Dean To News Media: Get A Life

[kerrygoddess]

At an event meant to mark the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a stern if not angry Howard Dean, told the media to “get a new life.”
With the start of the Iowa Caucus only hours away, the former Vermont governor arrived at the Iowa Historical Museum for the State of Iowa King remembrance. Dean, who was not scheduled as one of the speakers, arrived with the national and local media waiting. The event had been posted on the media roster by his campaign.

After Dean’s bus pulled in at about 10:30 a.m., he circled the large building, just blocks from the golden-domed capital, as hordes of press and orange-capped Dean “storm troopers” followed in tow in the subfreezing weather. When Dean finally made his way into the building, chaos ensued - although nothing out of the ordinary for the kick off of a closely contested caucus race. “Dean came here and he was hoping that his henchmen would get the job done," said 26-year-old Seville Lee, who heads a mentoring program for at-risk youth in Des Moines. "He thought he was going to speak."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/19/politics/main594091.shtml

[Jackson Smith]

1. Wow sounds fiesty

Could Edwards be getting to him?

[liberalnurse]

8. No, calling or referring to Dean volunteers, who believe

in making an honest, sincere attempt to participate in getting our country back, referring to us as Henchman is most uncalled for and is blatant *bush-like.

Thank you Gove. Dean. It was a civil response to a nasty peerson.

[cthrumatrix]

9. read everything...the media was swarming in the ceremony...

"Photographers and camera crews followed, positioning themselves at the foot of the stage. A clearly perturbed Dean sat through the flashes, but soon walked up on stage and had a discussion with local organizers.

A while later he exited the auditorium, making a beeline to the front entrance and to his bus. Wedging through the media, he stopped at the front step before boarding the bus to answer a reporter's question about how he was feeling.

"You know why I wasn’t able to attend this event,” Dean said, “because you guys are behaving so badly you’ve got to get a new life.”

Upbraiding the media, Dean told the press: “I’m feeling great, we’re going to win but you guys got to behave yourselves out of respect for Dr. King.”


same link...

[candy331]

14. CBS a corporate media wag that couldn't stand up to the repugs

and air the Reagan movie and can't air the moveon ad during the super bowl is indeed in need of a life/nonlife.

[TheWebHead]

2. given the circumstances

I'd say his reaction was mild... sounds like the behavior of the sleaziest of paparazzi, not Beltway reporters.

[auntpattywatty]

3. HENCHMEN get what job done? That statement doesn't make sense to me.

[Cuban_Liberal]

4. I wish all of our candidates would say the same thing, some times.

On the other hand, don't ever start a fight with people who own presses and buy ink by the barrel and newsprint by the ton...

[dsc]

5. You just had to get that storm trooper quote in

I know several people who went there for Dean. Several are gay and lesbian (one of Hitler's targets). It sickens me to see those fine American's likened to NAZIs on a progressive board.

[BootinUp]

6. This was Dean trying to get attention

They put it on his media schedule. I think the organizers of the event have a good reason to be perturbed at Dean.

[stickdog]

13. What evidence do you have that the organizers of the even were mad

at Dean?

[bicentennial_baby]

17. Um

"“I think it was very disrespectful," said Donna Graves, who was on the planning committee for the commemoration ceremony. "The intent of today was not to look at Howard Dean.

“The planning committee didn’t know he was coming as we invited a lot of people. It was very hectic and this is a day that is supposed to be about Martin Luther King.”

[Cuban_Liberal]

16. Oh, come on!

Dr. Dean is a big old bad guy for putting this on his media schedule? I have some issues with him, but this would NOT be one of them. :eyes:

[returnable]

7. I'd like to see another report...

I've learned to not take any media report too seriously. Sounds like there was some miscommunication going on.

But I did find it odd that Dean would lash out at the media's presence after basically telling them he'd be there for the photo-op:

"The event had been posted on the media roster by his campaign."

[cthrumatrix]

10. just read the whole story --- typical slammin of Dean

[blm]

15. It seemed to be the community organizers who felt Dean was at fault.

Hmmm.....Or maybe just his campaign miscommunicated with them and the media.

[Clark4VotingRights]

18. See, Dean doesn't have verbal discipline. And/or he's disingenuous.

Don't hand the media a quote like "get a new life," if you want to
make a different point. Of course they're going to use that
quote, even if it's a small part of what he said.
He's not controlling the discourse by popping off like that.
Does that sound presidential? No. It's not presidential.
Is it good psychology to attack the media in this context?
No. They got the last word here.
And it was Dean's own words, working against him yet again.

If he really wanted to focus only on King, then he should have
said just that, and clammed up. Shown some wisdom and discipline.

