Obama Inc. Tried to Cover Up Iran Hostage Crisis for State of the Union
May 6, 2016
Daniel Greenfield
http://www.frontpagemag.com/point/262758/obama-inc-tried-cover-iran-abduction-sailors-state-daniel-greenfieldThe Ben Rhodes profile in the New York Times is probably the most gruesome look at anyone deep in Obama Inc. and like turning over a rock and watching the bugs crawl out, there are plenty of revelations.
For much of the past five weeks, Rhodes has been channeling the president’s consciousness into what was imagined as an optimistic, forward-looking final State of the Union. Now, from the flat screens, a challenge to that narrative arises: Iran has seized two small boats containing 10 American sailors. Rhodes found out about the Iranian action earlier that morning but was trying to keep it out of the news until after the president’s speech. “They can’t keep a secret for two hours,” Rhodes says, with a tone of mild exasperation at the break in message discipline.
Price turns to his computer and begins tapping away at the administration’s well-cultivated network of officials, talking heads, columnists and newspaper reporters, web jockeys and outside advocates who can tweet at critics and tweak their stories backed up by quotations from “senior White House officials” and “spokespeople.” I watch the message bounce from Rhodes’s brain to Price’s keyboard to the three big briefing podiums — the White House, the State Department and the Pentagon — and across the Twitterverse, where it springs to life in dozens of insta-stories, which over the next five hours don formal dress for mainstream outlets.
To the extent that the piece has any "center", it's that Rhodes is an aspiring novelist with contempt for the media and who is easily able to manipulate it.
In this case, Rhodes wanted to cover up Iran's abduction of US sailors because it might be bad PR for Obama's State of the Union address. The optics as always mattered more to the administration than the people.
Rhodes singled out a key example to me one day, laced with the brutal contempt that is a hallmark of his private utterances. “All these newspapers used to have foreign bureaus,” he said. “Now they don’t. They call us to explain to them what’s happening in Moscow and Cairo. Most of the outlets are reporting on world events from Washington. The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing.”
Next time you see a "fact check" or anyone touting a media piece, remember this is what their puppet master thinks of them. And he's right. They literally know nothing except to repeat what they're told.
They don't care about America, about national security or even about Iran's abduction of US sailors. They will repeat any lie they are told and grin while doing it. And this isn't coming from Rush Limbaugh or me. It's coming from the White House foreign policy guru.
