A little over a week ago, Air America's Ana Marie Cox presented the Washington Post with a modest proposal: why not get rid of the White House Press Corps? According to Cox, the White House press room was "where news goes to die" and whose denizens break a lot of non-essential stories while waiting to be fed their daily allowance of Robert Gibbs.
But the thing that Cox left out of her account of life inside the press room is that those reporters, when they get the scent of a non-story in their nostrils, they pursue it with a maniacal zeal. And they won't just sit there and take "No" for an answer. In fact, they won't even sit there and take an answer for an answer. They'll just keep asking the same question, over and over again, occasionally changing the words to make it sound like a different inquiry. Because they're geniuses.
Just watch this video of your press corps in action! The backstory: President Barack Obama went to Mexico. He met a guy in Mexico. That guy, sad to say, died. Now Mexico is in the middle of a swine flu outbreak. OMGZ DOES TEH PRESIDENT HAZ PORKULUS INFLUENZA? Ice cold, this logic. That's why they ask Robert Gibbs the same question seven times. Obviously, they should have waterboarded Gibbs.
This is my favorite part:
REPORTER: I mean, it's a serious question! THIS MAN possibly DIED of swine flu!
GIBBS: We don't know that.
REPORTER: We don't know! But we're hearing reports that it's possible. And that he possibly had contact with Obama!
Intrepid!
[WATCH.]
Here are some "facts": "President Obama's health "was never in danger" despite his trip to Mexico on April 16 and 17, when the swine flu outbreak was beginning in that country, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on Monday.
During the visit, Obama spent time with a national museum director who ended up dying a few days later, reportedly after experiencing some flu-like symptoms. The White House released a statement on Monday afternoon confirming that the man, Felipe Solis Olguin, did not have swine flu. Gibbs also noted that the incubation period for swine flu is one to two days and the President's visit to Mexico happened more than a week ago."
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