managed to convince his reluctant
European allies that the only acceptable outcome of their negotiations
with Iran is that it must give up that right. . . .
"Mr. Bush could have called for renegotiating
the
treaty. But in background interviews, administration officials say they
have neither the time nor the patience for that process. By the time
all 189 signers come to an agreement, noted one official who left the
White House recently: 'The Iranians will look like the North Koreans,
waving their bombs around. We can't afford to make that mistake
again.'"
St. Patrick and Politics
Warren
Hoge
writes in the New York Times: "Gerry Adams, the president of Sinn Fein,
arrived yesterday in New York on his annual St. Patrick's Day trip to
the United States, and played down snubs from the White House and
Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the party's most prominent supporter in
American politics.
"President Bush has canceled the traditional
White
House gathering of leaders of the political parties of Northern Ireland
and invited instead the six women from the family of Robert McCartney,
who have been leading vocal protests over his killing in January in a
Belfast pub by a group that included members of the Irish Republican
Army. Sinn Fein is the political wing of the I.R.A."
Joke
Thief
Richard
Leiby
writes in The Washington Post: "A joke President Bush told recently in
Montana struck several readers as very familiar when it was recounted
in yesterday's Style section. In Bush's telling, the joke involved a
city slicker asking for directions in Livingston and being told to look
for two 'cattle guards.' Now, everyone in cowboy country knows a cattle
guard is a metal grate that keeps livestock from straying. But this
fellow is so clueless, he asks: 'Hey, what color uniforms do those
cattle guards have on?'
"In 1978, when Dubya was running for Congress in
Texas, the very same joke was on him."
Nicholas
D. Kristof has the details, in a New York Times story from
2000, describing that 1978 congressional race:
"A candidate forum was under way, and his rival
was
needling Mr. Bush with an oft-repeated joke in which he was the
punchline, a yarn that reinforced a perception of him as a spoiled rich
kid from back East.
"Kent Hance, the Democratic candidate and a
smooth-talking good old boy, was telling a yarn about working in a
field along a rural road. Then along came a fancy car.
"'It was a Mercedes,' drawled Mr. Hance, raising
his
eyebrows, and the audience tittered knowingly at the hint that Mr. Bush
was the kind of man more comfortable in a Mercedes than a pick-up. 'The
guy rolled down the window and wanted to know how to get to a certain
ranch.'
"Mr. Hance recounted how he'd given the man
directions, telling him to turn right after a cattle guard, a metal
grate ubiquitous in rural roads to keep livestock from straying.
'Then,' Mr. Hance continued, 'he said, "what color uniform will that
cattle guard be wearing?"'
"The audience roared with laughter, and just to
be
sure that the voters got the connection with the Connecticut-born Mr.
Bush, Mr. Hance said he had noticed something else about the Mercedes:
'It had Connecticut license plates.'"
Bush lost that race.
Halliburton
Watch
Griff
Witte
writes in The Washington Post: "Pentagon auditors found more than $100
million in questionable costs in one section of a massive, no-bid
Halliburton Co. contract for delivering fuel to Iraq, according to a
summary of their report released yesterday by congressional Democrats.
. . .
"Halliburton, where Vice President Cheney served
as
chief executive from 1995 to 2000, has come under persistent criticism
for its handling of several Iraqi reconstruction contracts."
Here's the report
from congressional Democrats, and their letter to Bush asking for an
explanation.
The Wead Tapes
AFP
reports: "The writer who secretly recorded phone conversations in which
then-Texas Governor George W. Bush appeared to suggest past illegal
drug use, issued a public apology to the president.
"Doug Wead, an author and
longtime
Bush family friend, wrote in a letter appearing in the USA Today
newspaper that his decision in the late 1990's to record the future
president without his knowledge had been 'foolish and wrong.'"
URL...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A36694-2005Mar15.html
U.S.
Government Caught Red-Handed Releasing Staged Al-Qaeda Videos
Atta's Father Says Video Fake, Credibility
of 'Hijackers Tape' Crumbles
9/11
researcher Chris Bollyn beaten
Corporations
Have a Chokehold on the US Media
Understanding
corporate media propaganda
Operation
Mockingbird - 9/11 Review
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