Jay Carney Steps Down as White House Press Secretary

As my Swiss friend Romie might say, "What the big deal is?" Why should it be suspicious or controversial that a press secretary would resign? It's a position with a rather high turnover rate. George W. Bush had four of them in eight years. Jay Carney was President Obama's second.
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I'm also seeing a bunch of Twitter and other commentary from Right Wing World, calling Carney a "serial liar," and worse. Which I find kind of amusing, since the position is about "spin," though not everyone would call that lying. It's a rather thankless position, one that does not lend itself well to blunt honesty. And I wonder, who would the right consider an honest press secretary? Ari Fleischer? Ha! Dana Perino? Haha! The late (and former FOX "News" Sunday host) Tony Snow? No way.

So no, I don't think Carney set himself apart as particularly worse than any of his predecessors.  But frankly, I haven't been a fan of very many of these guys (and gals). Historically, I rank them right in there with the heads of the DNC and RNC for people I don't particularly like to listen to.  All of them are in a position of spinning to their own advantage, all the time. But that might be the difference between a liberal like me, and your typical hardcore conservative: I don't love the person in this position simply because he's "on my team." What do I mean? Scroll down below the excepted article below, and I'll show you.

[Excerpt]

White House press secretary Jay Carney leaving

Jay Carney is stepping down as White House press secretary, President Barack Obama announced on Friday. Obama said Carney told him of his decision in April, and Carney later said he plans to leave the position in mid-June. The President announced that deputy press secretary Josh Earnest will step into the role. . .

Read more at: CNN

Now, what did I mean by the hero-worship some on the right have had of the president of their party's spokesman? Well, here you go. Right wing outpost FreeRepublic.com had a love-fest with Bush era press conferences, particularly those of Tony Snow, who was himself--it is alleged--a "FReeper." This image would accompany any post regarding a White House press conference. Can you imagine a fawning graphic like this for any other politician?

White House Press Secretary Calls Out Media on Sherrod Story

Image from CEOWorld.biz

The Obama Administration, the NAACP and the USDA have been harshly criticized over their initial treatment of Shirley Sherrod, and as well they should be.  There is a larger issue though, and that is the tactic of FOX "News", right-wing bloggers like Andrew Breitbart, and the way they successfully push bogus stories into the mainstream. 

For a blogger like me, who started this blog in the dog-days of the Bush Era, this all feels like deja-vu.  Back then, though the Karl Rove alternate reality machine was breaking down, the right-wing spin was still leading news cycles.  I sat here knowing that there stories were bogus, I could see what they were doing, but reality just refused to break through.  Now, here we sit, 18 months into the Obama Era.  And what has led the news cycles lately?  Big, blown-up faux outrage stories, sometimes only tangentially true, sometimes utterly false.  And the mainstream media and sometimes the Democratic elected politicians keep falling for it.

I'm glad that Robert Gibbs is calling on the mainstream press to do some soul searching on how they report on these things. I only hope that he and the rest of the Obama Administration are doing the same.

[Excerpt]

Gibbs calls on media to do soul searching about Sherrod mess

The Shirley Sherrod mess has ignited another national conversation about race, but if Robert Gibbs has his way, it will also spark some soul-searching by members of the media about their willingness to legitimize bogus stories, particularly ones pushed by the right. . .

Read more at:  The Plum Line

Robert Gibbs Mocks Sarah Palin

Image from source, CBS News

Mean? Maybe. Funny? Yep.

[Excerpt]

Robert Gibbs Scrawls Notes on Hand, Mocking Sarah Palin

. . .Gibbs quipped that he had made the notes in case he and his family are snowed in by the storm approaching Washington. He said the words written on his hands included "eggs" and "milk" and that he had written "bread" but crossed it out. . .

Read more at: CBS News

Wanda Sykes at the White House Correspondents' Dinner

It may not get quite the buzz that Stephen Colbert did a few years ago. But Wanda was on her game, and didn't pull any punches. She's a funny girl, but she will have the wrath of Rush Limbaugh's dittoheads after her now. . .

President Obama's Second Press Conference

I did my duty as an American and watched President Barack Obama's press conference tonight. Well, watched would be stretching the term, since my eyes did find themselves closed on occasion. This economy stuff--while important--isn't exciting stuff.

Obama is a better speaker than George W. Bush of course, though that bar is quite low. I didn't feel like grabbing the remote and hurling at the screen, as I so often did in the last eight years. But I hope as he gets more seasoned in the job, that he truncates his answers a bit, and realizes that he doesn't have to fill every second with his voice. Rather than draw out "aaaaaand" or "thennnnnnnnn" he could just pause. Other than that, he was pretty good, and clearly thoughtful and engaged. I think if I had a better grasp on all of the economic issued, I would have been more engaged myself.

If you missed it, here's the entire conference.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Keith Olbermann Deconstructs Bush's Last Press Conference

As discussed below, Bush gave his last "exit interview" press conference today. And this analysis from Countdown with Keith Olbermann is an excellent place to catch the highlights (lowlights?), if you cannot bear to watch the whole thing. Plus, Keith gets in some excellent points, and hopefully helps to derail the "Bush Legacy Project."

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Most Important Story of the Day: Jenna Bush's Wedding

Photo from Us Versus Them

What? Really? I guess our press still has a long way to go before we can stop calling them info-tainment. It will be very interesting--in the hopeful event that we get a Democratic President---to see if the press continues in its tabloid ways, or if they revert the attack dogs they were during the Clinton Presidency. Liberal press, my ass.

[Excerpt]

Ten of the 15 questions in today’s press gaggle focused on Jenna’s wedding.

The White House press corps gave Bush administration spokesman Gordon Johndroe a tough time in today’s press gaggle. Of the 15 total questions asked during the briefing, 10 were regarding the upcoming wedding of President Bush’s daughter Jenna. Here are some of the most hard-hitting of the bunch:

Read those questions at: Think Progress

Thanks to Stupid Monkey Planet for the link.

Jeff Gannon Writes a Book; Self Publishes

Image from source, Examiner.com

Former White House correspondent, faux reporter, Jeff Gannon (aka James Guckert) is back, and he's written a book. He couldn't get it published by a book company, mind you, so he self-published. It isn't a tell-all though, so who the heck would want to read it?

For all you need to know about the reporter, the legend, the man-whore, check out the exhaustive (and not safe for work) link at AmericaBlog.com.

If you're actually interested in his book, here's a little about it.

[Excerpt]

Gannon: 'I'm here. ... Deal with me

It’s been more than two years since Jeff Gannon (birth name: James Dale Guckert) resigned from Talon News, a conservative Web site for which Gannon served as White House correspondent. At the time, some theorized that Gannon was liberally granted press access in order to ask softball questions of White House.

Others were taken aback by nude pictures of Gannon that appeared on male escort service Web pages. A few questioned his lack of journalism education and experience.

Well, Gannon’s back, and he has his claws out. [snip]

“In my mind, I was the most honest reporter [in the White House press corps] because I was absolutely transparent with regards to my [conservative] perspective,” Gannon says. “My work has never been discredited.”

Read more at: Examiner.com