Mark in Mexico

Monday, July 11, 2005

Press Briefing by Scott McClellan

Keeping in mind that in this world today and, more specifically, in the United States, the issues that most concern people are (not in any particular order except for 1 and 2):

1. Terrorism/GWoT
2. Our troops in Iraq
3. Replacing 1, possibly 2, possibly 3 Supreme Court justices
4. G8 / African hunger/debt
5. HIV/AIDS
6. Social Security
7. Oil prices
8. Nuclear proliferation in Iran and Korea
9. A bloated, corrupt, inefficient United Nations
10. Hurricane aftermath in Florida and Alabama

These are the questions that presidential spokesman Scott McClellan was asked at his daily press briefing this afternoon in the order in which they occurred:

Karl Rove /Valery Plame: 1st 21 consecutive questions
Terrorism / GWot: 1 question
Karl Rove /Valery Plame: 4 questions
Our troops in Iraq - 2 questions
Karl Rove /Valery Plame: 2 questions
Supreme Court nominee: 1 question
Karl Rove /Valery Plame: 1 question
Supreme Court nominee: 4 questions
Karl Rove /Valery Plame: 4 questions
Supreme Court nominee: 2 questions
Karl Rove /Valery Plame: 3 questions
North Korea nuclear talks: 2 questions
Karl Rove /Valery Plame: 6 questions
Terrorism/GWot: 1 question
Karl Rove /Valery Plame: 1 question
Supreme Court nominee: 2 questions
Voting rights legislation: 2 questions

That's roughly 59 questions asked. Here is the breakdown:

Karl Rove / Valery Plame: 42 questions - 71%
Supreme Court nominee: 9 questions - 15%
voting right legislation - 2 questions - 3%
Terrorism / GWot - 2 questions - 3%
Korea nuclear talks - 2 questions - 3%
Our troops in Iraq - 2 questions - 3%
G8 / African hunger/debt - 0 questions - 0%
HIV/AIDS - 0 questions - 0%
Social Security - 0 questions - 0%
Oil prices - 0 questions - 0%
Hurricane aftermath - 0 questions - 0%
United Nations scandal - 0 questions - 0%

How do the following word bytes, relevant to the MSM, resonate with you?
muckraking
irrelevant
out of touch
vindictive
biased leftist agenda
no longer taken seriously
losing subscribers/viewers/listeners
fake but accurate
monopoly on information dissemination
lost monopoly on information dissemination
isolated islands
distortions passed off as "news"
Dan Rather and fraud
Eason Jordan / Linda Foley and lies
no longer employed
24/7 coverage and Jennifer Wilbanks / Michael Jackson
no credibility and Paul Krugman / Michael Moore

Also commenting on the QWot, AIDS, G8, etc.:
Tom Maguire
Party of the Purple
Stromata Blog
Silent Running
Echidne of the Snakes
NewsHog

Wizbang
In search of Utopia
MacsMind
Armed Victim
Hullabaloo

Super Hanc Petram
Crooks and Liars
The Light of Reason
MahaBlog
Scrappleface

Say Anything
James Joyner @ OTB
Kerfuffles
Les Enfants Terrible
Reid Report

Joho the Blog
Age Ventures
Ramblings' Journal
Just Johnny
Think Progress

PennyWit agrees:

Get Rove. Get Bush. Embarrass the White House. These partisans make absolutely no effort to camouflage their attacks. They just carry on with the same, steady, partisan drumbeat, marching toward God only knows where.

Inside the blogosphere, the drumbeat bounces around, echoes, mutates, and grows louder and louder and louder, interspersed with cross-partisan shouting about agenda, spinning, lying, treason, and resign, resign, RESIGN.

At the same time, soldiers die in Iraq, a Supreme Court seat stands vacant, a passel of legislative business awaits Congress, and a hundred million tasks, mundane and great, await America's citizenry.