Tony Snow Ready To Shovel It Officially

by Steve

Tony Snow was announced as the new White House press secretary this morning, in a move that gives me less heartburn than probably other people. To have a conservative spinmeister and apologist be your new mouthpiece, for an administration that treats the press as nothing more than extensions of their propaganda operation, doesn't seem out of line to me.

Sure, he has little credibility, but when did that matter?

Snow is the perfect choice, as he is better looking, more glib, and likely able to charm a few more dupes in the press corps than Scott McClellan was. The major difference I see is that by some accounts, McClellan was bothered by the lying and spinning that was a part of his daily job, and he actually cared about his integrity.

Snow has no such qualms about the job, as he is a political hack, through and through, and will enjoy bringing the Fox News approach to the this White House, where the line between objective fact and political disinformation has never existed in the first place.

Sure, the media will pay a little attention to the fact that Snow has said negative things about this Administration and president from time to time, but Snow has said those things because Bush wasn’t Reagan, whom Snow thinks should be on Mount Rushmore. The problem for Snow is that he actually thinks he will be let into the tent of high-level political strategy with Rove, Bush, and Cheney. What the White House sees in Snow is better schmoozing with a cuckolded media, and a more forceful defender of their failing policies heading into a troubling midterm election campaign.

The interesting dynamic here surrounds Snow’s former and future employer, and Snow’s relationship with competitors in the press corps. In essence, Roger Ailes was able to convince Rove and Bush that their problems weren’t with policy, but with packaging and selling those policies.

The White House has formally turned its media operation over to Fox News now, as the state-sponsored media operation, as if this were a banana republic. But if you are CNN or MSNBC, and you have spent the last five years aping Fox News in a stupid attempt to go after the same audience, how much access will you be getting now from the White House? And didn’t your strategy for these last five years just hit the toilet?