Obama White house and the Outer limits. – We control the transmission.

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to... The Outer Limits.
— Opening narration – The Control Voice – 1960s

White House Communications Director and admirer of Mao Zedong, Anita Dunn, speaking at a videotaped conference to the Dominican government Jan. 12, 2009, let slip the way the Obama administration had already duped the press and how they will continue to do so in an event focusing on Obama's media tactics and hosted by the Global Foundation for Democracy and Development - which seeks to promote collaboration between the U.S. and the Dominican Republic.

President Obama's presidential campaign focused on "making" the news media cover certain issues while rarely communicating anything to the press unless it was "controlled," Dunn disclosed to the Dominican government.

"Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn't absolutely control," said Dunn. (my emphasis added)

"One of the reasons we did so many of the David Plouffe videos was not just for our supporters, but also because it was a way for us to get our message out without having to actually talk to reporters," said Dunn, referring to Plouffe, who was Obama's chief campaign manager.

"We just put that out there and made them write what Plouffe had said as opposed to Plouffe doing an interview with a reporter. So it was very much we controlled it as opposed to the press controlled it," Dunn said.

"Whether it was a David Plouffe video or an Obama speech, a huge part of our press strategy was focused on making the media cover what Obama was actually saying as opposed to why the campaign was saying it, what the tactic was. … Making the press cover what we were saying."

Once he took office, the press was used again as questioners were “preselected” or given questions to ask by the White House. Amazingly, the President, who is usually full of “um’s” and ‘uh’s” always seemed to have the answers for these.

Even Helen Thomas, former presidential correspondent and current member of the White House Press Corps, accused White House Spokesman Robert Gibbs and the Obama administration of “controlling the press” during a briefing earlier. Thomas even went as far as to claim “Nixon didn’t try to do that,” “They couldn’t control (the media). They didn’t try.” “What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said. “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.”Thomas’ argument stems from the idea that instead of randomly answering selected questions from the hundreds of submissions, the White House New Media Office would rifle through them and pick the “best” submissions.

CBS Correspondent Chip Reid agreed with Helen Thomas, stating that “even if there’s a tough question, it’s a question coming from somebody who was invited or was screened, or the question was screened.”

Thomas added “It’s shocking. It’s really shocking.” “When you call the reporter the night before you know damn well what they are going to ask to control you,” “I’m not saying there has never been managed news before, but this is carried to fare-thee-well--for the town halls, for the press conferences,” she said. “It’s blatant. They don’t give a damn if you know it or not. They ought to be hanging their heads in shame.”

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. – The Control Voice (Obama administration) – 2009?


UPDATE: 9/20/2009
The White House has come out with a coordinated attack against Fox News because it is the only station that questions the Obama administration. They have tried to marginalize Fox. White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel told CNN on Sunday that President Obama does not want "the CNNs and the others in the world [to] basically be led in following Fox."

Obama senior adviser David Axelrod went further by calling on media outlets to join the administration in declaring that Fox is "not a news organization."

"Other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way," Axelrod counseled ABC's George Stephanopoulos. "We're not going to treat them that way." Could this be seen as a veiled threat? If other news organizations do treat Fox as a news organization will the Obama administration seek to marginalize them also?

It should be noted that the Obama administration FCC Diversity Czar, Mark Lloyd, has stated about the first Amendment; "It should be clear by now that my focus here is not freedom of speech or the press. This freedom is all too often an exaggeration. At the very least, blind references to freedom of speech or the press serve as a distraction from the critical examination of other communications policies. "[T]he purpose of free speech is warped to protect global corporations and block rules that would promote democratic governance."

And his views on the way things should be can be summed up "In Venezuela, with Chavez, is really an incredible revolution - a democratic revolution. To begin to put in place things that are going to have an impact on the people of Venezuela."

"The property owners and the folks who then controlled the media in Venezuela rebelled - worked, frankly, with folks here in the U.S. government - worked to oust him. But he came back with another revolution, and then Chavez began to take very seriously the media in his country."

Ridiculously exorbitant fees and fines on broadcasters could certainly be "used to financially strangle groups that criticize the government," could they not? That is, when the government's not simply "revoking the licenses" of stations that don't toe the Party line. Or better still, "seiz(ing) control of media outlets to stifle criticism."

This entire censorious evolution - from fines, to license rescission's to outright seizures - took place in just over three months. This is Lloyd's definition of Chavez "tak(ing) very seriously the media in his country," as a part of leading an "incredible..democratic revolution."

Could this happen here? I don't know? Could anyone predict a time that the government would own an automobile company or fire the CEO of a company? Could anyone predict a time when government would seek to force you to purchase something. You don't have to purchase car insurance if you don't have a car, but you might have to purchase health insurance no matter what. Could you predict a time when a tax cheat would be the head of the Treasury or Chairman of the Ways and Means, writing the laws that we must follow while at the same time breaking them with impunity?

"If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear." - The Control Voice (Big brother)