"White House objects to Ortiz-Obama selfie" by Matt Viser | Globe Staff April 03, 2014
WASHINGTON — Samsung drew a rebuke from the White House Thursday for use of a widely distributed cellphone photo that Red Sox slugger David Ortiz snapped this week of himself with President Obama.
The president, one of his top aides said, does not wish to be portrayed as an endorser for the electronics firm, which had employed Ortiz as a social media ambassador.
“As a rule, the White House objects to attempts to use the president’s likeness for commercial purposes,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said during his daily news briefing on Thursday. “And we certainly object in this case.”
Carney, who made the comment between reporters’ questions about Israel-Palestinian negotiations and the administration’s response to shootings in Fort Hood, declined to say whether White House lawyers had been in touch with Samsung about halting its use of the photo.
Fits right in, doesn't it?
“I’m not going to get into the counsel’s discussions,” he said.
But he hinted that this was not the first time the White House had been unhappy with the use of the president’s image for commercial purposes.
“It does stand to reason we have objected in the past. We object now,” said Carney, who just two days earlier showed up at the podium proudly wearing his Red Sox cap. “But I’m not going to get into the manner of objection.”
The White House rebuke probably will have scant practical effect, and it appears there is little legal recourse for the administration.
Then why all the.... never mind.
Moreover, the explosion of attention on social media — and the subsequent national news coverage — gave Samsung far more notoriety than it could have hoped for from a customary celebrity snapshot.
That is to what I'm objecting.
Samsung did not respond to requests for comment.
From its first days in office, the Obama administration — like past presidential administrations — was concerned about the widespread use of the president’s image. Obama was a national phenomenon, the first black president who ran an inspirational, optimistic campaign. Marketers wanted to cash in and his image was plastered everywhere, from T-shirts to Chia Pets.
The imagery, the illu$ion, the marketing, the public relations, I object to it all.
Companies even tried to tap into the positive vibe of his election slogan. Southwest Airlines had a “Yes You Can” sale, while Ben and Jerry’s started hawking “Yes Pecan” ice cream — all echoes of the 2008 campaign’s “Yes We Can.”
Except he didn't.
Related: Licking the Pentagon
Globe coverage of that campaign melted.
Michelle Obama objected when Ty Inc. created Beanie Babies with names similar to the First Family’s daughters, Sweet Sasha and Marvelous Malia (the company renamed the dolls “Marvelous Mariah” and “Sweet Sydney”).
See what happens when political pressure is brought to bear?
In 2009, the White House explained the president’s concerns about over-commercialization: “Our lawyers are working on developing a policy that will protect the presidential image while being careful not to squelch the overwhelming enthusiasm that the public has for the president.”
My concern is wasting time with this $hit.
A year later, the policy was tested when a sportswear company put up a billboard ad in Times Square showing Obama wearing one of its jackets, with the tagline, “A leader in style.” The Weatherproof Garment Company ad featured an Associated Press photograph that was taken during a presidential trip to China. After a request from the White House lawyers, the company removed the billboard.
Obama has sought to police use of his image during an explosion in the use of social media — it literally ricochets around the Internet on a daily basis.
Policing his image as his NSA polices all our communications and movements!
The “selfie’’ Ortiz took with Obama Tuesday was retweeted more than 41,000 times this week. Samsung distributed it on its own account, which has more than 5 million followers.
Ortiz snapped the photo with Obama using a Samsung smartphone while the president was honoring the Red Sox for winning the 2013 World Series.
As a taxpayer I can think of better things I would like him to be doing with his time, but....
Ortiz approached Obama to present the nation’s 44th president with a number 44 Red Sox jersey.
“All right, come on, let’s get a good picture here, come on,” Obama said.
“Actually, do you mind if I take my own?” Ortiz responded.
“Oh, he wants to do a selfie,” Obama said.
“Yes, sir,” Ortiz said, as the two came close. “Yes, sir.”
Obama smiled broadly and said, “It’s the Big Papi Selfie. Come on.”
Later, Ortiz tweeted the photo, saying “What an honor! Thanks for the #selfie, @BarackObama.’’
But what seemed like a spontaneous moment at the time later appeared to be more of a marketing ploy. Samsung had contracted with Ortiz to be a social media ambassador, and encouraged him to take photos with his Galaxy Note 3 phone during his White House visit.
Ortiz told the Globe on Thursday that the selfie was his idea alone.
“I wasn’t trying to do anything,” he said. “It just happened in that moment. It was a fun thing. I signed that deal with Samsung a few months ago. They didn’t know what would happen. Nobody did.”
Yeah, okay. Dishonesty must rub off when you go near the White House.
The Red Sox, which are owned by Boston Globe owner and publisher John Henry, also defended Ortiz.
“All of us were thrilled with the spontaneity, warmth, and humor of ‘Big Papi’s Selfie,’” Sam Kennedy, the team’s chief operating officer, said in a statement. “We didn’t see it coming, and it was unrelated to the club’s good relationship with Samsung. We know that, for years now, long before he became associated with Samsung, David Ortiz has taken selfies with fans, wounded soldiers, and other people he has met along the way, and we hope he continues to act with his big heart and kind spirit.”
Time to close it down.
