Today’s must read and laugh at:
“Thank you,” said the man. I was standing outside of the offices of Charlie Hebdo covering the aftermath of the terrorist attacks for CNN. He was thanking me just for being here, just for covering the event and its aftermath, what Le Monde referred to as France’s September 11. And his appreciation was echoed by French citizen after French citizen.
The rally Sunday for unity drew 1.5 million people in Paris and more than twice that nationwide; it was like nothing I’ve ever seen or covered. Our nation’s oldest ally stood firm. A young Muslim Frenchwoman held a sign saying “Je suis Juif.”
A man and his son came over to me holding a sign saying “I disapprove of what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it,” beseeching me to share their message with the American people. And world leaders were standing together amidst a procession that included Francois Hollande of France, Angela Merkel of Germany, David Cameron of Great Britain, Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, along with the leaders of Mali, Jordan and Turkey.
It is no small thing for the king of Jordan, a direct descendent of the Prophet Mohammed, to march in a rally prompted by the murders of people who mocked Islam as well as of innocent Jews — all of whom were killed by Islamic extremists.
The United States, which considers itself to be the most important nation in the world, was not represented in this march — arguably one of the most important public demonstrations in Europe in the last generation — except by U.S. Ambassador Jane Hartley, who may have been a few rows back. I didn’t see her. Even Russia sent Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
I say this as an American — not as a journalist, not as a representative of CNN — but as an American: I was ashamed.
I certainly understand the security concerns when it comes to sending President Barack Obama, though I can’t imagine they’re necessarily any greater than sending the lineup of other world leaders, especially in aggregate.
But I find it hard to believe that collectively President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Attorney General Eric Holder — who was actually in France that day for a conference on counterterrorism — just had no time in their schedules on Sunday. Holder had time to do the Sunday shows via satellite but not to show the world that he stood with the people of France?
There was higher-level Obama administration representation on this season’s episodes of “The Good Wife” on CBS.
That’s Jake Tapper latching on to the latest plaintive wail by the wingnuts, and let’s face it, there’s a little Buzzfeed link-bait in all of us, amirite? At any rate, Jake knows something about shame, because he shares airtime with Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo. So I would say this is a shameless “look at me column,” but let’s face it, he works with those guys so he has at least a passing acquaintance with the concept.
I honestly wonder if journalists think they are having a Walter Cronkite moment, speaking truth the power, when they write this kind of nonsense. Speaking of, Mr. Tapper was with ABC News throughout the Bush years, and goshdarnit I just don’t recall any long feature length columns admitting he was ashamed of the Bush administration torture program. I may have just missed it.
History is not going to look kindly on the last few decades of journalism.
JMG
The world leaders did not participate in the march but posed for a group photo op on a heavily, heavily guarded street elsewhere. It could hardly be otherwise, not blaming them. But there’s something fabulous about a TV reporter saying he’s ashamed the US leaders weren’t at a photo op.
feebog
Yeah, Republicans love them some Frenchmen. Remember “Cheese eating surrender monkeys” and “Freedom Fries”?
dedc79
White House Chief of Staff: Mr. President, I have some bad news. Jake Tapper says you should have been at the rally.
President Obama: My god, we’ve lost Tapper?!? We better admit we screwed up.
No, seriously, the White House is now saying they should have sent someone more high-profile. I can’t believe they gave in to this crap.
Violet
@JMG: Yes, you can see the World Leader Photo Op here
dubo
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Jake Tapper has ALWAYS been about one eyebrow twitch away from full Breitbart
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
There’s just nothing President Obama has done that’s been remotely scandalous or incompetent, and it’s driving them out of their tiny little minds. I don’t know how long it’ll take them to give up on Benghazi or Too Fast, Too Furious II, Electric Boogaloo, but they must know deep down that there just isn’t anything there. Maybe that’s why they’re so desperately latching on to anything and everything they see. (The president chewed gum! The president’s skanky-ass daughters rolled their eyes on television! The president’s skanky-ass wife ate a cheeseburger even when she says we should eat healthy food!) It’s gotten so bad for them that I’ve seen wingnuts try to make a big deal about the president taking time to go on vacation. Seriously. After eight years of George Fucking Bush, they really want to say that this guy doesn’t spend enough time working…
They think that if they keep screaming about every little thing he does, sooner or later they’re going to find one Americans get behind. I’ve never seen anything so depressing.
Turgidson
This is Tapper’s whole schtick. He takes these heroic stands of journalistic independence and truth-telling over shit like this, or GruberGate, or something that happened at the White House press briefings that hurt his buddies’ fee-fees. And because of all these acts of journalistic courage, he sees Edward Murrow looking back at him in the mirror. And maybe I’m just a silly OBot, but it sure seems like his “look at me, I’m today’s Murrow!” moments are almost always in the service of embarrassing this particular administration.
