but if it's not all about the villagers, then how important can it be?

The teleprompter seems to have been so distracting, that the media didn't seem to hear what Obama said. Or perhaps they were too busy trying to think up good questions. Then again, they didn't seem to hear the answers to those either.

I don't even know if it's that. I don't think I should implicate the many people that live in Washington.

Snap!

"I am absolutely amazed that anybody in America cares about who the President picks at a news conference"

I guess he forgot about Jeff Gannon? And Helen Thomas?

The White House should take a cue from Nickelodeon's hit of yesteryear, You Can't Do That On Television.

Whenever someone asks a dumb question, dump a bucket of slime on them.

I don't think I should implicate the many people that live in Washington.

Once again, the Obama administration shows respect for we Americans who live in cities, particularly the DC metro area! Woohoo! The previous administration was never so kind.

Teleprompters are used so that when the president is reading off his prepared remarks, his eyes can be focused on the camera. By using a teleprompter to deliver the press conference remarks rather than reading off a sheet of paper at the podium, Obama was reminding the reporters present that Obama cared more about addressing the American people rather than the reporters in the audience, and the reporters took that as an insult.

"I am absolutely amazed that anybody in America cares about who the President picks at a news conference"

I guess he forgot about Jeff Gannon?

Well, beyond the basic question of whether they are actual reporters for actual news outlets.

I love Robert Gibbs. He has this folksy way of putting people in their place, of mocking their idiotic comments/questions, showing the absurdity of what these "reporters" are fixated on, ie things of no importance.

After "some" complained about the teleprompters, they went to a jumbotron. Now "some" are complaining about that. GMAB. You want eye contact from the president? He can't be reading off of a piece of paper. Nor can he speak from memory when every word is incredibly important and bound to be dissected by everyone. These "reporters" are simply trying for any angle to distinguish themselves, I guess, but what they're really doing is showing how unimportant and petty they are.

It's part of the republican pwned media's campaign to cut Obama down to their very small size. They absolutely don't like it that Obama is a lot more popular than they are.

This is SO hilarious!!

I wonder if the DC press corpse will ever pick up on the fact that their collective ass is being handed to them on a daily basis by the Obama Administration.

Honestly, I don't know which is more fun to watch. The continual implosion of the Republican Party (of Stupid) or the continued ass kicking the Administration is handing to the MSM reporters.

Hey! Don't pick on Lois!

I love Lois. I do.
(drawing a line in the dirt with my toe)

Sounds like that Obama fellow is trashing the place.....*and it's not his to trash!!!!*

Maybe this is why 'major daily newspapers' are going out of business!

I like Gibbs. He manages to make his points without being overly snarky or belligerent, and I like that he stands up to some of this foolishness, dismissing it as the twaddle it is. (I would like to see Ms. Thomas get some attention, though.)

As a professional photographer, in the last two years I have switched completely from film to digital. My product is better; it's finished faster and more accurately.

To complain that President Obama uses a teleprompter to read his prepared speeches is ridiculous. Why wouldn't anyone use the most recent technology to improve their communications?

I guess the media would like us to return to the good old days of buggy whips, typewriters, b/w television and reading your notes off pieces of paper.

(P.S. I have some great buys on film cameras. Contact me! Please!)

MS. ROMANO: You're saying this is all Washington Beltway stuff?

I love how indignant they get when they're reminded that they are not, in fact, the entire population of the United States, but that there are more than 300 million of us living outside of Georgetown.

Hannah is all over it.

Nor can he speak from memory when every word is incredibly important and bound to be dissected by everyone.

This is precisely the Villagers issue with the prompter, both the media's and the Repubs'. If you make Obama speak from memory you increase the likelihood of a meaningless and inadvertent slip of language which the Repubs, with the help of the MSM's megaphone, can run with as the phony distraction of the week. How dare we deny them that? Do we really think this is about the substance of the message? sheesh.

I've had such a hard time trying to figure out why there is so much interest in this "non-story" That said however, I have a theory as to why President Obama is going this route:

Has he not consistently said - both during his campaign and since he's been in office, that he is committed to Technological Advancement and the fight against Global Warming? Maybe I'm naive, but since we ARE living in a new age of technology, why wouldn't he use the latest technology and perhaps even save a tree or two, while he's at it?

Now, can we PLEASE just drop this non-subject?

Does Les Kinsolving get to attend these press conferences? If so, Obama should call on him at every one.

Gee......and all of the talking TV heads don't use telepromters or know the questions from their anchor colleagues ahead of time.

Next week, there will be the shocking revelation that Obama employs speechwriters.

What zeitgeist said ...really how mutch airtime was wasted on the "Bowling" and "Teleprompter" BS...trying to manufacture outrage. I am subjected to Faux News (abiet with captions) every night at the Gym and I swear they spent a half hour the other night discussing Teleprompter like it was a threat to national security. Obama and Gibbs should just look at them with blank stares and say -"Is that all you have? Really?

Vondo: How on earth is the whole Geoff Gannon thing not sui generis?

The mainstream media has gotten so pathetic and out of touch that they think the most important stories are the ones they fabricate.

I have not one, but two, daughters in college who I would be happy to send along to DC to help them perfect that "Seriously?" (Hand on hip, sneer a little bit like you just smelled something foul) "Seriously??? You just asked me that and you meant it??? Unbelievable!" routine that they have both perfected.

Gibbs needs to just come out and say what's on his mind, that he thinks the "controversy" is plainly contrived by a press that is hostile to Obama. That is the only reasonable explanation for all the criticism against him in general, as well as this specifically.

