Free Heroes of Freedom Speak Freely For Freedom In the Free World

Tim Cavanaugh | April 21, 2006

Fox News quasi-personality Neil "Babyface" Cavuto is scared shitless that Wang Wenyi was allowed to heckle Hu Jintao at the White House:

She was within a feet of them—able to get that close to them—legally, correctly and with all the proper credentials. And all because she was a reporter for The Epoch Times, a New York newspaper that supports Falun Gong.

For all I know, she could have been a nut or worse.

But she had credentials and legitimacy and she got in...

My point is how she got in so easily to the most secure grounds in the most secure city at this most secure ceremony.

Most people are brushing off the woman as a malcontent.

Not me.

Meanwhile, a former Pentagon Asia adviser is embarrassed because China "must know that this Bush administration is good at controlling crowds for themselves, and the fact that they couldn't control this is going to play to their worst fears and suspicions about the United States." And a blogger who doesn't have time for nominatives says of the heckling, "Serves absolutely nothing." The Guardian calls Wang a gatecrasher.

How is it frightening, or a security risk, or a gatecrashing incident, when a correspondent for an established newspaper gets a day pass to stand in the press ghetto at a White House event? I pick up The Epoch Times most weeks (I enjoyed their big Picasso-was-a-fraud screed in the last issue), and it's obviously a cult paper, but so what? The Christian Science Monitor is affiliated with a cult too. So is the Washington Times. Since when does a news affiliiation make you a security risk? Aren't there legitimate security measures (ie, checking to make sure you don't have weapons on your person) that are more effective than illegitimate measures (pre-empting dissent at the gate)? Was Wang (excuse me, Dr. Wang) not checked for weapons when she entered the event? Should a Falun Gong paper not be eligible for press credentials? How about a Taiwanese paper? What is Cavuto's concern here?

Breathe easy, Neil! Wang has been denied press cred in the past, in countries with more Cavutonian notions of security. And the People's Republic of Freedom has tried to restrict her movement in other ways. She still managed to get some face time with former President Jiang Zemin in the past. And here's a little more on Wang Wenyi, from her fellow meditationoids.

Meanwhile, it appears the cameraman with his hand over the Doctor's mouth was "comforting her but not quieting her." That description is believable if you view the whole tape of the incident.

Comments

|4.21.06 @ 3:07AM|#

must know that this Bush administration is good at...

Judging by the past 6 months, anyone would be hard pressed to put the words "Bush Administration" and "good at" together.

And considering that there were about 87,000 illegal protests in China last year, I don't think that one lone heckler is going to phase them much nor lead to a geopolitical crisis.

|4.21.06 @ 3:58AM|#

"President Bush stop him. Stop this visit. Stop the killing and torture."

Aside from the fact that Bush both won't and can't do anything to stop the Chicoms from doing what they will, does anyone really think that they don't kill and torture?

|4.21.06 @ 9:17AM|#

I'd heard all these stories about how George Bush is good at suppressing dissent. Stories of pre-screened audiences selected for propaganda purposes, stories of torture, stories of secret prisons, warrantless spying, all the sorts of things that I do on a daily basis.

So you can imagine my disappointment when I showed up at the White House and discovered that an unarmed dissident was able to disrupt our carefully crafted televised event.

Bush, you're an amateur. I suggest you read Mao's Little Red Book, Mein Kampf, The Communist Manifesto, and the complete works of Kim Jong Il before you embarrass yourself any further.

|4.21.06 @ 10:02AM|#

Let me see...conservatives appalled that someone actually heckles communist dictator of Red China (I refuse to give up that phrase!).

Reason number 8,645,987 to conclude today's so-called "conservatives" are complete frauds.

Fuck this despot, and our would-be one, too.

|4.21.06 @ 10:30AM|#

"Let me see...conservatives appalled that someone actually heckles communist dictator of Red China (I refuse to give up that phrase!)."

Apparently you missed various left leaning media outlets (the dreaded main stream media) critical of the Bush administration for allowing the indignity of allowing the woman in to heckle the fine dictator.

It's a lose, lose for Bush.

|4.21.06 @ 10:39AM|#

henry,

Upon further review, I agree with your post.

