Iraq Media Guy Rebuilds Qatar At the Garden (RNC '04 Convention)

[VolcanoJen]

Fascinating stuff in this article. Jim Wilkinson is the guy who was so successful at keeping reporters at bay as CENTCOM's Director of Strategic Communications, the guy who was responsible for spreading the "Al Gore invented the Internet" crap, and he also made a name for himself defending the Dade County Posse of Republican "protestors." More on that from Joe Conason in Salon, but be sure to enjoy the New York Observer article first...

(From Joe Conason's take on the article, there's this gem: "Smith also quotes several still disgruntled reporters who feel that the press and public were ill-served by Wilkinson's machinations in Doha -- and who aren't looking forward to dealing with him in New York. "If they run that convention the way they ran the CentCom press operation, you might wish to acquaint yourself with the term 'President Dean,'" said the New Yorker's Peter Boyer.")


http://www.observer.com/pages/frontpage5.asp

Excerpt:

"We’re looking at embedding reporters, we’re looking at new and interesting camera angles," Jim Wilkinson said recently in the quick, confidential drawl reporters got used to at the U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar. But while the Republican operative spent much of the year in desert camouflage as General Tommy Franks’ director of strategic communications, he’s now in Brooks Brothers mufti in foreign territory, New York.

Mr. Wilkinson started last month as the director of communications for the Republican National Convention, which will take place from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 next year. His office, on the 18th floor over Madison Square Garden, is furnished with the essentials: leather-bound Bible, Yankee cap, Fox News on the flat-screen TV.

His task: establish a communications center in the core of the media capital of the Western world. Slight, blond, sports-minded, Mr. Wilkinson will be on the front line of Bush-Cheney 2004, responsible for staving off a media army more than 16,000 strong. It’s Operation Garden Storm.

<snip>

And the R.N.C. convention planners are, like Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, willing to break the rules. They’re contemplating setting the stage in the center of the Garden rather than against a backdrop, which could offer 360-degree camera angles. They’re also considering staging events at Yankee Stadium, Mr. Wilkinson said.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. More opportunity

for protestors to be seen, then. But they will have to be ingenious. Maybe someone could make a Yay to Bush sign that could be easily changed to Nay to Bush, or something like that.