Tuesday, February 8, 2011

You keep using that word...

Obama will be visiting Northern Michigan University, staying about 3 hours and giving some remarks. The speech in the university's Superior Dome sports facility is open to the public by invitation only.

I work in a public library. All reference assistance shall now, henceforth, and forever, be by invitation only. (By order of the President.) Thank you.

9 comments:

Mike W. said...

Must be like that closed meeting Biden had on government transparency....

They're liberals. The definitions of words mean nothing.

Jay G said...

Someone remind me - is this the hope, or the change?

Didn't Ă˜bama promise the "most transparent administration EVAH" or something like that?

Yet they have to handpick audiences for speeches.

But *Bush* was the one stifling dissent - remember the "whiff of fascism in the air" a la Jerome Nadler?

If they weren't so hellbent on destroying this country I'd laugh at them.

Rogue Aviation said...

So he is picking an audience in relatively gun-friendly Michigan huh? Could this be the "gun-control" speech we've been hearing is coming?

Alan said...

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”

fast richard said...

When it says "the public" just change it to "commoners" and the meaning will make sense.

Weer'd Beard said...

I thought he was having trouble filling out speech crowds, now he's requiring an invite?

I hope the press gets a shot of the empty seats!

hektor said...

Since when does the hired help get to tell us when we are allowed to review their performance?

Old NFO said...

Um... open to the public DOES NOT EQUAL by invitation only... Just sayin...

WV- stackrat Breda's job :-)

Andrew said...

I emailed the reporter and got a fairly civilized reply:

To clarify: it was an invite-only crowd. By public, I meant anybody who's not a gov't official or a member of the media.

If you're driving at a point that the White House is being secretive or sly or whatnot (as most people who've responded via the Drudge link have), please note that this is a standard access policy for presidential events, not some one-time-only or Obama-only anamoly; Bush followed the same exact policy for his public appearances.

Sorry if I seem testy, but you're well over #200 on the list of people who've e-mailed me -- to varying degrees of anger and inclusive of death threats -- regarding this story. I find it funny Matt Drudge decided to have such a folly with it this week seeing as how I've used the exact same phrase in stories about Mich. appearances by Obama at least twice before.

Anyway, if there's anything else I can clarify for you, I'd be more than happy. My contact info is below; BlackBerry is the best number to reach me at until I've returned to D.C. tomorrow afternoon.

Cheers --
nh


I replied, in part:

Thanks for the clarification. I didn't know that Drudge latched onto the phrase, though it doesn't surprise me much.

I'm going to suggest that since there really is nothing "open" about an invitation-only event, it might be clearer to write "invitation-only event," or some variation thereof.

I know, I know -- everyone's an editor, right? But I wouldn't have gotten away with imprecise language like that in J-school.

<...>

Best,

Andrew