Imagine my surprise when I read
this article on MSNBC.com.
The story contained these graphs:
Prepped to answer
Before it began, a Pentagon official coached the troops, telling them the president planned to ask questions on three topics: The overall security in Iraq, how they were preparing for the vote on Saturday and how much progress had been made in the training of Iraqi troops.
Allison Barber, a Pentagon official, said Bush would ask them specifically, "In the last 10 months, what kind of progress have we seen?"
She asked who was prepared to answer the question. "Master Sgt. Lombardo," one said.
After Bush asked just that question, Master Sgt. Corine Lombardo responded: "Over the past 10 months, the capabilities of the Iraqi security forces are improving ... They continue to develop and grow into a sustainable force."
More
And then there was this tidbit:
While polls show declining support for the war, Bush told the soldiers: "You've got to know, the American people are standing strong with you," Bush said.
Has the MSM started to wake up? Could be. Earlier, TPM posted an exchange between Scottie boy and reporters, once again Scottie was caught in a bald-faced lie:
Another great Bush administration moment.
In this morning's gaggle, Scott McClellan got asked whether the teleconference the president had with troops in Tikrit was scripted. Here's what he said ...
QUESTION: How were they selected, and are their comments to the president pre-screened, any questions or anything...
MCCLELLAN: No.
QUESTION: Not at all?
MCCLELLAN: This is a back-and-forth.
Here's how the pool report (i.e., from the designated reporter on the scene) described what happened.
The soldiers, nine U.S. men and one U.S. woman, plus an Iraqi, had been tipped off in advance about the questions in the highly scripted event. Allison Barber, deputy assistant to the Secretary of Defense for internal communication, could be heard asking one soldier before the start of the event, "Who are we going to give that [question] to?"
Oh well ...
-- Josh Marshall
Clearly this isn't the usual way Bush expects to be treated by the media. The fact that MSNBC has this story up is to me at least one good sign that maybe we can get some reality from the MSM every now and then.
UPDATE: on the front page of MSNBC.com there is a link to a video of the "scripted" event. The video has a clip of Scottie today, telling his scripted lies as well. The vidoe runs about 3.25 minutes, and is again, surprising to see.
UPDATE II: I had to see what CNN had on their site, and while they carry the story about the event, they buried the "scripted" part deep in the middle of the story (at least they printed something.) Here is what CNN has in their story (note that the story is long, and this is the only mention of the "script"):
Before the teleconference, Allison Barber, deputy assistant to the secretary of defense, went through a rehearsal of the scripted question-and-answer session, telling the troops that any nonscripted questions from the president should be handled by Kennedy.
When asked about the rehearsed event, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the coordination was done because of the "technological challenges" of a satellite feed, denying responses had been screened.
UPDATE III: Seems CNN showed the Pentagon person doing the staging on "The Situation Room." If anyone has a link to vidoe please post and I will post it here.
UPDATE IV: Here is the audio of the scripting, thank you to Cecile for the link: Audio for scripted event
UPDATE V: Here is a link to the story CNN ran.