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Tony Snow's First Press Conference

By Jeralyn, Section Media
Posted on Tue May 16, 2006 at 04:43:48 PM EST
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Update: Froomkin weighs in.

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White House Press Secretary Tony Snow gave his first televised press briefing today.

Crooks and Liars has some video. Snow used the word "tar baby" in connection with the NSA warrantless surveillance program. "Tar baby?

Think Progress then explains to Tony the problem with using that term. Based on the context of the term, we believe you meant tar baby to mean: "a situation almost impossible to get out of; a problem virtually unsolvable."

But in "American lore," the expression tar baby is also a racial slur "used occasionally as a derogatory term for black people." Use of the term has resulted in people being fired.

Random House notes, "some people suggest avoiding the use of the term in any context." Now that you are no longer at Fox News, you may want to take them up on their advice.

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    Tony Snow's First Press Conference | 32 comments (32 topical)
    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#1)
    by squeaky on Tue May 16, 2006 at 05:09:52 PM EST
    Not that I expected much, but Snow seems terrible. Maybe he will get better. Although the job description is basically to lie and deny.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue May 16, 2006 at 05:16:31 PM EST
    Tar Baby comes from Joel Chandler Harris and the Uncle Remus stories. If you Google "tar baby Uncle Remus" you can read the story. I'm new to posting and don't know how to post an active link.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#3)
    by Punchy on Tue May 16, 2006 at 05:52:58 PM EST
    Snow seems terrible Hard to find the exact adjective I want to describe Snowy...but here's few: smug, pompous, arrogant, stand-offish, boorish, ungrateful, unfunny, demanding, unprepared, and thankless. This is what I see at the Tony Snow Show. And as the Bush Admin goes down in flames, it'll get a lot worse.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#4)
    by orionATL on Tue May 16, 2006 at 06:17:45 PM EST
    it is not reasonable to misapply folk literature to attack an opponent. more importantly, it is immensely destructive to that literature. think progress, which is at the top of my reading list each day, is simply wrong, and opportunistic, in this instance. joel chandler harris' "uncle remus" was, essentially, a plagiarism (by harris) of black folk tales. except of course, like the brothers grimm, and hans christian andersen, we don't really consider it plagiarism when somebody writes things down for the first time. these are wonderful stories. wonderful for children. wonderful for adults. read them! criticizing the president's new spokesman for using "tar baby" is like criticizing american (liberal)commentators for being "racist" with respect to the dubai ports deal. "political correctness" is not a term i like a lot, mostly because it had its origins in the opposition to competent women joining american university faculties in the 1980's (begun at the univ of texas, natch). but the term definitely applies here. some problems are, indeed, "tar babies" - difficult, "sticky" problems. furthermore, although i can't even pretend to know all of southern racial invective, i don't recall "tar baby" being an oft-used racial slur, as think progress implies. it bothers me a lot that think progress, leaves the cite from random house hanging, as if they did not themselves have the courage to recommend it, but were willing to hide behind random house's reputation and insinuate. think progress owes it readers an apology.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#5)
    by squeaky on Tue May 16, 2006 at 06:43:02 PM EST
    orionATL- I see your point as long as all things are equal. This administration has not ever met with the NAACP. NOLA is fresh in our minds and it is no coincidence that the losses were incurred by those would vote the Chimp out in a second. The irony of Tony white as Snow using a questionable term even if his usage was dead on in the non racist connotation it a bit much. These WH guys do not like the Uncle Remus types. Snow should have been more sensitive in choice of words. No apology necessary. That does not mean that tar baby as a term should be banished as it is rich and refers to great american writing. It is all about context. And a WH press conference representing this admin is the wrong context.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#7)
    by jimcee on Tue May 16, 2006 at 07:14:34 PM EST
    OrionATM is exactly correct. Snow used the expression exactly as it was intended in the original text. If you think it means something else then you are obviously projecting your own id or you are totally ignorant of the original text. Either way it doesn't speak well of the intellect of the Left that they haven't truly examined the irony of the Uncle Remus' Tales in regards to racial issues. I am honestly shocked that some people lack the reading comprehension to understand Snow's reference or that they haven't actually read the literature that they condemn as rascist speech. Apparently literacy is optional in some wards.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#8)
    by orionATL on Tue May 16, 2006 at 07:25:14 PM EST
