Tonight’s TV Coverage of Obama (Yawn) Health Care: Robert Gibbs Snarky about FOX Airing “So You Think You Can Dance?”
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on September 9, 2009
Is White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs really this dense when it comes to TV? Or, was he just feeling petulant that once again, that rebel FOX network wasn’t towing the line in adoration of The One?
Robert Gibbs Criticizes FOX for Not Showing Obama’s Health Speech, Is Pointed Out to Him That FOX News Will Be Airing the Speech | September 2009
Notice in the transcript below that Gibbs whines TWICE about FOX not airing Obama’s speech, ignoring (or not fully comprehending) that FOX is comprised of two stations and Obama’s speech WILL air on the news channel. C’mon, Bob, you gotta listen up better.
It’s really HAAARRRRD being press secretary for Barack Obama. Sniffle.
From TVNewster, Gibbs: ‘I Do Hope People Will Check in to the Reality of What’s Going on in America Rather Than the Distraction of a Reality TV Show’:
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs made the morning show rounds ahead of the president’s address to Congress tonight. When he turned up on Fox & Friends, he took a shot at the FOX broadcast network for not carrying the address.
Gibbs: I do hope the viewers of FOX will find a way to watch this speech tonight. I know the network, instead of dealing with the reality of millions of people on health insurance reform have decided to show a reality show called “So You Think You Can Dance?”
Alisyn Camerota: But you can watch it right here on the Fox News Channel. We’ll be covering it in its entirety.
Gibbs: I do hope people will check in to the reality of what’s going on in America rather than the distraction of a reality TV show.
Steve Doocy: FOX of course, owns a broadcast network and a news channel and it will of course, Robert, be right here on the Fox News Channel.
Later, Gibbs used the launch of Fox News Channel as an analogy for health insurance reform.
“Guys, you started a cable news network because you thought there wasn’t enough choice for viewers out there. That’s the same type of choice and competition that the president wants to put in the health insurance market.”
White House Press Sec. Robert Gibbs
But it’s inaccurate and you’re feigning stupidity (or is it real ignorance?) about how to change a television station, so your grade drops to a C-.
It’s becoming more apparent that Democrat authors of the bill have pretty much removed choices. We will have far less with government-run health care than we currently have. Also, Bob, I doubt FOX started its “cable news network because they thought there wasn’t enough choice for viewers out there.” Well, maybe giving a choice was an ancillary motivation and benefit, as there really hasn’t been many non-left-wing TV news networks, so the market was ripe for providing news that didn’t mock conservatives.
But the main reason FOX News was created is that the owners wanted to MAKE A PROFIT.
MONEY, Robert. You DO know what it is, right? You have some in your wallet, in the bank? Since you’re struggling with how to switch TV stations, I”m just making sure. You’re welcome.
Money and making a profit may not have the sex appeal to Democrats as that of “free love” and “hope and change” and “we are the world” and “give Al Gore another gaudy award,” but it pays the bills. It fuels the machine of capitalism (that ignorant Hollywood stars detest, but somehow, haven’t figured out they profit the most for the least amount of effort from it). Capitalism and free market principles help make America the greatest nation on earth (along with her Constitution). And with all that money rolling in, Bob, rich Democrats can buy their mansions, buy their Japanese imported kobe beef, pay the fuel for their private jets, et cetera. Without it, no cool toys, no haute couture, no comforts, no 21st-century technology. No jacuzzi in the bathroom. Heck, no bathroom.
Don’t get started bashing the private sector’s health insurance companies, Robert. They’re allowed and encouraged to make a profit. The private sector is NOT what’s wrong with our health care system, no matter what Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Frank, and the other Obama minions say.
It’s all the freakin’ litigation that has driven up the costs. It’s ambulance-chasing lawyers, whose fat legal fees have grown without regulation, without ANY oversight from the government, for several decades now that limits were removed by the government. It’s been a self-indulgent runaway train. Tort reform today would immediately free up doctors from having to pay the premiums on multi-million-dollar insurance polices to protect themselves from outrageous lawsuits. Doctors could lower their costs, and all American citizens would benefit from lower health care costs.
And why is tort reform NOT part of Obama’s health care reform? One guess… how many lawyers are in Congress and/or are lobbyists?
Tort reform and fixing Medicare/Medicaid… suddenly, most of our health care problems would nearly vanish. Ta-dah! And we wouldn’t have to build umpteen new government facilities, hire a quarter-million new government employees, ration health care and encourage old people to give up and die earlier to lower costs, while continually raising Americans’ taxes to pay for it all.
Robert, if FOX viewers really WANT to watch yet another teleprompter-sanitized, snoozer of an Obama address on health care (complete with more empty promises and vague generalities on how he will save us millions while he spends trillions), they can turn the channel or click the remote to any one of Obama’s media network kiss-up stations.
Or, listen to it on the radio, or watch it on YouTube, or get updates on Twitter or emailed newslinks. Or, read about it in a dying newspaper the following morning.
