But He Played One On TV

I was waiting for the first good visual exposition of the new White House briefing room turned broadcast stage.

I'm just happy I got to see the production view first — before any shot of the Prez coming at me accompanied by full whiz bang graphics and video. Looking at this, Mr. Orwell, it feel like the Presidency has finally, fully morphed into a TV show.

For posterity (since Bush can't stop talking about history these days — as if jettisoning any question of his mistakes far into the future), when someone asks — as a piece of trivia — who played the White House Network's first President, you could lie in wait for a moment, enjoy the quizzical expressions on the younger faces, then pipe up: "It was Bush Jr. — but, thank God, he was only on for two seasons."

(image: Brendan Smialowski for The New York Times. July 12, 2007. Washington. nytimes.com. linked image: Jason Reed/Reuters. July 11, 2007. via YahooNews.)

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All The Noose That Fits To Print

eyeSmoke

margaret

When I first saw your picture, I thought it was a virtual president, not really Bush….it looks so artificial and posed, with his hands, stiffly spread in the air. And, it looks so one-dimensional, like tv, in general…..which is why I don’t watch it, and haven’t for 11 years.
http://wordfight.blogspot.com Dunc

I find media of media fascinating. I see these images as an erasure of the media-lens of the camera itself as an extension the role the NYT plays in the new virtual newsroom of the White House. By pretending to get behind the switchboard, the paper places itself outside of rhetoric, identified as the TV screens in the picture.
I also find Bush’s body language significant. I’ve been seeing that gesture (arms open, incredulous facial expresions) more and more, and for me at least, it embodies a sense of mis-direction (compare with Clinton’s thumb-pointing gesture) and listlessness on the part of the administration.
http://thestupidestthing.wordpress.com totally infected

I’m not quite sure how to communicate with the blog-master outside of the comment system, so sorry for using this space innapropriately.
I nominate this pic for a post – http://tinyurl.com/yv8k7n
Wild Pic, Wild story
Asta

Welcome to OZ.
It only cost us taxpayers $22 million so George can feel like an emperor. CNN had their chromatics all out of whack and the colors were so brilliant like day glo paints, it looked totally surreal. When George gave the first question to Helen Thomas, I knew we weren’t in Kansas anymore.
http://wonderworldofbooks.blogspot.com/ Books Alive

When I checked here this morning, I thought we might be discussing a NYT photo by Saul Loeb, AFP-Getty, that accompanies a story by Jeff Zeleney:
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/washington/index.html
Bush in profile, on a teleconference call, Cheney snoozing. How does the big guy keep on top of things, if he dozes off this way?