Dana Perino Has Her "Oops" Moment

It wasn't White House spin, it was just petulance and foolish. Dana Perino has had a week now to think about what she said. I've stopped holding my breath.

When the White House press secretary appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, no doubt many thought how nice the Bush spokesman could joke about the disastrous administration. And it is nice. Humor is a good thing and important. If Dana Perino wants to trade quips during a war, fair enough. She put herself on the hot seat in doing it, so she gets points for that.

What she doesn't get points for is sliming one of the legendary journalists in American history, Helen Thomas. In an off-handed cheap shot, Ms. Perino complained about answering questions from Thomas that were "not based on fact."

Helen Thomas has been covering the news for 57 years. That's 23 years longer than Dana Perino has been alive. Ms. Thomas was the first woman officer of the National Press Club, and the first woman president of the White House Correspondents Association. In 1998 White House Correspondents Association created the Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award -- which she won, as the first recipient.

And Dana Perino complains about questions from Helen Thomas "not based on fact."

If she would have given just one example, that would have been preferable. Actually, it would have been shocking. Unprecedented.

But examples or not, it's impossible to ignore the incongruity of hearing such a complaint from an administration that is not based on fact. This is an administration, after all, whose one legacy is a war based on a 16-word lie and the non-existence of WMD. An administration that has press officials rewrite scientific reports. An administration that creates PR videos as fake news reports to ship to TV stations and even creates fake news reporters. An administration that has repeatedly tried to make war heroes into friends of the enemy, and a deserter into a hero. An administration that puts down the "reality-based" world. In fact, as far as facts go, it's an administration that exists despite receiving fewer votes than its opponent.

And Dana Perino complains about questions from Helen Thomas "not based on fact."

Based on the White House track record, it would be a fair assumption (indeed, the only assumption) that Perino's very implication is not based on fact.

And even this would be less offensive if not for Ms. Perino's own joking admission last year on the NPR game show, Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

There, she revealed a story about being asked a question during an October 26, 2007, press briefing. It related to remarks by Russian President Putin, comparing U.S. actions in Eastern Europe to the Soviet Union during the Cuban missile crisis.

"I was panicked a bit because I really don't know about . . . the Cuban Missile Crisis," she laughed, referring to the 1962 U.S.-Soviet nuclear face-off. Though uncertain, she had a feeling that "it had to do with Cuba and missiles, I'm pretty sure."

(Note: This is like guessing that a birthday has to do with birth and a day. I'm pretty sure.)

"I came home and I asked my husband," she told the radio host, Peter Sagal. "I said, 'Wasn't that like the Bay of Pigs thing?' And he said, 'Oh, Dana.' "

It was such an oh-so-adorable story, and everyone at the show laughed and laughed. Okay, it was an embarrassed laugh, knowing that this is the spokesperson for our government's leader, just asked an important question concerning the president of Russia, current events, and the central crisis of the late-20th century when the world was on the edge of nuclear war. But it was oh-so-adorable that she told the story on herself. Good points for that.

But it would have been much less oh-so-adorable if everyone knew what Dana Perino's answer had been when asked that important question. She didn't admit her ignorance. She didn't tap-dance a fair-minded answer that avoided answering. Both would have been the decent thing to do. No, instead, she told the reporter off. "Well, I think that the historical comparison is not -- does not exactly work."

What she did was...well, she said the question was not based on fact. All the while (as she later acknowledged) she didn't have a clue what she was talking about.

That's not adorable. That's irresponsible. And that's a pattern. And as much as there are other people who don't know what the Cuban Missile Crisis is, there are two responses to that -- 1) you should know, because it's that important. (There have even been two movies about it.) And 2) you're not the White House press secretary whose job is to know about world-changing events at the core of White House history, so that he or she can speak on behalf of our government in an honest, fair, informed way.

And it didn't happen very long ago. Only during the Kennedy administration. If Dana Perino wanted to know about it, she could have just asked a reporter right there in the press room whose first White House assignment was during that same Kennedy presidency. The reporter's name is Helen Thomas.