Quit tiptoeing around the issue and just fucking say it already.

Ok, I don't know what...whatever it is, it's not right that he uses a teleprompter...I've never seen that...

Ahhhhh...I can't do it.

Can he do it live?
HE SHOULD DO IT LIVE!
He should write it and do it live!

Fuckin' thing sucks.

I vote for giving teleprompters to all the white house press corp. if it will improve their questions.

I have given up believing that Villagers and their TV puppets are sincere. The emotional and intellectual equivalent of high school.

strange tone at the end there. the 'teleprompter' thing is not something that should be taken seriously and debated. its laugh out loud at the person trying to make the "point" (whatever...that...is?) about the teleprompter. it is flat-out ridiculous on its face.

Teleprompters could be made of bullet proof material
for security reasons.

I mentioned this on an earlier thread, but remember how excited the Republicans and the MSM were by the false claim that Sarah Palin spoke without a teleprompter at the RNC? Is it that Republicans regard teleprompters suspiciously, like New Guinea islanders viewing a television for the first time? Is this just another manifestation of their fear of science and technology? The Republicans see the teleprompter and wonder, "Where do those words come from??? An invisible hand is making those words!!! Obama speaks those words that are beamed from afar!!! His mind must be under the control of the invisible word-writer!"

And maybe most television talking heads are indeed mindlessly speaking the words written on the teleprompter in their "See words, repeat words, laugh jocularly." routines. So when they see Obama use a teleprompter, they are all a-twitter. "Look! He is speaking Words!"

The simple fact is that the Washington Press Corps is threatened by Obama taking his message to the American public through regional papers, town meetings, virtual town meetings, appearances on Leno, and the rest of the message delivery process he has used for the past week or so. They are terrified that he can have a press conference where he chooses not a single major newspaper reporter to ask a question. This is a direct assault on their place in the pecking order, and they will use their ability to shape the image of the presidency negatively to remind him that he is in their town and they have power. If he complies with their demands this will settle down, but he will be dogged throughout his presidency by their narratives, their agendas, and their shaping of his message. It is a formula by which he is emasculated. I am sure that he knows this, and that the return to campaign style communications together with the selection of media through which he communicates is not a test separation, it's a divorce. His words are gentle, like Gibbs' soft mockery, but they mean "fuck you Villagers." I wish him every success, in this as well as his other changes to the way Washington works.

The simple fact is that the Washington Press Corps is threatened by Obama taking his message to the American public through regional papers, town meetings, virtual town meetings, appearances on Leno, and the rest of the message delivery process he has used for the past week or so.

That's why there have been lots of talking heads on the teevee telling us that the reason Obama is touring the country and making policy speeches is that he's a slacker just like George W. Bush.

No, seriously. I have seen this argument. I guess they're so used to using their company expense account for personal vacations that they can't comprehend the idea of a "business trip," where you travel to places outside of your office to conduct business.

As I keep saying, the Villagers need to learn that Obama is the President of the (whole) United States, not the Mayor of Georgetown. He actually does have business to conduct out here in the rest of the country.

I am subjected to Faux News (abiet with captions) every night at the Gym and I swear they spent a half hour the other night discussing Teleprompter like it was a threat to national security.

Whenever I'm at a gym, bar, whatever and they have Fox on, I ask the management to change the channel since I don't care to be subjected to Republican Party propaganda. If they refuse, I take my business elsewhere. They soon get the hint.

I just love watching Robert Gibbs: smart as a whip and with that wonderful sweetmouth way of softly not suffering fools without being insulting or flippant. I loved him during the campaign, too, when he could pack more facts into a sound bite, destroy the other side's argument, and still look relaxed. Obama picked the right person for this job.

Gannon was (we hope) a one of a kind situation, but my point was simply that people do care who does and does not get to ask the president a question. Gannon was a minor scandal for weeks and the fact that Bush snubbed Thomas for years was likewise news and indicative of something, IMO.

Now, I could care less if in one press conference Obama doesn't call on any newspaper reporters. And I think it's great he called on a blogger in his first press conference (also news). If he appears to be shutting out newspapers or cable TV or... then I care.

Well at least President Obama didn't have any wires criss-crossing his back under his suit coat like former criminal President Bush had, as he received prompts (i.e. Republican talking points) from someone somewhere off-camera.

What the culture of corruption Republicans are doing is throwing as much sh*t as possible at President Obama, in hopes that some of this Republican sh*t will stick...similar to the culture of corruption Republican stunt during the Clinton years.

The conservative mind is a small thing that can only wrap itself around tiny items, hence the fact that it gets all sweaty about teleprompters but has no significant contribution to make to our national debate about the economy, or health care, or climate change.

Rightwingers can repeat slogans, but when it comes to critical thought, they are at a loss.

I am wondering if anyone here has written to the MSM and received any kind of response to criticisms of their coverage and insular questions that attempt to demean the President and elevate their stature among the viewing public and their owners. I have not, myself, but it seems with all the very bright and articulate bloggers here, some of you must have made those contacts and received some kind of response. I'd love to hear Steve B's take on this. We hear a lot of criticism of the MSM and its flacks, but seldom the response to direct challenges.

I look forward to more on this topic. Obama is an adept and he has a few in his "employ" who are learning from the Master.

I am committed Oneness through Justice and Transformation
peace,
st john

Of course the irony is that many if not all of the national press corps read or refer to written notes when they pose questions.

To prut it another way, Obama (whose every syllable is parsed here and abroad) is criticized for reading prepared speeches, by a marginally irrelevant press corps incapable of posing a single unprepared o(and by their own accounts) unrehearsed sentence.