Cheney Seeks To Hire Taxpaper-Funded Press Critic
This is fun. It appears that Dick Cheney has been looking to hire a taxpayer-funded press critic. Over at The Daily Politics, Ben Smith has obtained a privately-circulated email looking for someone to fill the job of Cheney's press assistant. Here's how part of the email describes the gig:
The Press Assistant is responsible for monitoring media for various national security and domestic issues, informing the Press Secretary and Deputy Press Secretary of issues of note and factual inaccuracies in the media.
Full email text after the jump.
Smith reports the job's been filled. Sounds like a great gig: Spending your day searching for evidence of non-existent liberal bias in the media and and non-existent anti-troops reporting.
Here's the email:
The Press Assistant to the Vice President is responsible for supporting the Press Secretary and the Deputy Press Secretary to the Vice President. This includes many substantive tasks, and also requires great attention to logistical details. The Press Assistant is responsible for monitoring media for various national security and domestic issues, informing the Press Secretary and Deputy Press Secretary of issues of note and factual inaccuracies in the media. The Press Assistant interacts daily with members of the White House press corps, speaking to the press regarding the Vice President's schedule. In addition, the Press Assistant arranges logistics for all Vice Presidential traveling press, working closely with the Advance team on sequence and presentation for all public Vice Presidential events. The Press Assistants (sic) also assists in the preparation and submission of event briefing papers for the Vice President's review, often serving as lead event contact for Vice Presidential events.
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Working the refs, as always. NYT won't get back on the VP's plane any time soon via the person getting hired for this job.
July 21, 2006 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Isnt' this what Colbert was talking about --- "The problem is that the facts are biased against the administration".
July 21, 2006 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Too bad they didn't have this position earlier. Maybe he/she would have seen Katrina coming on the news and alerted the VP. Then maybe something would have been done.
Nice to see my tax dollars going to fund their propaganda machine.
July 21, 2006 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sounds like Dead-eye Dick is still steaming over the release of his annotated copy of the Wilson NYT op-ed. This aide will be in charge of taking dictation for those notes from now on. No fingerprints.
Other than that, and making sure the NYT doesn't sneak onto the plane, not much to do. Weeks go by without a Cheney sighting in public.
I'm guessing the primary job qualification is being able to be in the same room with a very angry man who has a heart condition. Just stand there, take it until excused and don't do anything to make him even more excited.
July 21, 2006 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
So what they're really looking for is a bear trainer?
July 21, 2006 2:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
This is hilarious. "Media monitoring" is a perfectly normal and routine job description in government offices, including embassies, agencies, and so on. But usually it involves reading the media in order to inform officials of what the news is. Only in the Office of the Vice President does the job involve reading the media in order to help officials tell the media what the news is.
"When God ariseth, and when he visiteth, what shall we answer!" - Rev. Benjamin Hancock
July 21, 2006 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Submitt your application and resume at The Ministry of Truth.
It reminds me much of Florida's new law on teaching standards. e.g:
What next? Will the Bush Administration hire a group of physicists who will prove that up is down?
Neoboho
July 21, 2006 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink