Obama's Afghanistan Coverage Spin: The White House 'Tick-Tock'

Politics Daily:

No group can possibly be as smug as presidential advisers after a major national security decision has been announced.

Anyone who was ever allowed into the inner sanctum of the White House Situation Room, even if only to attend a deputies meeting, can bask in collective pride over the president's handiwork. At moments like this, it is easy for these insiders to believe that every option was parsed, that every grumpy dissent was respectfully heard and that not since the launch of the Marshall Plan has there been a more inspired team of American wise men and women...

Read the whole story: Politics Daily

Comments

[rabiddog6708]

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates ended a two-day trip to Afghanistan on Thursday, telling a group of Afghan soldiers that America will maintain a presence beyond the troop pullout set to begin in 2011.

"While we hope to transfer power in July 2011, we will have a large number of forces here for some time beyond that," Gates told the group at Kabul International Airport. "This is the first time in Afghan history when foreign forces are here to help, and we intend to be your partner for a long time."

[OscarthePug]

If the MTM can't get the facts than they become worthless. Sure, they can write op-ed pieces criticizing government policy decisions, but without details of how those decisions were reached what good is it.

The so-called "fourth estate" that use to provide responsible investigative reporting in order to protect the public from government "spin" has failed. In order to have competitive access to the power players, the public is denied what we so rightfully deserve, and the MTM, more concerned with commercial success than journalistic integrity hangs us out to dry.

Personally, I blame this problem squarely on media consolidation that has effectively eliminated all journalistic independence. It's the herd mentality all competing for the same piece of a shrinking pie.

What better environment could exist for government to control the message and get us to believe that the world is really flat.

[ChrisR]

Let's see...
For Health Care reform, he's blasted by the media for not saying enough to promote it.
For Afghanistan, he comes out more to explain it, and he's blasted by the media that it's just "spin."

[OscarthePug]

Being President is not a "feel good" job. Media has a responsibility and an obligation to question everything - once, twice, all the time.

Leadership has the responsibility and obligation to explain their actions. After all, we're the owners. The President is the highest level employee.

[nomobull]

except they don't question. they opine

[lastep]

The President does what he does best.......spin. Wars, now climate change. And everything else.

[MegWe]

Did you read the NYTimes piece that is referred to? Did you read this article?

I bet not.

[goodog]

"At moments like this, it is easy for these insiders to believe that every option was parsed, that every grumpy dissent was respectfully heard..."

I'm pretty sure that wasn't the way Bush admin people with dissenting opinions felt.

In fact, his first treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill a) was fired from his job for disagreeing with the president's tax cuts for the wealthy and b) he says that the president did not make decisions in a methodical way: there was no free-flow of ideas or open debate.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml

"At cabinet meetings, he says the president was 'like a blind man in a roomful of deaf people. There is no discernible connection,' forcing top officials to act 'on little more than hunches about what the president might think.'"

While the current administration might be high-fiving each other over deliberative process and openness among themselves, it's not the default state of the art of all administrations, and early indications in the Bush administration made that obvious.

The Obama administration may have come to the wrong conclusion, but the process of getting there was undoubtedly different, even if it was just a ruse of deliberation... they at least bothered with it.

Bush obviously couldn't be bothered.

[ajax2]

I heard the final decision was always, always processed through Cheney first, only for GW to sign. If GW protested, Addington would scold him.

[OscarthePug]

The Bush Administration was a colossal failure, and we will paying the price for decades. In stark contrast, we need the Obama Administration to be open, transparent and honest with our conduit for information, the MTM. No more gullible sycophants thrilled to have access and a tour through the "situation room."

Whether it's the NYTimes or CNN, the people deserve reliable reporting. No more Judith Miller's, please.

[zezel]

Is anything ever this guy's fault? President Erkel: "Did I do that?"

[nomobull]

is anything ever his fault yes but is everything his fault no, sometimes it's the fault of congress. and it is most certainly media's fault when they misinform.

[Elbrando]

While I do understnd and appreciate the article, one should also look at the flip side of this. If the press were invited to earlier and "looser" discussions regarding policy decisions, how would it be reported? Some of the press would be accurate, but some of them would blow things out of proportion or quote things out of context. For every reporter that acts like Edward R Murrow, there is at least a number of them that act like Glenn Beck.

More important if these discussions were available to the media, it might hold back some opinions that are considered unpopular with the public which would be a detriment to REAL policy discussion. If you think there is spin now wait until the building blocks of spin are spinning.

[AnnfromCA]

Nobody was spun, least of all the public.

Marist poll......down to 46.

[Elbrando]

As long as his approval is above his disapproval, he is doing better than the previous president.

[alieninvader]

Too early to be reading polls.

[BritishColumbian]

So today's Gallup Poll is back up to 50%......

[goodog]

people like him.

[Whinger]

A thirty second decision manipulated and delayed for effect, with guile, but no spin!

[dizmo4]

Its obvious that Walter Shapiro doesn't agree with the decision by Obama.

But given the media questioning of the overall Afghan strategy I would hardly classify this as "spin." Just about every major network and media outlet questioned whether any troop increase would make a difference, what was the exit strategy, etc. The media behaved about as well as can be expected in this instance.
The fact that the President still went ahead with the troop increase doesn't indicate a media failing as Shapiro implies.

He also seems to draw some fairly false analogies that does nothing to confuse the issue. By all indications, including an interview by Robert McNamara, Kennedy was preparing to pull out of Vietnam in 1964/5. Drawing parallels between Afghanistan and Vietnam does nothing but confuse the issue as there are substantial differences.

[OpposingViewpoint]

Substantial differences yes, and substantial similarities.

[OpposingViewpoint]

We are menaced by our old enemies, greed, corruption, and duplicity.

[JoeBlough]

The very hallmarks of the Bush/Cheney Legacy.

[OpposingViewpoint]

I won't argue with tha Joe, but I want to take this opportunity to include the self-enrichment-zone in DC, AKA Capitol Hill.

[Gould123]

This article is a spin! He takes to much time, surge already, OMG, he surged, he dithers, Oh he did it!

[Transcendentobserver]

While precision of words in defining precise meaning through logical syntactical structure more often than not is difficult to delineate, the "confusion" in the WaPo column forming this blog is hardly debatable. Pres. Obama's wording and precision of meaning would pass the most scrutable contract. Interpretive language variables while complex and nuanced were not so in this particular contextual structure.

[evekendall]

"Historical Quotes on Plain Language and Writing Simply"

http://www.plainlanguage.gov/resources/quotes/historical.cfm

[nilotic]

You read my mind!

[MossyOak]

Quick, check your Thesaurus! I think I smell smoke.

[yellowdogdemocratic]

Obama stated several times during his campaign that he wanted to end the war in Iraq and put the focus on the war in Afghanistan. He didn't say he was going to end the war in Afghanistan, he said that he wanted to return the focus of the war to Afghanistan were it should have been all along. Why doesn't anyone remember this?

[niws]

The cause is SHS.

Selective Hearing Syndrome

Some may be diagnosed with SHS, most commonly mistaken for simple stupidity, or just hearing what you want to and neglecting the rest of what is said.

[MossyOak]

Most people who actually bothered to listen to him remember it. It was one of those campaign promises I hoped would fall by the wayside. But we're in for the duration now. The rest is just hand-wringing, second-guessing and finger pointing.