August 25, 2007

Fucking NY Times
Liberal bloggers have been posting about this shit for years -- the so-called 1st amendment zones, the carefully controlled 'town meetings,' the goon squads -- and the "paper of record" is just now editorializing about it?

The White House certainly has been guilty of mismanagement and lack of preparation on the big things, like the Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina. But it turns out that President Bush’s encounters with ordinary Americans have been micromanaged and laboriously controlled for the past five years to weed out the merest whiff of protest. Citizen volunteers are enlisted to vet cranky-looking sorts outside the event, and “rally squads” of zealots are prompted to pounce on anyone who manages to slip through with an outspoken thought or an unscripted word...

Every White House stage-manages presidential events, but this level of obsession with silencing the vox pop is a symptom of this administration’s broader problem honoring Americans’ constitutional freedoms.
Heckuva job, guys.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Right on Maru! Where the fuck was the NYT (and the rest) back in 2004 Presidential campaigns or even starting in 2001 after "9/11 changed everything"?? As I recall, they we're gushing over W's 'great leadership' and crap like that!