As I scan the headlines from the various blogs I follow each morning I've started to notice something I am a little confused about. Since when did speech writers become policy experts? Now maybe this has been a long time trend and I just missed it, but for the life of me I can't recall any of Clinton's speech writers going on TV programs and commenting on complex topics they don't know anything about.
Yet is seems almost every morning I see some former Bush speech writer doing just that. The most recent example is Marc Thiessen, Bush’s former chief speech writer, on Bill O’Reilly's program talking about how "dangerous" and "deadly" a Leahy Truth Commission could be.
Now it is no shocker that Fox Noise would feature a speech writer as an expert, but I've seen the same thing on CNN and MSNBC. Heck do a Google search and you'll see Marc has been interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, CBS News, the list goes on and on.
Again, when exactly did speech writers become policy experts.
Now of course I am not saying a speech writer can not be a really smart individual. I mean I doubt the person that writes the words our presidents says are just picked up off the street. And by the very nature of their jobs, I'd also assume they are kind of a "Jack of all trades," having to know a little about a lot of things.
But I'd also argue maybe not an expert on any one topic.
Now I realize in the grand scheme of things this isn't a huge issue. But it still pisses me off and it is at the core of a bigger issue, which Glenn Greenwald has be yelling about for years, our media outlets can't do their freaking jobs and think we're a bunch of idiots.
But for the sake of this diary lets just stick with Marc Thiessen. According to his profile he wrote of himself on LinkedIn he has never had a job that wasn't as a speech writer or a press secretary, oh wait, he was a lobbyist for a while.
So basically the only job he has held in government is as a political operative, who's only objective was to convey the message of the administration in the best possible light. Period! Therefore, why should any of us care what he has to say, outside of him talking about speech writing?
But lets take a step back for a second and determine how this guy gets on all these programs. Either himself (as a former press secretary) or through a third party on his behalf they directly contact the producers of the various programs and basically say, "Marc Thiessen, lists all his great jobs, is available to speak on topic X, Y, Z. He can be reached ...."
Then when, say a producer for Bill O needs a person for an upcoming segment, they go through their list of "experts" on the topic at hand and they give Marc a call. My question is how the heck, even Fox Noise, goes to this guy to talk about torture, a Truth Commission, or Congressional investigations? He has ZERO relevant experience. Zero.
Or put another way, a group of folks actually sat in a room and said to themselves, "hey, lets get Marc on for that segment on the Truth Commission." I mean did anybody in that room raise their hand and ask, "hey, just curious what is his relevant experience?" or "is this really fair to our audience, shouldn't we have somebody on that is a subject matter expert on this topic?"
I mean even if you want to slant your news in a certain political direction, at least get on a Republican that has experience is the area you are talking about. I mean it wouldn't be hard to find one, I am pretty sure there are still a few in DC.
Yet our media outlets serve up this stuff to us thinking we are too dumb to notice, much less care.
I mean news flash "traditional media," there is this thing called the Federal Yellow Book that basically lists every government employee, by agency/department. If you don't have somebody in your Rolodex for a segment you are working on, pick up a copy, open it to the agency that is relevant, find somebody at the director level or higher, and give them a call. This ain't rocket science.
Oh wait a minute, don't take this advice. Keep doing just what you are doing and watch as your market share continues to die. As more and more people get more and more of their news online, through sites like this, where we trust the information being given to us.
Yeah, keep putting on speech writers as subject mater experts.