He’s a somewhat-more-self-aware version of a douche like Ed Henry, or Ron “severe dementia” Fournier and his “both sides do it and Dems are always worse!” twit brigade.
Howard Beale IV
Jake Tapper can go fuck himself with a 10-ft long, barb-wire wrapped curare-tipped telephone pole with no lubricants.
Corner Stone
@dedc79:
What the everloving fuck? Maybe they should have sent Shirley Sherrod.
beth
Isn’t Tapper the one who smelled cigarette smoke on Obama and acted like he broke the Watergate story? Yeah a regular Edward Murrow that one is.
Corner Stone
You should be ashamed, asshole. But not about the decision to not send high level admin people to memorialize this one-off tragedy.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@dedc79:
The one thing this administration could do a whole lot better is to tell right wing assholes who bitch about them in columns (and supposedly neutral assholes who bitch about them while faking being actual reporters telling us the news) to just fuck off and go to hell. They need to stop telling people they made mistakes when they haven’t done anything wrong.
Betty Cracker
@dedc79: I don’t think they’re giving into this crap. In retrospect, they probably recognized that they really should have sent Uncle Joe or someone higher profile than the ambassador (it’s not unreasonable to think so, though it is ridiculous that Tapper and wingnut morons are howling about the absence of Obama himself).
Unlike the previous administration, when this group realizes they’re wrong about something or could have handled a situation better, sometimes they actually admit it. We’re used to politicians playing for optics alone. I don’t think the Obama administration always does — to their immense credit.
Turgidson
@feebog:
Hey now, don’t give the GOP creative credit for “cheese eating surrender monkeys.”
I’m pretty sure “cheese eating surrender monkeys” was invented on the Simpsons, when Groundskeeper Willie taught French during a teachers strike.
“Bonjouurrrrrrr, ya cheese eatin’ surrender monkeys!” (r’s trilled in an exagerrated Scottish accent)
Uncle Cosmo
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
They share their bidniz model:with contemporary “urinalists” like, um, Joke Shtupper: Have you forgotten the Clinton impeachment??
1. Throw shit against wall.
2. Hope shit sticks.
3. (–long pause–)
4. Notice that shit did not stick.
5. Repeat steps 1-4.
Fuck Joke Shtupper. With a rusty chainsaw.
Betty Cracker
@beth: Yep. It was then when I realized what a worthless tool he is, and nothing he has said or written since has changed my mind.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@beth:
He sure was!
I liked this line:
It isn’t up there with Richard Cohen telling us how funny he is before whining that Stephen Colbert was a bully, but I liked it all the same.
Turgidson
@beth:
YES, that’s the example I couldn’t think of in my post above. Tapper acted as if his supposed discovery that Obama sneaks a cig once in a while (never verified, IIRC) gave him, Jake Tapper, unique insight into Obama’s heart, mind and soul. And, boy howdy, Jake Tapper didn’t like what he saw. And yes, he behaved as if he’d secured himself a fucking Pulitzer for this bombshell reporting. Self-satisfied empty suit.
Roger Moore
The same way people with pets know something about tails. We observe them and know they’re a big deal to our pets, but we don’t actually know what it’s like to have one. That’s Tapper’s relationship to shame.
Lee Rudolph
@beth: To be fair, I doubt that Edward R. Murrow would have been able to notice the smell of cigarette smoke.
dedc79
@Betty Cracker:
I do commend the Administration for this on issues of substance.
The present situation and criticism is purely optics, masquerading as substance.
geg6
@Howard Beale IV:
This. A thousand times.
@Betty Cracker:
Not even his comments here? LOL!
GxB
The hysteria with which the cons fling poo at the “lame duck” president leads me to think they are loosing badly in the court of public opinion. Looks like Cleek’s Law needs a slight amendment. Seeing as France is the birthplace for the guillotine, I’m sure there’s at least a couple in various museums of Paris and there’s at least one egregious media idiot within its borders – whattaya all say to dusting off the old girl for a good cause?
Comrade Jake
I think I wrote something mildly critical of Tapper on Twitter, and he blocked me. The guy’s a total douche.
sharl
@dedc79: I like to think the White House planned that apology from the get-go – well in advance of the Paris march – in which case I say ‘Well Done’! But I have no connections there, so don’t know if that’s how it played out.
In any event, I’m glad Obama didn’t show up along with a bunch of leaders that included a lot of journalist jailers, torturers, and killers. I might modify my opinion depending on how the French themselves respond, but our homegrown wingnuts can go to hell and stay there.
The apology was a cheap way to diffuse this, I think (we’ll see). The rest of us can do our bit to mock and ridicule the wingnuts for their rank hypocrisy – e.g., where were these Heroes of Free Speech in response to this or this – and they can eventually return to shouting BENGHAZI!!!1!eleventy!!
dubo
@Turgidson: Tapper’s career was launched on “cigarette scoop” style columns about Bill and Monica. What can I say, he knows what the “liberal media” eats up.
