Does Perino Really Want To Go There?

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2010_03/022734.php

DOES PERINO REALLY WANT TO GO THERE?.... Fox News personality Dana Perino, best known for her work as the fourth press secretary for the Bush White House, has a habit of saying some unintentionally amusing things.

But this week, Perino complained on the air about a video the Obama White House released on the signing of the Travel Promotion Act.

"{T}here was an incident today where the President signed the Travel Promotion Act -- not a huge bill by any stretch of the imagination. But usually, that is something that the White House press corps would get to cover. They didn't today. And then later on in the day, the White House decided through its own media -- they have a robust new media shop and they're creating their own news and they're posting it, and all the networks said that they're not going to show it.

"But creating your own news is something that happens in repressive regimes. And a democracy is -- it is critical to have a good, strong free press in a democracy."

Now, I don't know what transpired with the signing of the Travel Promotion Act this week. Maybe there was a reason the White House released its own video; I haven't the foggiest idea. It doesn't seem especially important.

But if Perino wants to characterize U.S. administrations that "create their own news" as being undemocratic and reminiscent of "repressive regimes," she's going to have to overlook the jaw-dropping work of her own former colleagues in the Bush administration.

The Bush/Cheney gang, after all, invested heavily in creating fake-news segments -- literally, illegal government propaganda -- with taxpayer money, to be aired on news stations across the country. The Bush administration also had a bad habit of paying political pundits -- again, with our money -- to push the party line in the media, without disclosure.

And as Ben Armbruster reminds us, Perino was also part of a team that, by its own admission, set out to create its own reality.

Tell us again, Dana, about the importance of a free press and the free flow of information in a democracy.

—Steve Benen

[noise]

1. This is similar to DeMoss stating

he will no longer donate to the RNC. Are these people for real? They really don't know that they support a fascist party?

[Cha]

2. Freakshow hypocrite..thanks Steve Benen and

babylonsister.

[LiberalFighter]

3. Whenever Perino drives she does it blindly.

[KingFlorez]

4. And didn't Rumsfeld propose monitoring media coverage?

I can't find a link right now, but I recall something like that.

[Jennicut]

5. How soon we forget....everyone remember the Jeff Gannon/James Guckert incident?

Talk about trying to create your own reality...

[DCKit]

7. Or the M$M (all of them) reading the exact same talking points as "news"...

directly from the WH faxes. They didn't even have the sense to change a few words around to make it sound original.

It's OK when THEY do it. Projection, hypocrisy, lying, etc.... Republican values are alien to everything I was taught to believe in.

STFU Dana Peroxide and go chase down that shriveled little brain of yours.

[Puzzler]

6. Lest we forget the "Mission Accomplished" completely unstaged incident...

... (sarcasm)

[Arkana]

8. Creating your own news...where I have I seen that before...hmmm...

[pasto76]

9. i would go there....

perino is a foxxy mama!

[WinkyDink]

10. She spoke the truth about repressive regimes. She worked for one.

[tavalon]

11. Perino Pet Chow

never fails to amuse. She is asinine and freakishly dense.

[Supersedeas]

12. a GoP Cheerleader through and through