Comments

[Hollyse]

Good review of Dana's ambiguous "birds of a feather flock together" intelligence stemming from the White House. After watching this telling moment of Dana's viral intelligence I had the feeling if I watched her breathe further on any reporter in the room they, too, would be infected by the instant disconnecting humor and insults directed to Helen Thomas. I commented about Dana's lack of current and past events curriculum of our nation's history in my blog written when incident happened, however I didn't receive the right to write space for stroking my thoughts concerning Dana's 'out of the peroxide bottle seepage of heavy crude' into her brain. I'm annoyed that fellow journalists didn't say anything to Dana and perhaps ALL should have walked out! Very telling..... it's not my fight attitude. A reserved seat at a press conference is more important than a reserved seat of a lifetime contributing reporter who can still burb the baby if Dana is ever weened off the bottle of milk.

[MizJ]

I missed Scott McClellan, who never disappointed as he shuffled around the truth and stood there like a deer in the headlights with reporters. Then along came the avuncular Tony Snow who treated all questioners with the arrogance of a headmaster enlightening the rest of us. But then came Dana Perino who has never failed to amuse with her version of the truth in such a condescending manner. These 3 are the perfect embodiment of the Bush/Cheney philosophy. Hidden among their collective non-answers was the word, "so?". You can't do much better than that.

[YellowPanties]

Anyone here see the movie "To Die For," where Nicole Kidman plays a wanna-be TV talking head, and she decides she's going to move up the ladder by giving a letter to her prospective employer that details how she gives the best blowjobs in the world? The gag is that it was supposed to be a letter of recommendation but Kidman's character wrote it herself.

I think this might explain how Dana Perino also got her job.

[YellowPanties]

Oh man, Mr Elisberg, you have run Dana through with a sword of truth.

i had forgotten about the Bushies creating those "news" videos and creating fake reporters, and the mention of those heinous acts reminded me also of the tens of thousands of dollars they paid to have columnists shill for the administration.

Dana Perino is such a non-entity that if you poked her head with a pin, it would simply pop and deflate like a balloon. There is nothing inside that stupid head of hers except air.

[ljsfolly]

Ok Everyone! We must all remember the most important thing about the white house press secretary/­mouthpiece­/idiot/clo­wn and it must be somewhere in Dana's Job description, a press secretary must above all other things be too stupid/dumb and as close to the idiot description as possible. One must meet these requirements as to be never smart enough to ask questions of those who tell her what to say. The words told to say must be used and never any doubt that the words are the absolute truth. She just happens to be better looking than some in the past and worse intellect than most.

[LeftRight]

No, that's not accurate. The White House Press Secretary must APPEAR to be an idiot, while not actually BEING an idiot!

[LeftRight]

Sorry, don't know what happened: Dana, however, seems to actualy BE an idiot, not simply appear to be one!

[verlaine]

Whenever Dana Perino talks, she sounds like someone who flunked out of elementary school. She's the dumbest person in the White House.

[IngeniousGirl]

Dana is programmed to do what the machine wants. She loves her job because she gets to be close to the President and be out front in the camera. After this administration is over, her lack of history and knowledge of politics will still land her a job, but a soft landing at a public relations firm specializing in management of the press during a media crisis. She will never be a great writer, or even talking head, she doesn't have the depth to rise to this level. It will be a big let down for her when she leaves, yes she will be taken in by the establishment, but this is as high as she will ever soar, and the shame of it is she doesn't realize how used she is. Just ask Scott McClellan.

[nlightenup]

Oh, thanks for that superbly presented, thoroughly justified, professional and civic outrage! Every now and then someone needs to say this kind of thing really, really well--and you just did.

[TrevorWynne]

How ridiculous of Ms. Perino! To think that she expects reporters to ask questions that are based on fact, and not the pack mentality of the press corps? As a person who has experience with these matters, I can assure you that's ludicrous. If you have any doubts, the new book, A Time Like This, is an excellent reference point on this matter.
-Trevor Wynne Washington, DC

[SCG]

Prediction: Post Bush she'll end up as an anchor on FOX & friends.

[wm1066]

True, but how long will Fox last without Bush and Cheney supporting it?

[LeftRight]

Forever. They'll still have the earmarks from the rethugs in Clowngress!

[PerryWhite]

I wasn't there to see it in person, so I am going to have to think about that for about 20 years before I can make a judgement.

[doctordawg]

I expected Perino to lie. I didn't expect Stewart to give her a free pass to flippantly denigrate an American journalistic treasure.

Jon, invite Helen to respond.

