More OTV
EmailABC News' Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller report:
A cynic might wonder why the Obama White House feels the need to open up its own informal taxpayer-financed television broadcasts to run puff pieces about President Obama and his team, given the willingness of so many others to do the job for free, but once again we bring you an installment of OTV.
This episode features White House chef Sam Kass and Phillies 1st Baseman Ryan Howard, who just gained a World Series Ring and dropped twenty pounds.
They talk nutrition and healthy diet!
It's really one to grow on.
Howard gets a tour of the White House garden, appearing to eat lettuce straight from the garden.
"That's good," he says as he munches on a leaf, "oh, yeah."
Kass shows off the biocycler, fertilizing the garden with the scraps from the kitchen.
Kass then shows off the honey bee hive.
"Oh, snap, son," Howard says.
Do you want your OTV?
- Jake Tapper and Sunlen Miller
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OTV is nothing less than robbing the taxpayers to make propaganda campaign material.
Obama has no qualms, even in these horrible economic times, using taxpayer money to advance his own agenda.
This should be stopped, is likely illegal as it is not anything resembling news.
The taxpayer should not have to pay for this corrupt slime-bag, Obama, campaign commercials for himself!
Are we fully marxist/communist/socialist where all media is government controlled.
He needs to use his own campaign bucks to pay for this. The taxpayers do not OWE HIM commercial production costs for his propaganda film clips.
This is yet another example of the media lying down while unprecedented control of the information is exerted by Obama.
Posted by: MNM | June 5, 2009, 6:13 pm 6:13 pm
My father in law, a child of the depression, a Democrats Democrat, said a few weeks ago that he had never witnessed anything quite like what is going on with todays news and the Obama show. He said Obama was more like a soap opera character than a President and that he wished he had stayed home on election day.
Can anyone say he is “struck on himself”.
Posted by: david | June 5, 2009, 6:26 pm 6:26 pm
Color me surprised that President Narcissus is promoting his favorite person (himself) again. Are there any worthless, B.S. projects this man doesn’t waste our money on?
I’m with David’s FIL and wish I had stayed home on election day too.
Posted by: Kimberly | June 5, 2009, 6:37 pm 6:37 pm
I appreciate that Tapper at least covers this.
The rest of the media elite are such supporters of Obama that it seems pointless for him to nationalize the news media.
The people of this country must work hard to help send money to this government, since there is no end to the spending in sight.
Posted by: ulno | June 5, 2009, 6:51 pm 6:51 pm
You’ve heard the expression “self-praise stinks”? There’s a great odor
coming from the white house. whew!
Posted by: lvh | June 5, 2009, 7:19 pm 7:19 pm
As was made clear in the first post on this subject, the media is just grumpy that the Whitehouse occasionally makes their own puff pieces (quite clearly labeled as such – there is no Jeff Gannon style propaganda going on) and – here’s the real irritant – excludes the normal pool from covering it. Last time I think reporters were complaining they weren’t allowed in to shoot their own video on a pickup basketball game.
Wow. What a scandal.
Posted by: jhw539 | June 5, 2009, 7:38 pm 7:38 pm
MNM:”Are we fully marxist/communist/socialist where all media is government controlled.”
Lets do a little check – is any of the media in the US government controlled? No. Even a little? Well, that power house PBS gets 15-20% funding from the feds. That’s it.
You appear significantly disconnected from actual documented reality.
Posted by: jhw539 | June 5, 2009, 7:40 pm 7:40 pm
Who will be the first network news person to leave his/her network & work for O TV?
Posted by: MayBee | June 5, 2009, 8:05 pm 8:05 pm
OK, as far as I can tell this is a PSA about healthy eating starring an athlete and a White House chef walking in the White House garden (the existence of which will inadvertently save the household money because the family and staff aren’t shipping all this food in every week). They do this kind of thing on PBS, which is also taxpayer-financed. Where be your tirades against Sesame Street characters telling us how to eat healthy?
Posted by: PJ | June 5, 2009, 8:53 pm 8:53 pm
Is this an ABC blog or an RNC blog?
Posted by: Some impartial media... | June 5, 2009, 8:59 pm 8:59 pm
“A cynic might wonder why the Obama White House feels the need to open up its own informal taxpayer-financed television broadcasts to run puff pieces about President Obama and his team, given the willingness of so many others to do the job for free”
Well said, Mr. Tapper, well said.
Posted by: Osteoblast | June 5, 2009, 10:19 pm 10:19 pm
What a joke! This administration can fine more ways to waste money.
Posted by: 3rd party | June 5, 2009, 11:11 pm 11:11 pm
I thought MSNBC was OTV.
Posted by: Ken | June 5, 2009, 11:13 pm 11:13 pm
Well we sure cant laugh at Chavez and those guys now, our President has OTV just like all the other 3rd world countries that love to keep their maximum leader face on everything.
If you feel am joking check it out and see if these leader don’t all have their own networks.
Posted by: SJ | June 6, 2009, 12:51 am 12:51 am
You don’t even have to be a cynic to wonder.