However, it's a tad hard to swallow that a candidate on the
day of the Iowa caucus was taken aback (shocked shocked...)
that he got media attention at another huge event - the MLK
speech. That's simply, incredible. Not to be believed.


"“I think it was very disrespectful," said Donna Graves, who was on the planning committee for the commemoration ceremony. "The intent of today was not to look at Howard Dean.

“The planning committee didn’t know he was coming as we invited a lot of people. It was very hectic and this is a day that is supposed to be about Martin Luther King.”"

[robbedvoter]

11. Be careful what you wish for:

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 19, 2004--Factiva Media Visibility Index(SM)
Howard Dean Continues to Nearly Double His Competitors in Media Mentions
WHAT:       The Factiva Media Visibility Index(SM) provides a
            quantitative snapshot of the media's most widely covered
            people, places, events or companies within a given time
            frame.
            From January 2004 through the Democratic National
            Convention in July 2004, the Factiva Media Visibility
            Index will track the number of weekly media mentions
            garnered by each of the candidates competing to be the
            Democratic Party's nominee for the 2004 Presidential
            election.
            Compiled by Factiva(R) a Dow Jones and Reuters Company,
            the Factiva Media Visibility Index enables the media to
            see an accurate snapshot of the subject being covered. The
            search method weeds out the extraneous press mentions that
            are not timely or are irrelevant to the searched subject.
            The Factiva Media Visibility Index specifically searches
            the most influential news and business newspapers and
            magazines in the United States.
            Here is how the candidates fared from a media perspective
            during the week ending January 18, 2004:
                   Howard Dean - 1726 media mentions
                  Dick Gephardt - 993 media mentions
                    John Kerry - 864 media mentions
                   Wesley Clark - 854 media mentions
                   John Edwards - 836 media mentions
                  Joe Lieberman - 556 media mentions
                 Dennis Kucinich - 461 media mentions
                   Al Sharpton - 447 media mentions

[Feanorcurufinwe]

12. The frustration is starting to get to Dean.

“I’m offended that Dean would even try and do this,” said Lee, who organized a children’s play that day in honor of King. “He wasn’t scheduled to speak.

"If he wanted to come he could go sit down like everyone else.”

<snip>

Blaming the media for the commotion of his arrival, Dean refused to answer any more questions.

<snip>

“I think it was very disrespectful," said Donna Graves, who was on the planning committee for the commemoration ceremony. "The intent of today was not to look at Howard Dean.

“The planning committee didn’t know he was coming as we invited a lot of people. It was very hectic and this is a day that is supposed to be about Martin Luther King.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/19/politics/main594091.shtml

What happened to the well-oiled Dean campaign that could do no wrong? Are they so distraught over the polls that they can't even manage to properly schedule the candidate's appearances on the day of the caucus?

[Clark4VotingRights]

19. His ego is a bigger issue than his frustration.

The frustration is recent and accute.
The ego is chronic.

To put it in medical terms.

[Melinda]

20. Good for Dr. Dean!

It helps to read the entire article. :)

Photographers and camera crews followed, positioning themselves at the foot of the stage. A clearly perturbed Dean sat through the flashes, but soon walked up on stage and had a discussion with local organizers.

A while later he exited the auditorium, making a beeline to the front entrance and to his bus. Wedging through the media, he stopped at the front step before boarding the bus to answer a reporter's question about how he was feeling.

"You know why I wasn’t able to attend this event,” Dean said, “because you guys are behaving so badly you’ve got to get a new life.”

Upbraiding the media, Dean told the press: “I’m feeling great, we’re going to win but you guys got to behave yourselves out of respect for Dr. King.”

[RamboLiberal]

21. I'm really ticked at the CBS reporter or whomever posted to CBS web

for the entire negative article and for this snide attempt at cleverness:

After Dean’s bus pulled in at about 10:30 a.m., he circled the large building, just blocks from the golden-domed capital, as hordes of press and orange-capped Dean “storm troopers” followed in tow in the subfreezing weather.

That is uncalled for even if the campaign called this "The Perfect Storm" making that clever wordplay to call Dean volunteers "Storm Troopers" is insulting. Democratic leaders like McAuliffe ought to make as big a stink about this as Gillespie made over Moveon.org.

I emailed CBS a complaint.

No matter who your candidate is, we need to hold media's feet to the fire over this type of reporting.

[cryofan]

22. News Media to Dean:

Refill that Prozac prescription!

[spooky3]

23. These 2 paragraphs are disgustingly written.

From the nasty terminology for dedicated volunteers, to the quoting of comments of someone who apparently reads minds, this belongs in the National Enquirer, not in a reputable news source.

[shivaji]

24. TOUCHE !!!!

:toast:

[Moderator]

25. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=136965


DU Moderator