The administration’s control-freak media strategy marches on.
Appearing on CNN Tuesday night (no word on whether anyone was actually watching), White House adviser Valerie Jarrett didn’t hesitate to smear Fox as “biased” when prompted — but curiously demurred on the question of whether the same label might apply to Obama-approved MSNBC. No huge surprise there.
But in the course of her rambling answer, Jarrett said something utterly laughable. She explained that in the ongoing public debate over major policy initiatives, the administration won’t hesitate to “speak truth to power” in defending its positions. Does Ms. Jarrett not realize that she’s a top aide to the president of the United States of America?
This statement underscores the fact that no matter what this president and his people claim, they’re not focused on looking forward. Eric Holder’s backward-looking, counter-productive, gratuitous efforts to investigate the CIA — over credible, serious objections – should suffice to prove that point. But a pledge from the White House to “speak truth to power” illustrates how a reflexive anti-Bush mentality still permeates the highest levels of the administration. They remain in perpetual campaign mode, incapable of coming to a full realization that they are now the ones in charge, and that they should behave as such. As Charles Krauthammer devastatingly points out, the president himself seems incurably afflicted with this condition.
An even greater irony is that Jarrett made her preposterous comment in the process of maligning a major news outlet precisely because of its excessive “truth to power” reporting.