The post-presidential Obamas have clamped down on the press, which is a little funny considering how little outrage that gets from the Democracy Dies in Darkness folks. In fact, it was The Washington Post who suffered in the latest episode. The New York Post Page Six gossips report that Post fashion reporter Robin Givhan – an overt Obama fan – was kicked out of a BET event for reporting Mrs. Obama’s remarks, and her panel discussion was cancelled. She was supposed to listen and write nothing out of that…”sacred space.” Michelle is a deity now?
A BET rep insisted Givhan was “invited as a guest (not working press) to moderate a fashion panel,” and her travel and hotel were paid for by BET.
“She was made aware that it was an intimate conversation in a sacred space of sisterhood and fellowship.”
This is comical, since the Givhan piece was as super-respectful as anything else the Post has published about Mrs. Obama. BET was angry because she scooped….BET.
While claiming Michelle’s talk was private, BET posted sections of the interview on its website, while Michelle's interviewer, her buddy and top White House aide Valerie Jarrett, teased on social media that fans should “tune in to BET” to hear what Michelle said.
No news was made, only lots of puffery. This obvious valentine was somehow violating a “sacred space of sisterhood”?
During the wide-ranging conversation, Mrs. Obama, wearing the Gucci map-print dress that was such a hit when she wore it on “Ellen” in 2016, looked back on her 2008 campaign learning curve and how she came to realize that her enthusiasm and passion could easily be turned into angry, scolding sound bites. “I couldn’t count on my husband’s campaign to protect me; I had to protect myself,” she said. “They were using me like I was a candidate and supporting me like I was a spouse.”
“I had to learn how to deliver a message,” she added, noting that often meant not being so passionate and speaking with an ever-present smile. And here the audience murmured understandingly, because they all knew what it means to be called angry when really you’re just emphatic....
“The garden was a subversive act,” she said. “It was the carrot. You can’t go in with guns blazing until people trust you.” And there could be no reprimanding. No finger-wagging. Because she knew that her finger-wagging, a black woman’s finger-wagging, would be both amplified and resented. [Emphasis hers.]
Speaking of angry black women, Jamilah Lemieux tweeted "This is a complete violation of journalistic ethics and Black girl code, all at once."
Lemieux claimed “As I recall, at the start of the event, we were told that were in ‘safe space’ and to put our phones away. That, to me, is a clear indication that no one was to be reporting on this moment.” But no one said it was "off the record."
Lemieux's Twitter page has a pinned tweet announcing her article "Whose Stars and Stripes? Not My Flag, Not My Pledge, Not My Anthem." She has a serious problem with white people.