Turgidson
@Comrade Jake:
They’re a touchy bunch. Fournier blocked me and all I did was plead with him to get his dementia treated and reach out to pals like Karl Rove for support if he felt alone.
NotMax
Doesn’t matter one way or another. Had Biden (or Obama) flown over, the same voices would be screaming about the use of some ridiculously inflated amount of “taxpayer dollars wasted” on the trip.
Dollars to doughnuts that either someone directly impacted by or at l’affaire Charlie and/or a political cartoonist will be in the seemingly now mandatory photo op visitor seats for the State of the Union address.
Turgidson
@dubo:
Agreed. I guess what irks me to no end about Tapper is that he seems to sincerely believe that “scoops” like that – vapid, personality-driven, and/or horse-race bullshit – are fearless acts of tough journalism and speaking truth to power. He really seems to believe it. If he just did his thing without giving off such a self-righteous stench while doing it, I don’t think I’d be half as annoyed by him.
Corner Stone
@Betty Cracker:
But that’s not what they do. They knee-jerk react, time and again.
gene108
Fascinating how right-wing media is able to push their talking points onto the MSM. They have been doing this for decades now.
Corner Stone
@NotMax:
We’d already be hearing about the $500M spent taking Moochelle across the pond for a Parisian shopping spree.
That would have flipped their erections from supporting the fearless French and on to having erections denouncing the surrender monkeys and their immigrant problem.
NotMax
Also, just curious how many (if any) members of Congress were there?
(Lookin’ at you, Sen. Graham.)
Comrade Jake
@Turgidson: LOL. I had to look back on my tweets. I had one where I described Tapper as a grade-A dickhead. But I didn’t address Tapper, so he must have seen it when he was searching Twitter for his name. Too funny.
Darkrose
@Betty Cracker: It’s not clear if Obama was actually invited, or if it was meant to be a European unity thing. Netanyahu was NOT invited but chose to show up anyway, so the French goverment felt like they had to invite Abbas.
Netanyahu then continued making an ass of himself by getting up in the Grand Synagogue and encouraging French Jews to move to Israel. In response, apparently, the congregants sang “La Marseilles” when Netanyahu was done speaking.
sharl
Jake Tapper is capable of some good stuff, and even innovative efforts, such as this idea during his temporary anchoring of ABC’s Sunday Morning show (a few months in 2010, between Stephanopoulos and Amanpour). But he won’t do anything that might risk his job security and/or income. So the more controversial issues – the ones that frequently matter most – will be those where he plays it really safe.
And there was his 2009 defense of Fox News against the eeeebil White House press office:
raven
Paris march: TV wide shots reveal a different perspective on world leaders at largest demonstration in France’s history
SatanicPanic
Obama should troll the right by responding “I’d like to attend but, frankly I am still upset about France’s refusal to join the Coalition of the Willing”
NotMax
@Corner Stone
They’re nothing if not equal opportunity haters.
Take yer pick:
“Michelle ate a croissant! She couldn’t have eaten a bagel to show support for Jews?”
“Michelle ate a bagel! She had to single out Jews rather than eat a croissant to show support for all the French?”
“Michelle ate both a croissant and a bagel! Hypocrite! So much for that healthy eating initiative of hers!”
jl
This seems to be a developing story that may change significantly. But as of now, looks like some of the Mideast heads of state and sundry bigshots at French demonstrations was an accidental cascade that occurred after Netenyahu decided to attend. And apparently Netenyahu was not going to attend in deference to wishes of French government until he discovered that some of his political rivals were going to attend because they were the type who do not give a rat’s ass about anybody’s deferences, thank you very much. And also too, coincidentally, Netenyahu might have more trouble than expected in the upcoming Israeli elections.
So, if this story holds up, we will see how noble and altruistic many of these appearances really were.
Now Tapper could have done some news reporting, like TPM does. But no, he is a corporate hack in the US media biz. So he BSs and grandstands and editorializes from ignorance that is so profound he is often not even wrong.
If there are no more attacks, then the public is not going to care about these optics at all, or even notice anything. Try to explain that to likes of Tapper, who is so insulated from reality, he thinks it is composed entirely of gestures and posturing, and other dramatic Kabuki theater of the mind. There are some similarities to the incompetent 60 minutes report on Obamacare last night.
The Uninvited Guest
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/the-uninvited-guest
Turgidson
@sharl:
Ugh, that’s such a perfect example of his bullshit. He either plays (or is) dumb about the real issue, which is that Fox News is (best ignored or treated as) a propaganda megaphone for the GOP and the right. As much as I’m badmouthing him here, I find it hard to believe he’s actually too stupid and/or oblivious realize this, so instead of debating an actual issue of public import, he gets all huffy about parsing out exactly what Gibbs means by “not a real news organization” and whether the White House is hurting people’s feelings in saying that out loud. And he thinks he’s a hero for it.
