Dumb controversy of the day
October 06, 2009 1:49 pm ET by Jamison Foser
Here's MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell, interviewing Time's Karen Tumulty moments ago:
Karen, let me ask you one other thing. There was an event with doctors at the White House at the Rose Garden yesterday. And I have to pursue this more, in more depth, but do you know anything about this photo opportunity when they were told to bring their white lab coats, and those who forgot and came in, in business attire were handed lab coats by White House staff members so they would look like doctors for the photo op?
After Tumulty noted that this is "not such a huge deal" because the people were in fact doctors and do in fact "support the basic bill," Mitchell haltingly replied:
Well, again, it is an interest group, Doctors for America, but it was certainly, uh, assisted by White House staff. It just seems like a lot of choreography for a White House which claims to be doing things authentically. [Smirking, shaking head] It just, you know.
It just, you know.
Well, no, I don't.
Here's a free tip: When you're unable to articulate what's wrong with an action more eloquently than saying "It just, you know" while scrunching up your nose and shaking your head, its probably because there's nothing wrong with it.
Look: These were actual doctors. If they were not doctors, and the White House dressed them up to look like they were, that would be problematic.
But that isn't what happened. They were doctors. There was nothing misleading about asking them to wear lab coats so people would know they were doctors rather than, say, insurance company executives.
(By the way: handing someone a lab coat is not "a lot of choreography." It takes about two seconds.)
Now, why did Mitchell feel she had to ask Tumulty about this? Why does she think she has to "pursue this more, in depth"? How much "depth" is there to pursue?
Right-wing bloggers have been yelling about it, that's why.
Mitchell can't articulate a reason why it matters, but the right-wing is up in arms, so she thinks she has to "pursue" the Great Doctors Wearing Lab Coats Scandal of Ought-Nine in more depth.
UPDATE: According to Tommy Christopher at Mediaite, the controversy is not only dumb -- it isn't true. Under the header "Why Was The NY Post Alone in Reporting ‘White Coat-gate? Because It's Not True," Christopher writes:
The picture bothered me, because I didn’t recognize the staffer who was handing out the white coats.
I checked on it, and a White House source told me that the White house did not provide the extra lab coats. Doctors for America paid for and brought the extras. OOPS!
I wonder if Mitchell's in-depth pursuit of this crucial story has turned up that little detail yet.
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The White House staged this event, and handed out the coats. There is no controversy, it was staged and fake. Very simple really.
It was staged. Doctors for America showed up at the White House to show support for a HealthCare plan. That is what POVey meant..he just forgot to mention that they were real Doctors' who feel reform is needed.
I am like Limbaugh who told people today about an article in a newspaper. He commented on it, told his numbnutz what he read and then told them it is not what was written but he can read between the lines.
And using POVeys' sentence structuring...Rush went to a commerical to do some lines before continuing the show and reading more articles.
A good descriptive summary for ol' pointless.
and the ones who probably did not have THERE lab coats were the MAD DOCTORS you know the ones who want a single payer option.
Let's face it...if they didn't have on lab coats the Right would be out there getting their faces plastered on ConWebby sites to find out if they were real doctors. So what happened, Obama fooled them. Now the Connies don't know how to think.
While we're giving out lab coats for the doctors, can we bring out the supply of straitjackets for the neocons?
The Bunny that appears at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll is not a rabbit at all, but is actually a guy wearing a costume PROVIDED BY THE WHITE HOUSE!!!
That is, what they see on the screen, they accept as being the whole of the event, and the passing out of lab coats is seen as a kind of fakey dressup.
But nothing that happens at the White House is spontaeneous, nor should it be, with very few exceptions. You think a couple hundred doctors just happened to be touring the W.H. and got invited in for a chit-chat? No, I assume they were invited days in advance, they had to fly or drive there, get hotel rooms, while Obama and his writers prepped the speech, media were called or faxed, and the W.H. kitchen probably whipped up coffee and muffins for the post-speech milling.
And this is just as it should be. Events like these are part of the way a nation's leaders communicate. It's okay. Plus, this event was a cosy tete a tete. Compared to Bush's aircraft carrier, the lab coats were essentially modest "Hi, my name is..." name tags.
I don't imagine that the right-wingers don't know this, but anything will do, to distract the press and the citizens from their malice, neglect and duplicity. As Screwtape said, "Do remember you are there to fuddle him. From the way some of you young fiends talk, anyone would suppose it was our job to teach!"
Remember: anyone who steals from your irreplaceable and limited store of attention, especially with this kind of nonsense, is not your friend.
Noni
Might have some merit if the public was asked to guess who they were...but it doesn't because they were introduced to the public as doctors...no guess work necessary.
This was a silly, staged event...just like asking astronauts to show up in moon suits...or the Super Bowl champs in full gear...or farmers in straw hats and overalls.
I don't think there is any controvesy...just a shallow and silly photo op.
Or G-Dub dressing up like a pilot, or a cowboy, or a rancher, or whatever other character he liked in the Toy Story movie.
Dare we forget the John Kerry NASA photo op...looking like an emerging sperm cell.
The Bush flight suit landing was propaganda to sell a war in which Americans are still dying more than six years later.
Funny indeed but another false comparison.
I have to say though, this once again shows that Obama is smarter than these guys. Obama just dressed up doctors as doctors. He did not dress up as a character. I am imagining G-Dub walking out in his own lab-coat and getting the stethoscope caught up in his necktie during the speech.