Rule #1 "Always follow Kenny's links"
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TV Technique 101 With George Bush; Private Company Produces Coverage of D.C. School Visit
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The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props yesterday as President Bush delivered a live television address to America's schoolchildren, the latest administration effort to demonstrate the president's interest in domestic issues.

   The administration had even more control over the highly telegenic speech - carried live from Alice Deal Junior High School by Public Broadcasting Service and Cable News Network - than it does over most presidential events.

   Unlike most presidential addresses, such as last Friday's arms control speech from the Oval Office, yesterday's was handled not by the television networks but by a private firm paid by the U.S. Department of Education, administration officials said. The White House selected the camera angles and decided which pictures would be sent out, officials said.

   The students in Cynthia Mostoller's eighth-grade American history class said they were advised to wear soft-soled shoes so they did not make too much noise. They were told to pay attention to the president as he perched on a stool in front of Room 112's blackboard, not the teleprompters in the back of the room from which he read his text.

   Some said they thought Bush was thinking more about his own reelection than their education. "I'm sure we'll never see these pictures on a campaign ad," Eleanor Davis, 13, volunteered sarcastically.

Administration officials said they gave the children no such special instructions. "We only saw the kids about 30 minutes before the speech," said Sig Rogich, the former Nevada advertising executive in charge of presenting Bush's image in the best possible way. The student's close attention to the president, he said, "probably had a lot to with the content of the speech."

   The White House sent letters to schools across the nation to encourage teachers and principals to allow students to tune in the speech, which was also carried live by the Mutual Broadcasting and NBC Radio Network. The live television and radio coverage was arranged at the request of the Education Department, administration officials said.

   The speech, in which Bush encouraged students to study hard, avoid drugs and turn in troublemakers, was given one day after a new report said the nation must "travel a tremendous distance" to meet the education goals the president set earlier this year.
   The address was "to motivate America's students to strive for excellence; to increase students' as well as parents' responsibility/accountabili ty; and to promote students' and parents' awareness of the educational challenge we face," White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater said in a written statement.

   It also was intended to underscore Bush's attention to domestic matters and counter Democratic charges that he spends too much time on foreign affairs as he prepares to run for reelection.

"No, you are a paid blogger assigned to counter anyone that posts something negative about the government or Obama." by Mcamelyne II on 05/17/2011

by Robrob on 09/09/2009 03:48:49 AM EST