Knock off making it sound like if Obama doesn’t have 100 percent infiltration of ALL TV news stations that FOX is irresponsible and robbing Americans of watching “The Obama Show.”
Bobby, this isn’t Cuba, this isn’t Venezuela. Not yet. People can still choose what to watch, and can even choose to NOT watch Obama’s health care power grab.
Repeat of Gibbs’ most boneheaded line: I do hope the viewers of FOX will find a way to watch this speech tonight.
They’ll figure it out, Bob.
Crikey, you’d think this was the most important thing on Gibbs’ feverish little mind. It really should be focused more on the plummeting acceptance for the ObamaCare “ram and cram” health care bill and the tanking approval of POTUS himself.
People watching “So You Think You Can Dance?” won’t help those plunging numbers. But it will likely help FOX make a handsome profit.
San Francisco ObamaCare Protest, August 14, 2009
Additional resources:
Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion: Dems Self-Destructing? Who Could Have Thunk It
Philip Klein, American Spectator: Don’t Believe The Hype and Dems Failed to Move Ball in August
The B.S. Report: Columnist Of The Day: Thomas Sowell; Government Health Care
Obama Pundit: WATERLOO? NOT QUITE YET.
Hot Air: Video: DeMint challenges Obama to line-by-line review of ObamaCare
True Lies and False Confessions: We’re Not Really Into … Uh … Competition
American Spectator: Conservative Leaders Speak Out on Obama’s Health Care Speech
Pundit & Pundette: What do 83% of Americans agree on?
The Right Scoop: Video: Demint to Obama – Stop Generalizing and Defend Your Bill
Patterico’s Pontifications: Obama Implies Illegals Will Be Covered by His Health Care Plan
GayPatriot: Why President Should Ditch Obamacare, Focus on Economy
William Tucker, The American Spectator: Solving Healthcare Through Verbosity
John Nolte, Big Hollywood: ‘Rock the Vote’ ObamaCare Push An Epic Fail?
FOX News: ABC, NBC Won’t Air Ad Critical of Obama’s Health Care Plan
Examiner.com: Anti-ObamaCare ad that ABC and NBC refused to Air
Big X, Big Hollywood: Debunking the Great Debunker: ObamaCare Covers Illegals
Behind Blue Lines: Does the Government Own Our Bodies?
League of American Voters: Watch the New TV Ad Exposing The Obama Health Care Takeover
RedState: The U.S. Constitution and Health Care Control
Federalist Fred Thompson Blog: “Spread the Wealth” Hidden in Health-Care Reform
Marginal Revolution: Our health care intuitions, or death panels for astronauts
“Barrack” Now!: Sarah Palin sounds like Dagny Taggart
HillBuzz: If you aren’t paying attention to what Sarah Palin is up to on Facebook, then you’re a damn fool
VotingFemale Speaks!: Barack Obama – Unelectable in 2012; His Waterloo was Sarah Palin speaking out against ObamaCare; TeamSarah On Deck! and Socialists Fall on Own Sword; ObamaCare V1.0 is Dead On Arrival
Liberty’s Army: Forecasting Death in the UK: Fasttrack to Death with the NHS Pathway Policy
Jane Q. Republican: The British NHS: The Healthcare Might Kill You…But It’s Free!
Frugal Café Blog Zone: Pelosi & Reid: Quick, Pass ObamaCare While We Still Have the Votes and No One Has Completely Read It… Plus, More UK Health Care Nightmares and Death in the NHS Lane: Terminally Ill People Are Erroneously Sentenced to Die Early by “Death Panels” in UK and AARP Losing Memberships: Seniors and Military Vets Oppose Socialized ObamaCare, Glenn Beck Interviews AARP Rep (video)
Chicks On The Right: Never Waste A Good Crisis….Um, I Mean Funeral
Michelle Malkin: Union politicking at the pulpit and Cone of Shame Award: MSNB-see-only-what-we-want-you-to-see
Hit & Run, Reason Magazine: New at Reason: Steve Chapman on the Truth About Health Care and Infant Mortality
Ztower: It’s Not About Your Health, Nitwit! It’s About President Obama’s Legacy. Now Get Out Of The Way!
Lisaintx’s Blog: Born to be Free
Michael D. Tanner, Cato @ Liberty: Co-ops: A ‘Public Option’ By Another Name
Patterico’s Pontifications: Deceiver.com on Pelosi and Obama: Goal Is to Eliminate Private Health Insurance
Sharp Right Turn: White House tries to intimidate on healthcare opposition
Wall Street Journal: Pull the Plug on ObamaCare
Heritage Foundation: The Public Health Care Plan: What Seems to Be the Problem?
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[...] Your Crap just gets deeper Big Hollywood: Lonewolf Diaries: The Obama Era is Over Frugal Café: Tonight’s TV Coverage of Obama (Yawn) Health Care: Robert Gibbs Snarky about FOX Airing “So You …and Escalating Health Care Disapproval: Poll Shows 52% and Disapprove of ObamaCare, Speaker Pelosi [...]