Did I miss the WH press briefing?

This is supposed to be Snow-Job's first day. I had heard Josh Bolton say last week that they wouldn't be televising the first week or two of Snow-Jobs, but I'm unclear as to whether or not it will be on whitehouse.org


Anybody know anything?

nothing. :shrug:

That may be the only real word that we get--although it won't be the same without camera & audio.

week. I personally think they are still hashing over the possibility of cancelling them.

It's hard to believe that they could become even more secretive.

He had to send in Negroponte :hurts:

and then stop televising the briefings?

Oh, yeah, because nothing this administration does makes any sense.

The "remodel" is a ruse... At the end of summer, the WH knows that the campaigns will be in full swing, and the press will be distrac..."Oooooh shiny".....ted, and as one delay after another in "construction" happens, they might have one a week for a while and then...chirp chirp chirp...

Forecast for Snow

<snip>
Walking out with answers

Snow's appointment (see my April 28 post on it) was described at the time as a shift in strategy to a more powerful press secretary who has the ear of the president, "walk-in privileges," a seat at the table when policy is being decided, and a broker's role between journalists and the White House. We don't know if any of that is true. But if it is true, Tony Snow will walk in to the Oval Office Monday morning and walk out with answers. He will argue that a complete default in reason-giving is unacceptable, and won't fly. When reporters ask about the departure of Porter Goss he will have some sort of explanation for the mystery. It will put new information on the record, and he will make news with it. Rather than pretend there's nothing to be explained, Snow will by tone and manner accept the basic legitimacy of the question--and of the people asking it. The contrast with the last three years will be immediate, and the exchanges during the televised briefing will show that. If things are really going to be different, that's what we should expect to see.

Bag the briefing...

It wasn't much noticed, but last week, the new chief of staff at the White House, Joshua Bolten, told Fox News Sunday that "it may be worth considering whether to end the daily televised press briefings where reporters and the press secretary frequently air disputes in front of the cameras." He also said he will leave the decision up to Snow.

End the briefings! I suppose it would never occur to Bolten that such a decision also belongs to the people being briefed. If Snow turns out to be McClellan with better hair, the press ought to quit the briefing room and give up on getting explanations from the White House. Beat Bolten to the punch, in other words. By "quit" I mean pull your top talent. Send interns instead to occupy the seats without asking questions or filing reports. That means no correspondents at the two daily briefings, none on the President's plane, none at his public appearances. (Except for foreign trips where other heads of state might speak.) Let the White House publicize itself.

Meanwhile, redeploy your top people, so that they still report on the Bush Administration and what it's doing, but only from the outside-in. (Which is what the top reporters say they do, anyway. See this portrait of Elisabeth Bumiller.) Outside-in reporting, a practical step, recognizes the futility of trying to get information out of the Bush White House. Quitting the briefing--before Bolten gets to close it down--would be a symbolic step, recognition of how far the contempt for reason-giving has gone under Bush. Will it ever happen? Could it? It could (...there's nothing to stop NBC from sending a highly-regarded intern instead of David Gregory) but it won't. As I have said before--most recently on The Young Turks show---Bush changed the game on the press and he knew the press wouldn't react, or change the game on him. Now we get to see whether Tony Snow will intensify this pattern, or reverse it. Does reason-giving return? Check back.

<more at>
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060522/rosen

or that they would all meet before hand, and decide on two questions, and then ALL keep asking the SAME two questions..but so far they keep playing in W's court

and show some power. Same with congress and committee hearings.