Johnny Depp-Gate: What Did the Mainstream Media Know and When Did They Know It?

Good morning, Mainstream Media. How are things under the Obama bus? Please tell Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers we say hello. You remember them. You helped Obama hide them there.

Frequently, I refer to the mainstream media as Obama’s Palace Guards. But maybe “secret service” would be a better term today, because this time the MSM has apparently decided to take a public relations bullet for Their Precious One.

The story goes a little something like this. Over Halloween in 2009, during the depths of the Great Recession, the White House threw a lavish party for children from all walks of life, including local DC kids, military families, and friends of the President’s two young daughters, Malia and Sasha. The theme was “Alice In Wonderland” and director Tim Burton, whose film based on the classic story was about to be released in theatres, attended, as did his star, Johnny Depp, who reportedly greeted guests in character and costume as the Mad Hatter.

More details:


A long table was “set with antique-looking linens, enormous stuffed animals in chairs, and tiered serving plates with treats like bone-shaped meringue cookies”, writes New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor in The Obamas, which is released on Tuesday. Fruit punch was served in blood vials at the bar, she adds.

George Lucas sent Chewbacca from Star Wars to mingle with invited guests, who included the Obamas’ two daughters Malia and Sasha and friends, the children of White House staff members and military families.

The dispute over whether or not this event occurred is over. The White House has all but admitted the party happened by only denying reports that, at the time, they attempted to hide the event from the press.

Courtesy of Politico, here is where things get murky and very interesting:

A White House official told POLITICO Sunday that a Halloween party thrown for military families in 2009 was no secret and that there was no conspiracy to cover-up the role of two well-known Hollywood figures. …

The official White House social media releases and the reporter pool dispatches from the party do not mention either Burton or Depp, but the Depp fan site JohnnyDeppNews.com reported that the actor was in attendance with Burton. And the Nashville Tennessean also reported that both Depp and Burton were at the White House for the party. Then-White House press secretary Robert Gibbs addressed the event in his briefing, but did not go into any detail.

So now we know a few things:

1. JohnnyDeppNews.com knew about the party and that Depp attended.

2. The Nashville Tennessean knew about and reported on the party.

3. The White House underplayed the attendance of Burton and Depp in their social media releases.

4. The White House pool report didn’t mention Depp and Burton.

But the most important thing we now know is that the White House is claiming they hid nothing from the media and in response the media is… saying… nothing… in… their… defense…

For instance, nowhere in that Politico report does Politico clarify what they knew and when they knew it. If Politico did know about the party, why was there no reporting? If Politico didn’t know about the party, why not report that fact?

And so we are now left to ponder the following: did the MSM know about the party at the time and choose not to cover it in order to protect Obama? Or is the White House statement about the MSM knowing about the party untrue but in order to protect Obama the MSM isn’t reporting that it’s untrue?

I have a third theory, where both are true:

It is possible that in 2009, the White House told the their MSM friends about the lavish party but, for obvious reasons, asked them not to report on it, and in order to protect Obama, the complicit MSM agreed. It is also possible that the White House, in order to protect itself, is throwing the MSM under the bus by informing the public that the MSM did, in fact, know about the party and chose not to report it. And now, in order to protect Obama, the MSM is not going to tell us what they knew and when they knew it.

Anyone sense a theme here?

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