Posted by: Bob O. | June 6, 2009, 2:13 am 2:13 am
wow, Jake, quite disappointing. Extremely disappointing to see you take such a great message about healthy eating and insert your cynical comment. The country could use this kind of material that promotes healthy living and not the junk that is seen on TV that has no value to one’s life. You are doing a great disservice to your country with this kind of cynicism on even the most positive msgs, Jake.
To commenters, do you see Obama anywhere in the video? This is a video from the WHITE HOUSE, i.e. the people’s house, and staff that have something useful to share with us. NOTHING to do with Obama. Great use of technology for the good of the country.
Posted by: Question | June 6, 2009, 2:40 am 2:40 am
This video probably took a media tech person no more than an 8 hour day to put together , including filming it, editing it, and posting it online.
The content is as innocuous as can be, and actually does a lot to encourage healthy eating from a fresh angle.
Frankly, anyone who complains about the “cost to the taxpayers” of this kind of video sounds pretty 2000 and late!
Posted by: Danny | June 6, 2009, 3:17 am 3:17 am
It is not the cost to taxpayers, which is minuscule in comparison to other programs that waste money, it is the desire of the WH to completely control the message. It does not take a 9/11 conspiracy theorist to see how this can lead from the puff pieces, to programs the FLOTUS is working on, to all the official news that comes out of the WH. If this is not true, why do they feel like they need to self promote in this way, it is not as if there aren’t dozens of groups in the US pushing healthy living.
Posted by: Jason | June 6, 2009, 6:44 am 6:44 am
Careful, Jake, the people at Homeland Security might come & take you away for ”re-education” or you might be arrested & charged with blasphemy against the ONE. Big Bro’ Is Watching You ……
As long as the gov’t. has nationalized the banks, the auto industry, soon the insurance industry followed by nationalizing health care, why not nationalize the media since they are losing money? We can have one national newspaper, one T.V. network, & one radio station, all run by the White House.
Posted by: Terry | June 6, 2009, 7:17 am 7:17 am
OTV?
I thought it was better known as MSNBC/NBC
Posted by: drjohn | June 6, 2009, 10:35 am 10:35 am
Lets do a little check – is any of the media in the US government controlled? No. Even a little? Well, that power house PBS gets 15-20% funding from the feds. That’s it.
You appear significantly disconnected from actual documented reality.
Posted by: jhw539 | Jun 5, 2009 4:40:48 PM
—————
OK lets do that check. Any taxpayer funded faux news, puff or not, piece produced by Obama is state run and paid for media.
However, if and when the love stops, Obama has his state run media organized and staffed with news pro’s from CNN and other networks to produce whatever he chooses.
IN addition we are paying with tax dollars for this fake news and it is a wholly unnecessary expense except in light of their ability to use this as propaganda for their campaign.
Obama is working hard on a back door to silence any detractors, especially in radio. The fairness doctrine isn’t publicly popular so they are going other routes including a demand for media diversity. Not in network news mind you which is completely one sided, but in talk radio, which has serious voices of opposition.
Lastly, for now, the white house press corp is so under the control of Obama that he actually used them to threaten those not willing to go along with his Obama style bankruptcy of the auto companies. You remember the ones where Ralph Nader (and I) claim the little investors were totally robbed and the workers totally screwed but the Obama supporting Union got ownership and control of the company. Well Obama threatened the investment companies that he would have the whitehouse press corp destroy their reputation if they did not go along with this rape of their assets.
They could take 5 cents on the dollar or nothing at all and have their entire business endangered to boot.
That is an awful lot of control.
And when the love stops, if it ever does, Obama has his taxpayer funded fake news company ready to produce whatever propaganda he dictates.
Posted by: MNM | June 6, 2009, 1:39 pm 1:39 pm
It is not the cost to taxpayers, which is minuscule in comparison to other programs that waste money, it is the desire of the WH to completely control the message…..[snip]
If this is not true, why do they feel like they need to self promote in this way, it is not as if there aren’t dozens of groups in the US pushing healthy living.
____________________________________________
It’s not just the White House trying to control “the” message that right wingers here seem to be complaining about, it’s the White House controlling any message at all.
If they don’t like the way the president is communicating with the public or using his “bully pulpit” to promote ideas he finds important, they should vote someone else in.
I don’t remember them complaining about Bush and Cheney”s undemocratic decisions, which overturned centuries of American military law by circumventing due process…and meanwhile using the entire media corps, including Brian Ross of ABCNews, to put out misleading stories about the effectiveness of torture.
Read Jane Mayer’s “The Dark Side” about Bush/Cheney if you really want to see how an undemocratic, dictatorial secret government works.
But to assert that a couple of inexpensive videos about athletes visiting the White House subverts democracy, or leads in that direction, seems odd.
In fact, I think a Republican in the White House would probably do exactly the same thing. Everyone promotes their ideas, and themselves, this way now.
Posted by: Danny | June 6, 2009, 2:54 pm 2:54 pm
Heirloom Arugula.. anyone??
Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | June 6, 2009, 3:23 pm 3:23 pm
A cynic might wonder why the opened up Acorn….
Posted by: DontGet818OnMeNow | June 6, 2009, 5:19 pm 5:19 pm
The White House Press Corps is just antsy and want to hear the nuts and bolts of The One’s ‘government-based solutions’.
Posted by: Dugan | June 6, 2009, 11:57 pm 11:57 pm