Sticking to the Script

© Lawrence Manning/Corbis
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Having paid attention to politics for several years, I already knew that most politics were a sham and were staged (remember Jeff Gannon?). That’s why it didn’t shock me when it was announced that a recent “town hall meeting” with President Obama was as scripted as a soap opera. In case the video is taken down at some point—either because Real Clear Politics does it voluntarily to save space or because the Obama administration threatens them—I’m going to post an interesting back-and-forth that recently took place between reporters Helen Thomas and Chip Reid and Obama’s press secretary Robert Gibbs:

Reid: The concept of a town hall is to have an open, public forum. This sounds like a tightly controlled audience and list of questions. Why do it that way?
Gibbs [obviously annoyed]: How about we do this: You can ask me that question tomorrow based on what questions were asked rather than preselecting your question based on something that may or may not come true.
Reid: Why preselect? Why not just open it up to people and allow any question to come in?
Gibbs: Well...I...uh...Chip, I think if you get on your computer, and your e-mail address—did you send in a question?
Reid: I think that would inappropriate; this is for the public.
Gibbs [more agitated than before]: Well...I’m sorry; I’m confused. Are you not a member of the public?
Reid: Well, I think that if you were going to allow questions from the press, you have us in a prominent position there and allow us to ask questions. You haven’t done that.
Gibbs: Let’s not get into the notion of where you’d be sitting if I let you ask a question.
Reid: Well out of shouting range.
Gibbs: You could e-mail.
Reid: Would you put my question in?
[Gibbs shrugs his shoulders in an “I don’t know” way.]
Reid: I don’t think so.
Gibbs: Maybe. Have you e-mailed?
Reid: I mean, this is an open forum for the public to ask questions but it’s not really open. It’s not open.
Gibbs: Based on what?
Reid: Based on the information that your staff gave us on how the audience and the questions are being selected.
Gibbs: The questions are being selected by people that e-mail on Facebook and Twitter.
Reid: No they’re not. They’re not deciding what questions you get into.
Gibbs: I appreciate again—
Reid: It just feels tightly controlled, unlike his town meetings all through the campaign [indecipherable].
Gibbs: I appreciate the preselected questions on your part. Um...
[unknown questioner]: How about dissenting views?
Reid: Yeah, how about that?

At this point, Gibbs attempts to change the subject.

Gibbs: I think that’s a...a...very safe bet. But again, let’s uh...how about we do this: I promise we will interrupt the AP’s tradition of asking the first question. I’ll let you ask me a question tomorrow to whether you thought the questions to the town hall meeting that the president conducted in Annandale based on—
Thomas: That’s not his point. His point is the control. We have never had that in the White House.
Gibbs: Uh...
Reid: Not this White House.
Gibbs: Yeah, I’ll let you amend her comment.
Thomas: And we have had some but I’m amazed at you people who call for openness, and transparency and you control—
Gibbs: You haven’t even heard the questions.
Reid: It doesn’t matter. It’s the process.
[Gibbs laughs]
Reid: Even if there’s a tough question, it’s a question coming from somebody who was invited or who was screened or the question was screened.
Thomas: [inaudible]
Gibbs [flustered]: Chip...Chip...I’m...I’m...I’d...let’s have this discussion at the conclusion of the town hall meeting. How about that? I think you’d be—
Thomas: We’re having it now.
Gibbs: I’ll be happy to have it now.
Thomas: It’s a pattern.
Gibbs: Which question did you object to at the town hall meeting, Helen?
Thomas: It isn’t the question.
Gibbs: What’s a pattern?
Thomas: It’s a pattern of controlling the press.
Gibbs: How so? Is there any evidence currently going on that I’m controlling the press? Poorly, I might add. [laughs]
Thomas: Your [inaudible] engagements are prepackaged.
Gibbs: How so?
Reid: And controlling the public. That’s the—
Thomas: By calling reporters the night before to tell them they’re going to be called on?! That is shocking.
Gibbs: We had this discussion ad nauseam.
Thomas: Of course you would because you don’t have any answers.
Gibbs: Well...uh...because I didn’t know you were going to ask a question, Helen.
Thomas: Well, you should have.
Gibbs [to Thomas]: Have you e-mailed your question today?
Thomas: I don’t have to e-mail it. I can tell you right now what I want to ask.
Gibbs: I don’t doubt that at all, Helen.

This packaged crap doesn’t end with politics, though. Science is taking a cue from it, too. Just a few headlines away from the press conference story I found a story from The Telegraph entitled “Polar Bear Expert Barred by Global Warmists,” in which a polar bear expert of 30 years named Dr. Mitchell Taylor was told that he would not be allowed to attend a meeting of the Polar Bear Specialist Group in Copenhagen because his studies blame warm water currents from the Pacific Ocean for Arctic warming instead placing the blame on carbon dioxide, which is the popularly-accepted cause.

Taylor was told that his exclusion was because his views were “counter to human-induced climate change” and were “extremely unhelpful.”

Is there anything that isn’t scripted anymore? Politics...science...what’s next?

ReferencesBooker, Christopher. “Polar Bear Expert Barred by Global Warmists.” Telegraph. 27 June 2009.

“CBS, Helen Thomas Challenge Gibbs on ‘Controlled’ Town Hall Meeting.” RealClearPolitics. 1 July 2009.

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