Obama and the Goldfish
By Robert Gelb
Monday 28th September 2009
Monday 28th September 2009
The White House try to control the news. They stifle our reporting. They plant questions in the Audience. They have favourites, and they reject anyone they don't like. It's unfair.
Though the accusations can indeed be more colourful, those are just a few of the many legitimate criticisms that correspondents from several different media organizations have for the White House. The Obama White House, that is. After having an exceptional experience interning at an international news network's US Politics division for ten weeks, I witnessed first hand how news making is done in Washington, DC. I must admit, I was caught momentarily off guard by such statements after all I had heard about openness and transparency. Hope and Change might be shouted from the rafters, but nothing can get done without a perceptive and cunning political machine.
The Obama administration has itself been called naive. The President has delivered a major speech imagining a world free of nuclear weapons. In the campaign he spoke of engagement with adversaries and drew criticism from his opponents for so called "apology tours" he gave while overseas. In reality however, the innocent, wide-eyed, wet-behind-the ears rhetoric used to describe this administration could not be farther from the truth. The current executive branch of the government of the United States is a well-oiled, focused, and brilliant political machine that is pushing through its astute chief's orders precisely. Contrary to the projected image, their relationship with the media is ruthlessly efficient.
A key to the success of the White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs and his staff in effectively controlling the news cycle has been experience and practice. The campaign was one of the longest in US History. Then-Senator Obama announced his candidacy eleven months before the Iowa Caucuses, the traditional kick-off to the US election season. An eighteen month campaign allowed the Obama team to refine and perfect their handling of the media.
Many in the political press corps were expecting this administration to be more open and receptive. During the Bush Administration, while they obviously didn't like the press, when they did decide to engage, they would do it properly and allow the media to do it's job. This White House, complain some correspondents, has a habit of playing outlets off each other and excluding certain organizations (particularly international ones) because they can get away with it. They have usually proven to be on top of every news story and are acknowledged for being a leak proof administration, indeed a far cry from the porous sieve-like nature of the Clinton years.
In this age of bloggers and twenty-four hour news, it can be hard to control the news cycle. The death of Michael Jackson, for example, meant that news coverage of the Iranian election evaporated. With an attention span that would make a goldfish's seven seconds seem like a Gordon Brown policy speech, the media has a habit of getting carried away with distractions. There have been a few losses by the Obama White House during these first six months, the ridiculous and infamous "beer summit" being the prime example. But the media's ephemeral attention span is also a great tool for people like Robert Gibbs.
Allowing CNN and Fox to beat a distraction dry is comparable to letting a fire burn itself out. Robert Gibbs and the Obama White House are learning how to avoid fanning flames and effectively suffocating the story in a well planned, well executed manner. These people are smart. They are smarter than most, and certainly smarter than the many egos in US based political punditry. The next time you see Robert Gibbs on the screen, keep some of this in mind and lookout for his unmistakable, shrewd, chirpy smirk.
Though the accusations can indeed be more colourful, those are just a few of the many legitimate criticisms that correspondents from several different media organizations have for the White House. The Obama White House, that is. After having an exceptional experience interning at an international news network's US Politics division for ten weeks, I witnessed first hand how news making is done in Washington, DC. I must admit, I was caught momentarily off guard by such statements after all I had heard about openness and transparency. Hope and Change might be shouted from the rafters, but nothing can get done without a perceptive and cunning political machine.
The Obama administration has itself been called naive. The President has delivered a major speech imagining a world free of nuclear weapons. In the campaign he spoke of engagement with adversaries and drew criticism from his opponents for so called "apology tours" he gave while overseas. In reality however, the innocent, wide-eyed, wet-behind-the ears rhetoric used to describe this administration could not be farther from the truth. The current executive branch of the government of the United States is a well-oiled, focused, and brilliant political machine that is pushing through its astute chief's orders precisely. Contrary to the projected image, their relationship with the media is ruthlessly efficient.
A key to the success of the White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs and his staff in effectively controlling the news cycle has been experience and practice. The campaign was one of the longest in US History. Then-Senator Obama announced his candidacy eleven months before the Iowa Caucuses, the traditional kick-off to the US election season. An eighteen month campaign allowed the Obama team to refine and perfect their handling of the media.
Many in the political press corps were expecting this administration to be more open and receptive. During the Bush Administration, while they obviously didn't like the press, when they did decide to engage, they would do it properly and allow the media to do it's job. This White House, complain some correspondents, has a habit of playing outlets off each other and excluding certain organizations (particularly international ones) because they can get away with it. They have usually proven to be on top of every news story and are acknowledged for being a leak proof administration, indeed a far cry from the porous sieve-like nature of the Clinton years.
In this age of bloggers and twenty-four hour news, it can be hard to control the news cycle. The death of Michael Jackson, for example, meant that news coverage of the Iranian election evaporated. With an attention span that would make a goldfish's seven seconds seem like a Gordon Brown policy speech, the media has a habit of getting carried away with distractions. There have been a few losses by the Obama White House during these first six months, the ridiculous and infamous "beer summit" being the prime example. But the media's ephemeral attention span is also a great tool for people like Robert Gibbs.
Allowing CNN and Fox to beat a distraction dry is comparable to letting a fire burn itself out. Robert Gibbs and the Obama White House are learning how to avoid fanning flames and effectively suffocating the story in a well planned, well executed manner. These people are smart. They are smarter than most, and certainly smarter than the many egos in US based political punditry. The next time you see Robert Gibbs on the screen, keep some of this in mind and lookout for his unmistakable, shrewd, chirpy smirk.