    squeaky you have an important point. the "boys at the white house", aka karl christian rove, like to send subtle messages to their right wing supporters, like reference to the supreme court's (1858) dred scott decision, or "man/animal hybrids" (that one was really grotesque) so i can't say you are wrong, in fact, i suspect the whore house was sending a message, and a carefully crafted, racial one. but, the uncle remus literature transcends this. it was here before these guys were a gleam in their parents' eyes (or a threat to our 200+ year old government). this wonderful literature must not be threatened with banishment because it is being exploited politically for a tiny instant of time. the uncle remus stories will last for centuries more, because they are so expressive of human experience. that's my main concern. it would be entirely in keeping with rove's political character to use the literature of black survival in the south to send a racist message to republican white supporters. in any event, thanks for your thoughtful reaction: it encouraged me to think and write what i had never thought or written before.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#9)
    by Che's Lounge on Tue May 16, 2006 at 07:37:22 PM EST
    Jimcee, Please read the last paragraph of Squeaky's post. It may not have been up when you were yours. The issue is not racism. It is Snow's (un)professionalism with regard to his poor use of the english language.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#10)
    by Che's Lounge on Tue May 16, 2006 at 07:39:11 PM EST
    ... when you were composing yours.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#11)
    by Molly Bloom on Tue May 16, 2006 at 07:49:02 PM EST
    I guess I am the only one here old enough to know that uncle was a well known patronizing term applied to elderly black man and considered insulting. I have read Joel Chandler Harris. Maybe some of you should read the forward
    At any rate, I trust I have been successful in presenting what may be, at least to a large portion of American readers, a new and by no means unattractive phase of Negro character - a phase which may be considered a curiously sympathetic supplement to Mrs. Stowe's wonderful defense of slavery as it existed in the South. Mrs. Stowe, let me hasten to say, attacked the possibilities of slavery with all the eloquence of genius; but the same genius painted the portrait of the Southern slaveowner, and defended him.
    emphasis added.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#12)
    by Joe Bob on Tue May 16, 2006 at 08:18:14 PM EST
    I totally agree with orionATL, this ginned up controversy is entirely foolish. I say this as an outspoken liberal. This reminds me of the incident where a Washington DC city staffer was fired for using the word niggardly in a meeting. At least give Snow credit for not assuming that his audience is completely daft and ignorant of literary history.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#13)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue May 16, 2006 at 08:28:29 PM EST
    I have a lot of serious complaints against this administration, but on my list of wrongs-to-be-righted, this doesn't even make the first page. Save your ire for their attempts to derail American democracy.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#14)
    by Edger on Tue May 16, 2006 at 08:29:54 PM EST
    It was a bad choice of terms to use, and Snow should have known better. The slightest bit of thought and historical sense would be enough for most people to realize that it's not the kind of term politically safe to use in that setting. But that's all it as I think: a bad choice of terms to use. I doubt that Snow meant it in the sense of a general racial slur. Much as I don't like his or the WH's politics, he and they are not that stupid.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#15)
    by squeaky on Tue May 16, 2006 at 08:37:47 PM EST
    Joe Bob- May 16, 2006 09:18 PM I totally agree with orionATL,...... who wrote:
    May 16, 2006 08:25 PM i suspect the whore house was sending a message, and a carefully crafted, racial one.
    Good then, we are all in agreement.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#16)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue May 16, 2006 at 08:38:08 PM EST
    Tony Snow maybe a lot of things, but today I find us worse for castigating his correct use of Tar Baby. This is exactly like the person that used niggardly a few years back and got fired for that, when it has absolutely nothing to do with the "n" word. All those jerks that I cannot stand, the dinos, the Roger L Simons, Ann Althouses, Michael Tottens, Marc Danzigers that claim to be dems but argue vociferously for rethuglican ways and claim the party left them.... This is the kind of crap that gives them cover. This is the kind of political correct nonsense that Amanda Marcotte throws around to try to protect the anti-father bias in the courtrooms. If I provide any sort of pro-father argument at Pandagon, I am branded a member of an MRA, and a women hater. And no one speaks up. Stop bullying people for using language correctly. Applaud them for it. Stop people from bullying others for their use of anything other than hate speech. The answer to free speech is more free speech. We can and must do much better than this.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#17)
    by squeaky on Tue May 16, 2006 at 08:49:14 PM EST
    PPF- What a load of horsepucky.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#18)
    by squeaky on Tue May 16, 2006 at 09:13:01 PM EST
    Crooks & Liars has the tape Snow turns off the mic on Helen Thomas just like in Colbert's fantasy tape. It is hilarious.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#19)
    by squeaky on Tue May 16, 2006 at 09:34:11 PM EST
    From ≈ Dana Milbank
    He cut down CNN's Suzanne Malveaux, who inquired whether Bush agreed that the immigration debate had taken on racist overtones. "I think I will not try to improve on the president's words from today" was the spokesman's entire answer. Similarly, when American Urban Radio's April Ryan inquired about racial tensions caused by a proposed guest-worker program, Snow wondered "how on earth" that could be the case.
    Tar babies huh.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#20)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Tue May 16, 2006 at 10:10:12 PM EST