Brendan in NC
Unfortunately – the winners write the history, so they’ll skip right over the last several decades…
Keith G
I said earlier today, that there will be no historical downside to the President not being there. But I imagine that had such an event happened with a Republican president staying away, I, and many of you, would be noting the “unfortunate” choice. That is the way the game is played and always will be.
I wished he had gone. I know his team has allergic reactions to such consideration as “optics”, but not all of the rest of the world that they inhabit share such a reaction.
Kay
@raven:
That’s amazing. They can really create a whole different story with the angle of a photograph.
Oh, well. President Obama should have been there pretending to lead the march like the other world leaders.
Corner Stone
@Keith G:
I would never have expected any president to have attended. So count me out of your “many of you”.
I absolutely have no concern that Obama nor Biden attended. This wasn’t a matter of state.
jl
@Brendan in NC:
From what I see and hear, plenty in US media think that that should be ‘the whiners write the history,’
Corner Stone
@Kay:
And if he had participated in that staged farce, they all would have been carping about what a phony he was. And all the taxpayer dollars he spent to be in a “photo-op”.
Keith G
@sharl:
You just described an Obama cabinet meeting.
Cervantes
@JMG:
Especially when you consider the record of the human-rights defenders who were there.
But why would Jake Tapper want to discuss that?
burnspbesq
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Dude, whatever else anyone may think of Michelle Obama, she does not have a skanky ass. Quite the contrary: she has a magnificent ass.
Cervantes
@Keith G:
!
Keith G
@Corner Stone:
They would complain anyway, but this way at least he’d have some great crepes for his trouble.
Corner Stone
@Cervantes:
Not sure this admin would’ve held up any better.
Kay
@Corner Stone:
It reminds me a little of this.
Why report reality when you can improve on it, right?
More and more I think I have to personally witness these events, or it’s all just reality tv.
GregB
Were Boehner, Mitch McConnell, John McCain and Mitt Romney under house arrest for the march?
Liberty60
Oh but I remember the Dixie Chicks saying they were ashamed, and the Fox News crowd cheered.
What, what?
Corner Stone
@Keith G:
Coming from Kenya, as he does, he probably longs for a taste of the colonial era food prep he enjoyed as a young child.
Howard Beale IV
@Corner Stone:
No shit. Killing al-Alwiki’s kid is right up there.
Comrade Jake
Not that ANY of this matters, not when gas is now dirt freakin cheap.
Baud
I think Obama should have taken a page from Bush’s playbook and responded to terrorism in France by visiting Uruguay.
Mike in NC
Tapper is merely continuing his audition for FOX News. Expect him to get hired before the 2016 elections.
Obama must have collapsed on the Oval Office fainting couch with a bottle of Scotch when informed that the New York Daily News was also upset.
Cervantes
@Corner Stone:
Right. No matter what your human-rights record, you aren’t going to embellish it by rallying with the likes of Netanyahu et al.
Corner Stone
@Mike in NC:
Ed Henry V J-Tapp
“Two Jellos enter, one Jello leave”
Corner Stone
@Comrade Jake: Just filled up for $18 on Friday!
Yippie-kai-ay, motherfucker!
Keith G
@Corner Stone: But that would be in London, eh?
Gin & Tonic
@Keith G: Please name names. Which journalist(s) were killed by which Cabinet member(s)?
NotMax
@Baud
French Guiana, perhaps. Or better yet, St. Pierre and Miquelon, the enclave of French national soil closest to the U.S.
A Uruguay trip would only have been to get his marching orders from the super-villains recently released there from Gitmo, utilizing their awesome mind control powers.
sharl
@Cervantes: Agree with this entirely. Obama and his crew have plenty of blood on their hands as it is (See! Dems can be tough NatSec bastids with the
worstbest among us!) Nothing would have been gained by joining others guilty of similar things – and worse – many of them our “friends”.jl
@Mike in NC: For Fox, Tapper will need less obnoxious superior disbelieving sneer and more deranged enthusiastic gusto. Not sure he can make the cut, but maybe Fox News will give him a try anyway.
Karen in GA
@Kay: First thing I thought of.
Comrade Jake
What’s funny is how Tapper is responding to criticism of his piece by saying “the WH said they should have sent someone higher profile!”
SEE PEOPLE I WAS RIGHT TO BE EMBARRASSED FOR ALL HUMANITY!!!
Comrade Jake
@Corner Stone: LOOK – SQUIRREL!!!
Mandalay
@sharl:
Priceless.
SatanicPanic
This is actually kind of sad. The right expects people to care that the president didn’t go attend a march in France. Get a grip RWNJs, nobody cares.
