Isn’t it just a pain in the neck when there’s an alternative media that prevents strict message control by a staged-photo-op of an administration and its willing mouthpieces in the MSM?

It’s painless for us, of course; rather, that pain is being felt in the necks of those who want to insist that a bow to a Saudi king isn’t a bow, that an omnibus spending bill with 9,000 earmarks is the beginning of earmark and fiscal reform, that indecisively waiting four days while an American ship’s Captain is held hostage on a rubber raft by four Somali pirates (before being bailed out by swift action by the hostage and a SEAL team) is bold, new leadership — and that a staged event with Obama voters only and a bunch of cameras handed out as props is a real sign of soldiers’ devotion to the new, inexperienced, non-military-friendly Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces.

That’s right: courtesy of our friend Dave Hinz at The Minority Report comes the true story of a staged photo-op between a president who cares only about controlled and contrived appearances, and the component of a deployed military that was hand-selected to give him the contrived appearance he and his handlers desired.

Hinz writes:

[T]hat wonderful cheering welcome that President Obama received with his unscheduled surprise visit to the troops in Iraq, was entirely a staged event.

The troops were interrogated beforehand, with those military members who had voted for President Obama given identical digital cameras and placed in front of the media cameras covering the event.

The photo is below.

According to Flopping Aces:

A sergeant who was there explained the subterfuge. “We were pre-screened, asked by officials ‘Who voted for Obama?’, and then those who raised their hands were shuffled to the front of the receiving line. They even handed out digital cameras and asked them to hold them up.”

What a wonderfully awesome idea — if, that is, you’re so scared you won’t get a warm reception from a military whose efforts you have spent your entire political career dissing and diminishing.

From what we’ve seen so far of Obama, he’s nothing if not 100% controlled and contrived; from the marketing campaign that cast him as a blank canvas and got him elected, to the Binky he has to take to every public appearance lest he look like an off-script fool, to this Iraq photo op, his track record bears this out entirely.

Hinz raises another good point about that staged photo op: the media coverage of the event:

[P]olitical operatives from the Administration orchestrate a faux-cheering crowd of adoring military, right in front of the media covering the event, and that media reports?

From the AP:

Quote:

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama went for the defining television shot by capping his first extended foreign tour with a surprise visit to Iraq.

He got it – pictures of hundreds of U.S. troops cheering wildly as he told them it was time for the Iraqis to take charge of their own future.

The war-zone photo opportunity produced a stunning show of appreciation for Obama from military men and women who have made great sacrifices, many serving repeated tours in a highly unpopular war.

So, the professional journalists [stop laughing -- I'm serious here] assigned to report the news of the President’s visit, saw cheering throngs of adoring troops, but failed to note the screening process that made the Kodak Moment possible.

How surprising is that? A mainstream media that gives Obama standing ovations after speeches simply assumed that this staged event was real, because it fit right in line with their own views of Obama and of the sentiment they believe he engenders. All they had to do was open their eyes — but they couldn’t even bring themselves to do that.

If this story does break into the MSM, look for it to be compared (favorably) to the shots of former POTUS George W. Bush holding up what lefty bloggers jumped all over as a “plastic turkey” — despite the fact that the soldier sentiment in those shots was real, and the story of the fake turkey a false one that engendered a retraction from the New York Times, if not from the reality-is-what-we-say-it-is lefty blogs.