    orion, Jimcee, Joe Bob, and Flathead, this has nothing to do with the sanctity of literary references, or with the bugaboo of political correctess. The fact is that the term tarbaby is widely viewed as a racial slur, as I know from firsthand experience: During my first year in the US, a colleague from the UK almost incited a walkout the computer operations staff at IBM when he named two computer jobs "Remus" and Tarbaby". (Choosing whimsical job names were a feature of that project. For a while I ran the inseparable pair of Rebozo and Ablanalp -- the 8-byte limit required a creative typo there.) Anyway, as fate would have it, one day the Tarbaby job hit an error and went into a loop, causing the computer to print repeated instructions to the operator first to mount, then to dismount, a data tape (when Nixon's pals were famous, data tapes were the norm). Every one of these instructions began with the name of the job, so they looked like this: Tarbaby: Mount Tape xxx on device yyy Tarbaby: Dismount Tape xxx Tarbaby: Mount Tape xxx on device yyy ... and so on Now all of this was a completely innocent mistake. But I can assure we soon learned what the problem was, and why we had to be more careful in our choice of job names. So ... if Tony Snow chose this racially insulting term intentionally then it was a deliberate attempt to be racially divisive. If on the other hand he used it without thinking, and was then genuinely surprised by the reaction, he is hardly qualified to hold the most important PR position in the US. If naive young programmers visiting from the UK can get into trouble for violating unwritten American racial taboos, surely a WH spokesman should? Can he really have worked in the world of news media without seeing examples like this? But maybe this just goes to prove that job qualifications are of little or no importance to Bush when he makes appointments.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#21)
    by rilkefan on Tue May 16, 2006 at 10:54:27 PM EST
    Another liberal who thinks the language shouldn't be policed by people bent on finding imaginary insults.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#22)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed May 17, 2006 at 06:59:06 AM EST
    But maybe this just goes to prove that job qualifications are of little or no importance to Bush when he makes appointments.
    Tony Snow was hand picked right from Fox News.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#23)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed May 17, 2006 at 06:59:53 AM EST
    And another. This sort of manufactured outrage just makes it easier to dismiss real complaints about the criminal acts of this administration as the product of "the loony left". Give it a rest.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#24)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed May 17, 2006 at 07:14:21 AM EST
    Apparently Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA) is a racist as well:
    The Bush administration now faces the danger of adopting by default a so-called "tar baby" option, where the more the U.S. tries to disengage itself from Iraq, the more bogged down it becomes.
    Yes, I already know the response: It's okay if black people use the term.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#25)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed May 17, 2006 at 07:30:05 AM EST
    so now we attack people for having a knowledge of American history and literature? People who slap Snow and others around for properly using this term are ignorant, and should not be supported.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#26)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed May 17, 2006 at 07:37:02 AM EST
    And there are apparently racists commenting on TalkLeft as well: Growth Factor, DonS, and pigwiggle.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#27)
    by desertswine on Wed May 17, 2006 at 08:02:26 AM EST
    And another thing about that "tar baby" controversy... ZZZZZzzzzz..... Jeebus, there are bigger crimes these people are into.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#28)
    by Che's Lounge on Wed May 17, 2006 at 08:37:10 AM EST
    Des, Right on. KCinDC your point is taken. But Snow is still a hack. I'm otta here.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#29)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Wed May 17, 2006 at 10:22:55 AM EST
    From my reading of tarbaby, you would have to be a bigot to think of it as racist.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#30)
    by jondee on Wed May 17, 2006 at 10:35:48 AM EST
    Limbaugh on the Coretta Scott King funeral: "I wonder how many of the women will get picked up and how many will be pregnant nine months from now."

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#31)
    by Dadler on Wed May 17, 2006 at 10:43:51 AM EST
    Any black folk on this thread care to respond to the use of "tar-baby"? Also, there's the stupid and thoughtless factor at work here. A simliar factor that lead Bush to call our mission in the Middle East as a "crusade". Amazing how people with similarly malfunctioning intellects flock together.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#32)
    by Dadler on Wed May 17, 2006 at 10:46:27 AM EST
    Why doesn't Snow wear a Confederate Flag lapel pin to a press conference, since it's still a symbol of "pride" to many people? Personally I'd like to see him in corn-rows and a Dashiki, but one can only hope for so much.

    Re: Tony Snow's First Press Conference (none / 0) (#33)
    by jondee on Wed May 17, 2006 at 11:47:48 AM EST
    Chances are they're not going to come to a site that enables people that say that the missing from Katrina are all avoiding child support and arrest warrants.

    Tony Snow's First Press Conference | 32 comments (32 topical)