Elizabelle
Top story on NBC Nightly News. Andrea Mitchell with her most serious Villager face, closing with “the administration is working to repair the damage.”
Jesus. Found the remote and catching Sundance TV’s Monday Law & Order marathon.
Love me some Briscoe.
Keith G
@Gin & Tonic: I viewed ‘torturers’ and ‘killers’ as not being modified by the word ‘journalists’. Maybe that was too hasty of a read.
Baud
I know I’m going to regret this, but which journalist was jailed by this administration? If my memory is failing me, I truly, deeply apologize.
Villago Delenda Est
There is no possible death long enough or painful enough for the likes of Jake Tapper.
The Village…wipe them out. All of them.
Howard Beale IV
@Corner Stone: Remember when gas was this cheap? Millions were losing jobs and we were on the precipice of a global meltdown. Instead of a housing bubble that burst, we may have a different bubble (shale oil) that may burst.
dubo
@Liberty60: Since you bring it up, I’ve found it interesting that when liberals disavowed Bush, it was “he doesn’t represent me”, and with the twitchy crowd it’s “he doesn’t represent ‘MURICA!” Like, who the fuck is Dana Loesh to claim to speak for the country?
chopper
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
not when it comes to bullshit, jakey boy. not when it comes to bullshit.
Keith G
@Elizabelle: Well it does seem as if that is exactly what the administration is doing.
Turgidson
@chopper:
Win.
Baud
@Keith G:
I haven’t followed this story closely. Has there been any actual damage internationally, or is the “damage” a matter of domestic politics only?
Howard Beale IV
@Baud: The Feds have been trying to get James Risen to sqwak-but in a real wild twist of fate, have not only given up on making him talk, but are trying to make him NOT talk at all.
Villago Delenda Est
@NotMax: “MIchelle didn’t put humus on her bagel! She’s insulting all of our Muslim friends!
Oh…wait….”
Corner Stone
@Howard Beale IV:
Wasn’t it back when Our Beloved Reagan leaned across his clamshell and touched us all in our collective hearts (wallets) and deigned to provide affordable gas?
Kay
@Karen in GA:
What makes me laugh about it is how they stepped in and stage-managed what could have been a genuine event. Potentially. Had the Iraqis been permitted to go about any statue-toppling action in their own country.
I mean, for God’s sake. Step back.
Villago Delenda Est
@Baud: There is no damage. Just the vermin of the Village kvetching.
You all know my policy on THEM.
dubo
@Baud:
Not that I agree with Obama’s attacks on whistleblowers, but:
Journalists jailed under Clinton: 3
Journalists jailed under Bush: 5
Journalists jailed under Obama: 0
But for press freedom Obama is WORSE THAN BUSH!!!!!!eleventy
Baud
@Howard Beale IV:
I’m sorry, was he jailed? (And do you have a better link than FDL?)
Mandalay
Cruz and Rubio are critical of the president for not attending, but strangely silent on why they didn’t go themselves….
SatanicPanic
@Baud: duh, Dinesh D’Souza. FREE DINESH!
Baud
@Villago Delenda Est:
Thumbnails! No, wait. Thimbles! No, that’s not it. It’s on the tip of my tongue…
chopper
@Baud:
domestic. nobody else gives a shit that O didn’t swoop in for a photo-op.
Mandalay
@Howard Beale IV: Yep, great news. Risen told the Adminstration to GFY, and appears to have won. The man is a hero.
Karen in GA
@Kay: They were compulsive liars. Even if it was something where the truth had no effect on Bush’s image or approval ratings, they had to lie anyway.
Baud
@chopper:
Weird. How can there be domestic damage without there being international damage, with respect to a foreign event?
chopper
@Mandalay:
LOL, setting foot on french soil is a sure-fire death sentence when it comes to running for the GOP presidential nomination.
Keith G
@Baud: You would have to ask the administration as they are ones issuing statements. I am just passing that along. My idea was given up thread.
chopper
@Baud:
what’s the sound of one teabagger complaining? the world will never know.
Villago Delenda Est
@chopper: We know why the deserting coward and the Dark Lord weren’t there. They would have been thrown in irons for shipment to Den Haag the instant they stepped on the tarmac.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
It’s amazingly easy to lie with photographs, especially because people tend to think of them as an especially plain and truthful medium. The camera may never show something that wasn’t there, but it’s fantastic at misdirection and lying by ommission. It’s a deeply dishonest picture, and I expect to see a discussion of this point on my favorite photography blog.
Villago Delenda Est
@SatanicPanic: I thought the crime Dinesh was convicted of was making a movie Obama didn’t like, as opposed to cartoons or some written piece.
Baud
@Keith G:
The administration didn’t say they were damaged. That was Andrea Mitchell apparently. All the administration said is that they should have sent someone more senior. At most, it was a suggestion that they didn’t get the protocol correct,not that it had any impact on the U.S.’s foreign policy or relations.
