by Mark Silva
All the world may be a stage, but one old stage opening anew today tends to draw the whole world's attention from time to time.
Gone is the blue-curtained backdrop of the briefing room where the White House press secretary briefs the press from day to day, and where the president occasionally holds press conferences -- though this president has tended to hold court in the Rose Garden or East Room more often than in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the West Wing.
In its place: A classic proscenium flanked by white columns frames a television-ready blue backdrop behind the podium of the press secretary -- or president.
Two large vertically stationed flat-screens are available to flank the podium as well, providing headlines for the day, such as Daily Press Briefing. Catchy.
That's the scene inside the newly renovated press briefing room which Bush will christen this morning at 8:05 am Eastern with an official ribbon-cutting and where Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, will hold his first briefing on a 21st-Century stage.
Snow's televised debut briefing on the new stage comes at Noon EDT today, though he will get a warmup in the new room with a morning press "gaggle," which is not televised.
Behind the cameras, the two-floor White House press center, with theater seating in the main room and workspaces for reporters, photographers and producers behind and below, also has been thoroughly renovated. It's modern and clean, and just as cramped as its predecessor.
• 
• 
• 
Comments
I presume taxpayers will get the bill.
Posted by: William Russo | July 11, 2007 8:53 AM
So as the situation clearly gets worse and worse for this administration, and the spin delivered from the briefing room is no longer being swallowed whole, their answer is to ... redecorate? Something comes to mind about "gift-wrapped dog droppings" - they are what they are, and no amount of shiny paper and ribbon-work is going to change that.
Posted by: Daryl | July 11, 2007 9:27 AM
it's all about symbolism and "repeating things over and over and over... to kind of... ya know... catapult the propaganda"
nice new room... forgot to take out the trash.
Posted by: citizen a: | July 11, 2007 10:05 AM
Oh please...redoing the press room (which has been a damp, rat infested hole since back when it was the White House swimming pool) has been in the works for awhile.
Disgust with Bush is legitimate...but Daryl...your spin is irrational.
Posted by: Kurt | July 11, 2007 10:05 AM
No, no--not gift wrapping. It's rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic!
Posted by: Adam | July 11, 2007 10:07 AM
So, if we get nothing else positive out of this administration, at least the press room will look nice.
Because, you know, people take bad news much better when they're comfortable.
Nice work! 1 more year! Then your putrid stains will be cleaned from our White House.
Posted by: Jon Lambert | July 11, 2007 10:08 AM
Refurbishing the White House to accommodate changing times, technology or whim is nothing new. However, the staging of the grand opening is something of a red herring to distract the principal actors from dealing with issues that the press for some reason won't press the press secretary or president about.
Posted by: Don Wenig | July 11, 2007 10:14 AM
Yeah the taxpayers are footing the bill, just like they do every time the president flushes a toilet. That's how the government works. If you don't like it go buy a tropical island and start your own.
Posted by: KARK MLEIN, D.O. | July 11, 2007 10:31 AM
Regarding the cost, I read elsewhere it's $8 million, with news organizations putting in $2 million. Well worth the cost, if we had a president who was willing to speak truthfully standing in front of press reporters who were willing to ask hard questions. We'll change presidents in 2008 at the latest; there's nothing we can do about the press corps.
Posted by: CTurner | July 11, 2007 10:48 AM
As somene who has actually worked in that room, it was long overdue. Stop your grousing... I view it as maintaining an updating the WH property in general. It was a pit.
Posted by: KayEss | July 11, 2007 10:54 AM
With a better lit room, perhaps the press will finally be able to see the truth and start reporting accurately, and with some depth, the sordid details of the pablum they have been swallowing in large gulps without protest or objection
Posted by: Charles Jensen | July 11, 2007 11:02 AM
That media pit dates to the FDR era when it was a swimming pool to accommodate Mr. Roosevelt's polio...and properly so. And for the record. As much as some don't like it, Bush will be president not for another year but for nearly 19 months. On the bright side, look how long the socialist left bloggers can rant.
Posted by: Smidgen | July 11, 2007 11:52 AM
Smidgen,
You make me wax nostalgic. I think I'll break out the 'ol hammer & sickle.
Posted by: Doug Zook | July 11, 2007 7:24 PM
Wow,
Such hate... I suppose you people who love to hate feel so much better about yourselves. Keep it up. More and more the haters appear as non-rational, spolied intellectual children disposseed of lucid, critical consideration of complex issues and their underpinnings. This bodes well for 08.
Also don't let irony that major media outlets are arguably, albeit subtly left-disposed. Please continue to root out the conservative bias at the New York Times, CBS, etc.
In other words.. Please, polarize and groupthink more. Get it all out there.
Posted by: Brad in AZ | July 11, 2007 8:34 PM
Hate? How much this administration and their supporters must disdain if not outright hate the young men and women that they have ordered into arguably the most hellish place on earth--and with absolutely no reason. Conress is not faultless in this. If we are at war, what happened to the War Powers Act?
Posted by: aaron | July 11, 2007 9:20 PM