[Spikethedog]

Helen Thomas has no business calling herself a reporter in the first place. She used to be, but no more. She's a left-wing antagonist who makes no secret of her contempt for George Bush, similar in tone to Elisberg -- they're probably related, even if by marriage.
She doesn't ask questions or gather information, she attacks whoever's speaking for Bush. Her intent is not to be objective but to be objectionable and at that she succeeds brilliantly. No wonder Elisberg's defending her. She's a spiritual mother to him.

[choppedliver]

Bad dog, Spike, BAD DOG!!!!

Helen Thomas has "antagonized" every president since Ike. Politicians are easily antagonized by pointed questioning, and that's what she does. Duh.

Just as insanity is a sane reaction to an insane world, contempt for George Bush is a sane reaction to this contemptible "President." He has shown nothing but contempt not just for Americans, but for the world. Helen Thomas -- and two-thirds of Americans -- are just returning the favor.

[1dogs2]

Here's a news flash for you, Spike. It is a reporter's job to ask questions. Substantive questions. Hard questions. Which is precisely what the sorry lot that calls itself the White House press corps DIDN'T do during the most of the current administration's time in office. If they had, perhaps we would have had enough information that this nation would not now be bogged down for a sixth year in the disastrous Iraq war. Maybe billions of taxpayers' hard-earned money would not have been squandered through fraud, stupidity and incompetence. Anyone who understands what the function of the press is and why it used to be called "the fourth estate" knows that we would all be a lot better off today if there were hundreds of Helen Thomases out there among those who purport to be "journalists." She, of course, eschews that high-falutin' title; she regards herself as a plain old reporter. I guess you prefer homosexual escorts masquerading as "reporters" at White House briefings so that they can ask questions whose premises came directly from the White House talking points of the day.

[RButler]

Go easy on her. It's very hard to hide one's contempt for George Bush. It really is.

[dadw5boys]

Spike was was a Soldier by choice just like any other in the military trying to portect the USA from the Bush CRIME FAMILY!
Daddy Bush head of the C I A and the F B I over his carrer.
Look at what the Bush's have done.
Illegal war in South American countries so American Businesses could get access to the natural resources of those countries.
Silverado Savings and Loan. Ketting connection to other savings and loans.
Iran / Contra Scandel - selling cocaine to Americans to buy arms for contra rebels and cash for Iran hostage takers.
AWOL from the National Guard.

[YellowPanties]

You're flagged for being completely immune to reason and logic.

If you hate a reporter who demands true answers to difficult questions and demands that the public has a right to know, then you hate America itself. Maybe you should move to an authoritarian society where the press are just lapdogs.

Your argument is like the bleating of sheep. Go to bed now, little sheep.

[elderly]

Good news-no need to move.

[lcmartin]

I saw the Helen Thomas comment on the Daily Show. I'm surprise Jon Stewart didn't jump on it. He gave her a pass. I believe that it wasn't a slip--it sounded deliberate and intentional. Perino strikes me as the White House version of the "Valley Girl". I thought Tony Snow and Ari Fleischer were bad, but Perino gives the impression of being an attractive airhead. Perino is so beneath Helen Thomas, she shouldn't be allowed to speak Helen Thomas' name. She should "thank her god and wag her tail" that people like Thomas exist. But wait, that would require at least one grain of intelligence.

[RButler]

Perino reminds me of a very attractive woman who turns out to be a hooker. You wonder why they couldn't do better in life. Why they would demean themselves to lie for this administration?

[buddy7777]

She reminds me of Monica Goodling - did I get that right? - You know - the law schooll grad from Pat Robertson's university.

They are both hookers - maybe they didn't sell their bodies, but they sold their souls.

[huffyanika]

I have often wondered: Is this (girl) a relative of a Bush administration appointee? Could someone find out? Or why would she be given this job? (Although someone here has answered that hypothetically.)

Yes, Helen Thomas should be invited to respond on the Stewart show. It is sorrowful that Jon Stewart didn't challenge Dana Perino on that comment. The comment was (obviously?) (probably?) planted well in advance.

Yes, Dana Perino should/could still apologize, in front of cameras at a news briefing. To Helen Thomas, the top reporter in the field. I am so glad she still exists and that she still asks these courageous questions. i love Helen Thomas. A lot.

[elderly]

She fulfilled the one job requirement-be the only person on earth more stupid than George Bush

[gr8hrt1]

a terrific post mr elisberg.