The White House party crashers is not a subject that would usually occupy The Media Wonk. But here in Washington, with so many people running about, flapping their arms like frightened hens over the horror of it all, it’s a very difficult story to ignore. After the crashers themselves and White House social secretary Desiree Rogers declined to appear before Congress to explain themselves (the latter on separation of powers grounds) some on the Hill are talking subpoenas, three Secret Service agents have but put on leave and could lose their jobs, the crashers are lawyering up and the cable news networks have created logos and assigned theme music to the story, a sure sign we’re about to go wall-to-wall on this.
Feh. I’m with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, who had to remind overheated reporters at the daily brief Thursday that this isn’t exactly Watergate. It’s a security screw-up in which no one got hurt and the president was in no proximate danger. Worth an internal reveiw by the Secret Service and White House to be sure. But Congressional hearings? Please.
That said, if Congress is determined to start firing out subpeonas, here’s my suggestion: Bravo. The network has been asked little and said less about the incident, even though it was following Michaele Salahi around with a camera all day leading up to the state dinner as part of the preliminary screening for Real Housewives of DC. They followed when she crashed the Washington Redskins Cheerleaders reunion party, where she pretended to be a former member of the squad and made a nuisance of herself. I’m sure more such stunts will surface in coming days (they always do, like sex tapes.) So why isn’t anyone asking Bravo about its role in encouraging, or perhaps even participating in, what was, at a minimum, silly and annoying behavior and at worst, possible criminal activity?
Now would be the perfect time for a little reality show reality check. Bravo is owned by NBC Universal, which just announced its pending merger with cable giant Comcast, creating an new media behemoth with myriad conflicts of interest, potential antitrust problems and potential to have a significant and baleful impact on media diversity. Regulators at the FCC, FTC and DOJ are just beginning to pick through the details of the deal. I say, put Bravo under the hot lights and let’s see what the hell it thought it was doing encouraging a freak show act like the Salahis to crash a state dinner.
And to top it off, when Matt Lauer interviewed them on the “Today” show (a part of NBC News), no one noted that Bravo and NBC are both part of the same company. True “news” should be more transparent than that.