Villago Delenda Est
@Roger Moore: Sort of like the infamous toppling of Saddam’s statue. Wide angle shot reveals an empty square.
sharl
@Baud: Until September, DoJ was sabre-rattling about NYT’s James Risen, but I see that his case has been brought up already. Sounds like he is entirely off the hook; good news.
My sympathies often go with the little guys/gals who cover unsympathetic groups (e.g., hackers), and as such sometimes get into trouble with the law. Maybe they deserve it more often than not – I don’t know – but sometimes USG (or at least its local reps such as DAs) seems to come down way too hard on such small fry. IMO Barrett Brown falls into this category – his prosecution seems more like unjustified hounding to me, unsympathetic though he may be, and USG/DoJ can get away with that sort of thing more often than not, because – unlike a NYT reporter like James Risen – they don’t have a big journalism org in their corner.
Then again, my sympathies were with the late Aaron Swartz and very much against the excesses of DoJ in using the CFAA to go after him and others who I felt were being overly punished. [In the case of Swartz, a number of folks here felt very much otherwise. Eh…]
ETA: Hey, maybe check in with Mandalay (#73) for a better answer to your question! My spidey-sense is telling me he’s itching to say more…
SatanicPanic
@Villago Delenda Est: exactly. I think. Oh and Breitbart’s death was no accident.
jl
@Keith G:
” I, and many of you, would be noting the “unfortunate” choice. ”
I might have popped off along those lines initially. Not sure I would have after reading the TPM story about how Netenyahu ended up there, and how his attendance prompted others to attend. And very less sure I would have after seeing raven’s link about the photo-op aspects.
But then, I always had a (slightly) soft spot for Dub, at least compared to the neocons and wingnuts who surrounded him, even if Dub himself picked the most notorious (Cheney).
Villago Delenda Est
@Kay: These people can NEVER leave anything to chance. They have to create the “spontaneous moment” for maximum favorable political impact. They can’t risk it being out of their control for a nanosecond. That’s why every last public appearance of the deserting coward was so obviously phony.
They are like those dimwit Hollywood marketeers who think that no one can see through their astroturf “word of mouth” ads. May work for teatards and similar mentally handicapped types, but not on large numbers of people.
Villago Delenda Est
@SatanicPanic: Well, obviously not, as Breitbart was committed to an austere Gandhi-like lifestyle.
Baud
@sharl:
Thanks for citing an actual jailed journalist. I’m not sure that example warrants comparing this administration to some of the regimes that it was being compared to upthread, but I asked a pure factual question, and you answered it.
Keith G
@Baud: Maybe it depends on what ‘is’ is. Or in this case, what is meant by ‘damage’ (a word that I have not used in this back and forth). The results are not existential. It seems to be more of an “Ooops”. If a leadership is seen as blowing an easy call, it is not helpful. That is the nature of politics at this level.
PurpleGirl
@GxB: I sure there are guillotine or two in a museum somewhere. The plaza where the rally began (Place de la République.), where the statue Marianne is, is the plaza where the guillotine was that was used to behead the King and Marie Antoinette.
Baud
@Keith G:
I agree that no mistake, not matter how minor, is ever “helpful.” As far as “damage,” I started down this road because someone said upthread that that is how the media was portraying it. I don’t believe I was responding to something you had said earlier.
lurker dean
tapper was also one of the primary assholes to push the fake “josie” who magically appeared to tell darren wilson’s version of what happened in ferguson. he doesn’t give a shit about the truth of what he reports or how it affects people and communities. asshole.
Gin & Tonic
@Roger Moore: You may have this, but a great book from surprisingly long ago is subtitled (can’t look up title right now) Visual Truth in the Post-photographic Era.
sharl
@Baud: Now if you go to a winger site, I doubt that they can offer up the names of journalists actually jailed by Obummer, but they’ll be happy to tell you about Fox’s James Rosen and former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson, neither of whom has been jailed. [They could go waaay back to Cheney’s favorite tool, former NYT reporter Judith Miller, but I’m not sure they really wanna go there.]
Rosen’s situation looks like it could have some real substance to it. Attkisson, on the other hand, looks like she suffers from some combination of techno-illiteracy and paranoia, and/or working a grift (she’s hawking a book right now). AFAIK she’s never been close to being arrested, although being one of the latest darlings of the I-Hate-Obummer crowd, you might be informed otherwise.
Baud
@sharl:
Yeah, I remember the Rosen situation and the pushback to it, so I knew he didn’t go to jail. Based on the earlier comments in this thread, I was concerned that I was forgetting something significant that had happened. I’m now not so concerned.
Keith G
@jl:
Maybe I am just so much more cynical than many here, but I just don’t get the “it was just a photo op” line.