Obama’s selfie with Ortiz came a few weeks after talk show host Ellen DeGeneres used a Samsung phone to take a photo of herself and a group of celebrities while she was hosting the Oscars. The photo broke Obama’s Twitter record for most retweets.
“I heard about that,” Obama joked later, when he was a guest on DeGeneres’s show. “I thought it was a pretty cheap stunt myself.”
But Obama’s advisers also understand the power of images and have at times harnessed it to full advantage.
Oh, so they DON'T REALLY OBJECT!
OMG!
The artist Shepard Fairey designed a poster that became an iconic image for Obama’s 2008 campaign. The poster – which features Obama’s face, and the world “Hope” – was later revealed to have been based on a 2006 Associated Press photograph and triggered lawsuits between Fairey and the AP, eventually resulting in an out-of-court settlement.
Related: AP's Poster Boy
He's also a liar?
Unlike an everyday citizen or the owner of copyrighted material, presidents do not have a strong legal recourse if their image is used commercially, said a specialist in intellectual property.
Related: All material published for educational purposes under Fair Use Doctrine.
“On the one hand it is true that his likeness is being used in a commercial way,” said Jonathan Band, who runs his own Washington-based law firm. “On the other hand, given who he is, I think it would be very difficult to survive a First Amendment challenge. If the White House were to say, ‘This is infringing on our publicity rights,’ I think Samsung would have a pretty strong First Amendment defense.”
Meanwhile, on Friday, when the Red Sox play their season opener at Fenway, there will be plenty of opportunities for selfies: the pregame ceremonies, including the presentation of World Series rings, is presented by Samsung.
Related:
"The most valuable players this spring never wore mitts and cleats, but heavy gloves and work boots, as part of a gargantuan effort that nobody should try at home. The grounds crew employed massive heaters, spread hundreds of yards of hose, and created an entire elaborate — and warm — ecosystem within the confines of the famous ballpark. On the coldest February nights, Fenway was like a little patch of tropics."
And I quote: “I can’t remember a colder spring.”
Yeah, play ball!
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Yeah, forget about all the other alphabet scandals (not including the NSA):
He's being covered on that last one, labor has been nearly forgotten save for the $hit $how political fooley, forget the impeachable offenses over at the poor IRS, and let's protect those propagandists!
I didn't mean to spoil the moment, but....
"Presidents of both parties have maintained the White House as a commercial-free zone, and companies should respect that rule, too."
It's commercial free as long as you discount corporate influence.
Related: Obama Has Sick Sense of Humor
Someone is giving him a check-up:
"Health Connector chief cites vendor for site woes" by Tracy Jan | Globe Staff April 03, 2014
WASHINGTON — Appearing before a congressional oversight panel Thursday, Jean Yang, director of the Massachusetts Health Connector, blamed the failures of the state’s insurance website on CGI, the contractor the state recently dumped....
She didn't cry, did she?
I mean, it drives me to tears.
Yang was summoned to appear on a panel before two House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittees to explain the disastrous rollout of the state’s insurance website, along with her counterparts in Maryland, Oregon, and Minnesota, whose websites also faced significant technical problems.
It never got rolled out, that's the problem!
The hearing was one of about two dozen similar hearings that have already been held on the launch of President Obama’s controversial health care reform law, the Affordable Care Act.
Not only did integration destroy the Mass site, we are now told there is going to be a campaign to highlight all the successes.
A CGI spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment to Yang’s remarks Thursday, but the company has said in the past that it will work with Massachusetts officials on a smooth transition to the insurance website’s next phase.
Representative Darrell Issa, a California Republican and chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said at the opening of the hearing that the government has wasted hundreds of millions of dollars by doling out grants to individual states to build websites of varying quality that are supposed to be designed to do the same thing: sign Americans up for health insurance.
Something austerity-stricken taxpayers can't afford.
“To use a common platform would be common sense,” said Issa, calling the individual websites “unnecessary” and “redundant.” “It makes no sense to ask vendors to duplicate the software but bill us twice, three times, four times for simply reinventing it.”
It makes $en$e for $omeone, I'm $ure.
Massachusetts has received $179 million in federal grants to build its health insurance website and chose to use the same contractor responsible for the federal government’s failed website launch last October.
Because there is really no competition or competitive bidding.
The White House said this week that more than 7.1 million Americans had signed up for health insurance by the end of March, the deadline for enrollment, exceeding its initial goal. The Massachusetts deadline has been extended until April 15 because of the state’s technical problems.
That's what they said, and no one believes them. Why would you?
Massachusetts is still processing applications by hand because of the problems. When questioned by the panel, Yang said the state recently hired an additional 300 people to process applications during an intensive work period in the last four weeks.
Asked how much the extra staffing has cost, Yang said she did not know.
What, they are not being paid or something?
The panel spent much of the hearing, which lasted more than three hours, grilling a representative of the Maryland website....
Massachusetts, whose 2006 law served as the model for federal health reform, had previously received a $45 million federal innovation grant to develop a model website for the New England region. Upon its failure to deliver, Connecticut health officials are trying to collect a portion of the grant....
See: State Health Site on Iselin
It was working pretty good until Obummer f***ed it up!
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That gets us back home just in time for the ball game.
