(Note: The video posted originally here had playback problems that made it speed by at twice the correct speed -- making a lot of the video too hard to comprehend, due to the motion graphics.
Now I've uploaded a corrected version that runs at the correct speed. Give it a watch. The newer one is at the top; the one I posted yesterday is below it, simply as reference)
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Chums.
Access Journalism.
Accessories.
After the fact.
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*This video comments on why we may never see reporting on GWB43.com: This is version 2 of this video*
*This is version 1 of the same video. It runs twice as fast as was intended, so many elements go by too fast.*
If you like this video, please recommend so it can be seen. (Of course if you dont.... :)
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On Monday, March 26, 2007, Henry Waxman's office posted on his House Oversight Committee Website a significant notice, which probably everyone here has read, yet the mainstream press has purposely blacked out: Committee Directs RNC to Preserve White House Emails
Citing evidence that senior White House officials are using RNC and other political email accounts to avoid leaving a record of official communications, Chairman Waxman directs the Republican National Committee and the Bush-Cheney ’04 Campaign to preserve the emails of White House officials and to meet with Committee staff to explain how the accounts are managed and what steps are being taken to protect the emails from destruction and tampering.
( Speaker Pelosi's further details at her official blog, The Gavel. )
Three days later, on Thursday, March 29th, with even further information about GBB43.com servers coming out, Waxman followed up, this time with a letter to White House Counsel Fred Fielding. Rep. Waxman Requests Information on White House E-Mail Policies
Following new revelations that White House officials have been conducting official business using nongovernmental e-mail accounts, Chairman Waxman asks White House Counsel Fred Fielding for information and a briefing regarding White House e-mail policies.
To date, these simple but important facts have been shutout, not reported on, ignored by the mainstream media. (If they have been reported at all, the issue has been minimized, buried, or given no context as to its significance.) This is nothing new (see: Runup to Iraq Invasion). Contrasted by what is reported as news routinely, the basic competency and judgment of the White House Press Corps, corporate media newsrooms, editors and editorial and publishers is not only severely lacking, but it also indicates what can only reasonably be seen as concerted efforts to hide critical information for American citizens, some of whom still believe what they see on their nightly news on TV. Other than Helen Thomas, it's possible that not a single other member of the White House Press Corp follows any kind of fundamental precepts and methodologies about news gathering and reporting presumably learned in Journalism 101.
For those who are less familiar with the significance of the routine usage of GWB43.com by Karl Rove and others, circumventing the official White House email system, these actions by Waxman relate to a gap in the Department of Justice's "data dump" of emails and documents pertaining to the firing of United States Attorneys. More specifically, it was noted that certain correspondence to/from DOJ was not routed through the official US Govt secure email system, but rather through email domains including GWB43.com -- which were quickly discovered to be under the control and management of the Republican National Committee -- and the Bush-Cheney 04 Campaign organization.
Numerous great diaries have been written here (search tag GWB43.com ) speculating it's possible that critical "missing" emails were written, sent and received by various parties involved in the planning and execution of the firing of the US Attorneys -- but these emails were routed through GWB43.com and other non-government domains -- with specific intent to cover-up the tracks of who was making these firing decisions... and who finally gave the final okay. Was President Bush involved? What role did karl Rove play?
Waxman's notice to the RNC and Bush-Cheney 04 Campaign seemed like a major story -- and it is. But it's not being reported in the mainstream media.
David Gregory, White House Correspondent for NBC News, has avoided it like the plague. So, it was very odd when, at the recent annual Correspondents Dinner, who should get up onstage to perform a rap song with featured "performer" Karl Rove other than Silver haired Soulman himself, The Gregory. So much the press staying at arms length form chummy relationships with govt officials they supposedly are covering as part of their jobs.
That was bad enough. But what followed the next day was even worse. The Gregory was all suited up for a live field report for the Today Show with Matt Lauer & Meredith Vieira. Gregory was tickled pink at his suave performance the night before, and explained how he and co-cool Mr. Producer didn't think Rove could handle the hip factor like they could -- when to their surprise, he came through.
It's all very light and charming I'm sure -- perfect banter for a morning show... and the onscreen graphics even celebrated NBC's own "David Gregory". Then Meredith asked in that scripted kind of way "So are they letting you keep your Press Pass?" Hah-hahs ensued, and David assured them that he'd have no problem taking on the tough questions needed to be asked of Rove -- that he was used to this professional discipline (not his words).
The best words to describe how I felt seeing that Today segment was nausea. So, I took screenshots of web pages that sort of told this story of "Access Journalism" (= "No Journalism as trade for access to marketable quotes"), pulled them into iPhoto, and made this short video. It's my tribute to The Gregory -- and all his sad-sack overpaid under-performing colleagues. It's a first cut, so it could be shortened, and should be. :)
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Also, earlier I had written some Silver Dilaogue, and may as well paste it in below for atmospherics.
David's Script:
(First, spray hair; then stand at that weird angle you always stand at, with head tilted slightly downward. Put a mic in your hand so you have something to hold)
"...Hey Come on! All in good fun!
Sheesh! No wonder you bloggers are so disrespected. Jeeez, loosen up already.
It's what we do, one day a year. Big deal. You guys take everything so seriously. Like it's a federal case that I interact with an adversary.
Well he's not my adversary. He's got a job to do, and he does it. So do I. We all do. You may not like what he does, but he does it well, and that's why he gets my respect.
So he outed Valerie Plame, that's old news. I deal in new news. And I'm told there was no underlying crime, so there you have it.
You gotta admit, the guy was hilarious. You guys have got that whole elite Colbert thing. Well let me tell ya, he wasn't funny. He may in fact BE funny, but he wasn't that night. It's a party for god's sake. For one night out of the year, we're off-duty. That's a good thing. We re-charge our batteries. It's how we do what we do, with all the long hours.
The old school guys never let off some steam. That's why Rather imploded. Guy never learned a thing from Ed Bradley. You gotta chill.
So he maybe strategized some of the US Attorney removals. They're political appointments. So they can be removed for political reasons. John Roberts and I looked that one up. (You gotta hand it to Terry, though. The guy is so straight-laced, he looks up everything. Bad time management. But he's a good guy. Shoots a good game of pool-- when he's not wasted... I'm kidding! I kid!
Anyway, get over yourselves. So the guy uses two Blackberrys for work. Who doesn't? I do. One for NBC, and one for palling around with my DC buds. I still stay in touch with Scotty. Gotta love that dude! Couple a times a week Radich and I would work out a routine -- just to see how many times we could ask a variation of question, so he'd do that "As I said just a moment ago, David, there's a time and a place for comments, and at a another time in the future I'd be happy to answer your questions, but out of respect for the process, it's our policy to not comment during an ongoing investigation." Ha hah! We counted once, it was 21! Nice guy though. His Mom cooks a killer meatloaf too, by the way.
Yeah, so what he questioned my patriotism. That's what this town does. Everyone does it, that's why you gotta grown thick skin. That's the problem with you bloggers. Everytime someone comes to your site from Free Republic, you get these caniption fits. Grow up, man. That's the thing you don't get. No one's you enemy unless you make them your enemy. I was fortunate enough to hang with Tony Robbins couple years ago, the guy's got a gift.
Listen I gotta exit. Got the 4:30 promo to shoot -- and no shit, Karl and I are going to be reprising the Hammer for Dick tonight. Andrea's going to join us. By the way you'd never believe her age. Swear to god she doesn't look a day over 40. Good genes, lucky gal. Outa here dudes, my job comes first, and gotta -- hang on, that's my Crackberry. ... No no, no encryption. I'm dialed in, they got the whole next-gen , and it's sweet.