The whole friggin march was a photo op. Obama has a team that just does photo ops. That is part of the recipe of political leadership. Having a “wounded warrior” sit next to the First Lady is a photo op. As a candidate, our president added several new chapters to the book of campaign messaging and optics.
I think that they just underestimated the event and how it would “play”. They got caught flat footed, as some say.
gogol's wife
@Corner Stone:
I agree.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
@burnspbesq:
I know. I was channeling a wingnut.
mdblanche
@jl: Um, do you know who headed the Bush campaign’s search for a running mate?
jl
@mdblanche: Yes, I noted that at the end of my comment.
jl
@Keith G:
” The whole friggin march was a photo op. ”
If you think that is true for the millions of anonymous people who showed up, I believe you, you are indeed cynical.
You seem cynical enough to enjoy the TPM post i linked to above that gives the current information about how Netenyahu and a few other heads of state ended up at the march.
Keith G
@jl: Also re: It was just a shallow photo op.
The photo of the leaders does answer a question that I had earlier when I wondered how in the fuck did they feel a march could be secure for the leadership of all(?) of Western Europe and then some.
The answer is….that they cheated. The leaders were “march adjacent” and not in the actual event.
It makes sense to me.
sharl
Returning to Tapper…
Cole himself has run warm (March 2011), and viciously, hilariously cold (July 2008) on Tapper over the years.
In that first link, the Jakester himself shows up in comments (#14), in response to commenters who are having none of Cole’s kumbaya feels. Watch the magic unfold as Jim, Foolish Literalist responds (#31), followed by salacious crumb (#34),… and then the floodgates opened. Mr. Tapper himself returned (#162) to defend himself; not sure how well that worked, or who was still hanging around at the time to read it.
Mandalay
@sharl:
And with good reason. The fact that James Rosen, James Risen and others aren’t squealing or in jail does not mean that the Administration is not guilty of going after reporters. I’m not as familiar with the details of Rosen’s case, but Risen has only prevailed because he had the resources to fight, and he possesses balls the size of watermelons.
And asking how many reporters have been jailed under Obama is somewhat missing the point. One should also ask how many whistleblowers have been jailed under the Espionage Act under Obama, and whether the DoJ’s zeal to go after people pushing stories they don’t like has had an effect on press freedom that can’t readily be calibrated.
Baud
@Mandalay:
Not when the phrase “journalist jailers” is used to describe the administration. In that instance, the number of reporters who have been jailed is precisely the point.
P.S. Contrary to my earlier comment, apparently, this did start with a comment from Keith G.
Keith G
@jl: That is why there are public protests and other types of actions…to show…to solemnize…to demonstrate to all who will notice….for both internal and external bonding…this is who we are…this is how we feel.
Optics have serious power. That is why they are so strong to us humans , starting even before we had language as we now use the word.
As far as Bibi …well…good taste (and the NSA) guide me to be discrete.
The Ancient Randonneur
Remember how butt hurt poor Jake and the Wingers were when Obama didn’t make an appearance at the unity march in Norway after a right winger killed all those kids on that island? Me neither.
Wag
The Administration f***ed up. Biden and Kerry should have been there, if not Obama.
At least McConnel and Cruz stayed home too.
Another Holocene Human
@Darkrose:
Now that’s comedy.
Bibi must have thought he was Charles de Gaulle, you know, that guy the name “Charlie Hebdo” is taking the piss out of.
Kay
@Roger Moore:
It’s funny, because they don’t have to do it. Straight reporting would be fine. I’d love if someone who was there told us “the dignitaries actually assembled elsewhere, with a huge security divide”. It doesn’t take anything away from the masses who were marching. It DOES take away from “Obama Let Down The People of France” though, so maybe that’s why it was omitted.
I’m not clear on why they go personally at all if not to tell us what happened. That’s what happened.
sharl
@Mandalay: Reporters jailed by this Administration was pretty much the exact, specific issue at hand. It doesn’t mean that those other topics you subsequently raised – also First Amendment-related – aren’t important. They were just off the beaten track in this particular discussion [as was my mention of Aaron Swartz – mea culpa! Still goddam sad about that…]
But I’m here to offer priceless entertainment – I’m all about being all servicey ‘n’ shit – and gosh darn glad to fill that role.
chopper
@The Ancient Randonneur:
I gotta say, ‘Butt-Hurt Jake and the Wingers’ would be an awesome band name.
CrustyDem
@Turgidson:
Tapper is super-sensitive. Blocked me for replying to him taking tbogg’s bait (I said CNN was a punchline, this was during the missing plane debacle).
Fournier blocked me for asking if he would ever send fawning emails to Denis McDonough (he was talking about America’s response to “another 9/11”.
Good times..
