In The Course of Human Pseudo-Events

Glenn adds two separate posts today about the publication of Scott McClellan's book, "What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” (Public Affairs, $27.95), in which McLellan confesses to what most everyone already knows about the truth-challenged Bush White House, and blames the 'Liberal Media' for not being aggressive enough with the administration.

As always, there's more than one story here. Headlines around the world echo one story, about McClellan's claims. There isn't really anything new here, but it's notable when a Bush loyalist comes out and admits it. On second thought, after years of insider tell-alls, maybe it isn't that notable after all. But in either case, McClellan has written a book that contains damning information about the Bush's advisors, by whom Bush is said not to have been well served.

The second story is the response. The principals of the story, including Karl Rove, have gone on the network news shows to say how shocked they are, to impugn McClellan's integrity or motives, to say that he should have spoken up at the time if he had all these reservations. They have a point.

But see how phony this entire set-up is. The earth didn't just suddenly rupture and spew McClellan's book out onto the pavement as Mike Allen from Politico walked by. Galleys of the book were circulated months ago for comment and criticism, as noted in Allen's piece.

The staff of Public Affairs Books don't live in a bubble, either. Their business consist largely of publishing books by former administration officials and others in government, the contents of which are sought (and sometimes legally bound) for review by that same government, including the people they write about. They have to arrange publicity for the book, which usually doesn't involve keeping its provocative claims under wraps.

Also, not all of them want to work at PAB the rest of their lives. Others want to maintain good relations with those who might write books about them in the future. Like anywhere else, this is why favors get exchanged.

It would be remarkable if McClellan's book had not been seen months ago by the very people professing shock and outrage now.

But the shock value, the back and forth about McClellan's character, motives, accuracy of his recollections (whether Karl Rove and Scooter Libby did or did not have significant face time on a daily basis) are sufficient to fill the available air time and mind space and squeeze out any substantive examination of what his revelations actually mean.

Daniel Boorstin first wrote about 'pseudo-events' in his 1961 book. Although reporters are supposed to cover events, but government officials often stage 'pseudo events': press conferences, releases of classified documents, media availabilities or exclusives that are covered as 'real' events (and which act as gatekeepers for what are or are not 'real events') to frame the reception of bad news or just to change the subject.

The 'pseudo-event' tactic has become much more sophisticated since that article was first published. Just watch closely as the McClellan shows play itself out, if you want to see precisely how sophisticated it's gotten.