Right now I am listening to a conservative radio talk show host who is defending the woman's right to heckle. A few minutes ago I was listening to a radio report about how terrible it is that Bush would allow the indignity.

|4.21.06 @ 10:43AM|#

"Apparently you missed various left leaning media outlets . . . critical of the Bush administration"

Are they being critical or are they simply having fun at his expense? And, to address the original post, I'd never heard anything about Cavuto before this, but based on that column he's a total utter whack job.

|4.21.06 @ 10:45AM|#

FC--

That the usual apologists for Red tyrants are appalled is not news--see them frolic in their Che t-shirts.

That "conservatives" now have issues with it IS news--bad news. Apparently they have become so caught up in their newly found fondness for gvernment worship under Our Leader that they've come to view all dissent from the party line as unwelcome.

Frankly, both of those assholes on the podium yesterday should be heckled by every good American.

|4.21.06 @ 10:49AM|#

"Are they being critical or are they simply having fun at his expense?"

Is it the job of media to have fun at the president's expense? That is the job of HnR posters and I will not stand by and see it usurped by "journalists".

Cavuto is a whack job. It's not like she was armed. Does he think she could have gotten close enough to seriously physically assault him?

|4.21.06 @ 11:00AM|#

"because China "must know that this Bush administration is good at controlling crowds for themselves, and the fact that they couldn't control this is going to play to their worst fears and suspicions about the United States."

That reminds of the scene in Dragnet when Tom Hanks sneaks into the PEAGAN meeting and sees them using cattle probs to control the crown and says "I really have to admire their control methods." Good God, what kind of a brain dead twit do you have to be to be a Pentagon spokesman.

|4.21.06 @ 11:55AM|#

The left-leaning media (Kos and Atrios, for example) are making fun of Bush for apologizing.

The distinctly non-left leaning mainstream media, on the other hand, is joining the conservatives in decrying this shocking lack of security and decorum.

|4.21.06 @ 12:06PM|#

Actually, re-reading Mitchell's statement several times and parsing it out, I think he might have had a different intent in his statement -- i.e., that because the Chinese know Bush's handlers are good at screening out hecklers from crowds, the Chinese would conclude that this was a carefully staged deliberate insult on Bush's part. Not, that Bush's handlers have to crack down on hecklers to prevent the Chinese from thinking Bush is soft.

|4.21.06 @ 12:07PM|#

Joe,

If Kos and his ilk had had anything to say when Clinton was sucking up the Chinese and also taking campaign funds from them, I might be a little more encouraged.

|4.21.06 @ 12:11PM|#

[argh... the squirrels must be on their lunch break.]

Oh please. Bush offers a few prearranged platitudes about China's "growing freedom", Hu winks and nods, and China continues to manufacture all our shit and a few wealthy party apparatchiks buy some of our shit. One hand washes the other. This women messed up the show and I applaud that. But don't let's pretend for one second that the American government is going to do anything to piss off China while they've got us by the balls.

|4.21.06 @ 1:27PM|#

Neil Cavuto- another hysterical, feeble-minded twat brought to you by the Chicken Little News Channel

-----------

How many political assassinations have the Falun Gong carried out?

How many political assassinations have the Totalitarian Chinese carried out- against Falun Gong members?

|4.21.06 @ 8:22PM|#

I don't think there should be any checking for weapons. The imminent and even probable threat to your life is an essential part of the world leader experience.

|4.22.06 @ 12:31AM|#

The trouble is that the future belongs to China. Given its human capital, distinctly unliberal political traditions, and obvious ability to combine authoritarian government and free-market dynamism, it will certainly prevail over a soft, over-eating, under-achieving, grosely obese nation of air-head creationists and deranged Bible-thumpers. Maybe Israel will survive, but we're fucking doomed.

|4.22.06 @ 4:54PM|#

Cavuto is showing the soft underbelly of Fox News and the reasons for its eventual decline.

It is one thing to be under a Democratic President and lambast him every day. People enjoy socking it to the man in power. It is a different thing when you got Bush in office and you have to uphold your independent, fearless, uncompromising reputation while at the time saying "The President is always right. I will listen to the President. I will do what the President says, and if I don't the President will rip my lungs out. The President is God.""
(apologies to M. Strackzynski).

Talk about unclear on the concept.