Another Holocene Human
@SatanicPanic:
These believers in ‘never let a crisis go to waste’ seem to be literally wanking over the aftermath of a Muslim-linked terror attack and they salivate over the “strong response” so of course they’re bummed that the Americans aren’t represented, before you get into the Obama can do nothing right meme they love so much. It’s a peculiar obsession of the right that the left doesn’t share. Neither does the middle. Hence the puzzlement at this latest stupid weekend meme.
But not only that, it appears the Obama admin does have a modicum of that alien emotion known as shame. Obama hasn’t killed journalists but he has pursued leakers and journalists over security breaches. Plus, I think he made a decision to allow Hollande to have his moment (although he could have sent someone lower down… actually did, but whatever). Plus I’m sure he’s aware how much the Americans are blamed for causing so much of this strife in the first place, from the late 50’s onward. Since Netanyahu is tempermentally the opposite of Obama in every way, of course he showed up in defiance of the French government’s wishes.
France’s 9/11. Yup, no terrorism in Europe since 2001, right? No terrorism in France, also, too. Right?
Did Obama show up in Boston after the bombings and elbow Menino off the podium at the interfaith unity remembrance shindig? No? Okay then.
Corner Stone
@Wag:
Why?
Or is this snark?
muddy
Obama should just say that he can’t go for photos every time a dozen people get shot, that shit happens every day in America.
sm*t cl*de
So he gatecrashed an event about French unity & solidarity to make a speech encouraging disunity and factionalism… but he ended up making his audience feel more French… so it’s all good.
Kay
@CrustyDem:
I just lurk on Twitter but that’s what I love about it: famous people respond to regular people. It’s egalitarian.
I always think “oh, don’t do it, famous person! This won’t go well!” but famous people can’t seem to resist and then they always end up seeming petulant and haughty. It makes me laugh every time.
Corner Stone
@muddy:
If that was the criteria then he’d be forced to still be a State Senator of IL.
Mike G
So I can’t keep up with the wingnut scorecard. Is NYC still a brave survivor of 9/11 or has it gone back to being a dysfunctional librul cosmopolitan Gomorrah? Are they suspending hating the French this week, are satirical journalists now virtuous not-Muslim fighters against terrism? How long does the Statute of Wingnut Limitations last before they revert to being despised cheese-eating soshulist surrender monkeys again?
Turgidson
@Kay:
This is perhaps the first (and very likely last) time I’ll say something kinda-sorta-nice about Fournier, but he is quite adept at parrying hecklers on Twitter in a way that keeps his nose clean, so to speak.
Of course, this tactic depends on him repeatedly deliberately missing or ignoring the point of people’s criticisms of him. But he’s good at it, such as it is. Then he goes and blocks those little people who dared to criticize his wisdom. Ah, well.
bago
Right, so nothing about Boko Haram, and the 9/11 sized slaughter of thousands of the “not exactly white” crowd? mmk.
sharl
@bago: Nothing on the front page on Boko Haram/Nigeria that I have seen. Occasional mention in comments (e.g., lamh36 said something about it a couple days ago IIRC) is about it. Some of us may be tweeting or FB’ing on our own (I’ve tweeted a bit on it).
BBC World is talking about it even as I type. Apparently communications with that rural impoverished part of Nigeria are very limited, and I’m assuming going there in person is even more difficult (and quite possibly fatal, or maybe leading to the visitor becoming a hostage). Massive corruption accompanying humongous income disparities render those victims uninteresting to the central government leadership, which occasionally responds – grudgingly – to international complaints and outrage. But as you note, that external concern is a fickle, here-then-gone kind of thing.
Every new story seems to be more awful than the previous one.
slag
I really don’t understand this. At all.
Yes, this attack was tragic for France. And for that, we should all be sorry. But they seem to be handling it ok. Do they need us for some reason? Is there any indication from them that this horrific incident needs to be all about us? Does everything need to be about us all the time?
And why did this administration apologize for making a very reasonable diplomatic decision? Aren’t we giving these terrorists far more credit than they deserve already? Do we really need our heads of state “protesting” the actions of a few crazy people? Isn’t that punching extremely far down?
Seriously, what is this whole thing actually about? Just another chance to heckle Obama for not adding jazz hands to the “Look at Me!” chorus? WTF?
mtiffany
Tapper must have been too busy publicly cheerleading the Bush administration’s atrocities…
But at least all that going along to get along eventually bought him access to Angry Grandpa McCain’s tire swing when he ran against the Stealth Moooslim…
yodecat
Just another boob-ass. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Valdivia
@SatanicPanic:
this totally made my day. So funny.
Sondra
It seems obvious to me that all of those other world leaders could get to France in a few hours without having to cross an Ocean…duh.
As for Holder, who was already there, I’d be curious to know if the other members of the conference on terrorism went to the event.
If they did and he didn’t, there might be a point.
Otherwise it’s just more of the usual Obama can’t do wrong right IMO.
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic:
The Reconfigured Eye, William J. Mitchell, 1992.