politics to go: Jeff Dunetz

How the White House ‘ventriloquizes’ the press

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On Mother’s Day, the New York Times Magazine published a 10,000-word profile of Obama foreign policy adviser Ben Rhodes. The piece contains many startling revelations including (as Rhodes described it) how Rhodes plays ventriloquist to the mainstream media dummies. 

Claims that some in the press are in bed with the Obama Administration are usually scoffed at by the mainstream media and its progressive Democratic colleagues. That is no longer possible, because in this piece, Rhodes repeatedly explains how his words come out of reporters mouths, and that he’s happy about this “accomplishment.”

On the day Obama was to deliver his 2016 State of The Union Address, Iran captured and briefly held, U.S. Navy sailors. Rhodes said he managed the story by exploiting his “well-cultivated network of officials, talking heads, columnists and newspaper reporters.”

“’Now they’ll show scary pictures of people praying to the supreme leader,’ he [Rhodes] predicts, looking at the screen. Three beats more, and his brain has spun a story line to stanch the bleeding. He turns to Ned Price [his deputy], ‘We’re resolving this, because we have relationships,’ he says.”

By “relationships” Rhodes means reporters he can control. It’s more than the standard political spin or the supplying of quotes than can only be used if they are attributed to “a senior White House source,” which has been the standard operating procedure. Rhodes is bragging about being a media ventriloquist. What he writes comes out of the mouths of the columnists and reporters.

The Times piece does not portray Rhodes as a benign controller. When it comes to the press, Obama’s adviser seems to be the equivalent of the nasty tweeter who uses a pseudonym. Not only does he seem to be a bully, but he is also anonymous (at least to the public who reads the stories).

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