It finally happened on Friday, May 13th, Jay Carney the press secretary for the promised ‘most transparent administration in history’ turned out the lights in the press room. No he did not resign, as I expect each time I see him face the press. He arranged for the press room’s lighting levels to be so low that the press could not record quality video. The result was no visual record of his 5/13/11 meeting with the WH press. Keith Koffler’s White House Dossier posts an account of this bizarre event Carney Ducks off Camera for Today’s Briefing.
Following are a few of Koffeler’s observations:
…He’s briefed on camera three times this week already, and he edgily noted as he departed today’s gaggle that he had to cut the 11:35 am session short because he had a “a 12 o’clock meeting with one of my many bosses.”
Carney would not confirm the then-breaking news that Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who was at the White House, was there to tender his resignation. But Carney didn’t deny it and said a written presidential statement would be released shortly.
The decision to hold the off-camera gaggle just before releasing news of the Mitchell resignation is consistent with a clear White House strategy to low-key the departure.
With the news not official, Carney didn’t have to answer questions about it, and he didn’t have to appear to be stonewalling on TV.
The complete bankruptcy of today’s White House, so called, press corp is exposed here.
The stakes in the Middle East are huge for Obama, …. Mitchell’s departure is tantamount to an admission of failure.
Carney may also have wanted to avoid a public spat with Defense Secretary Gates, ….
Oddly, the White House press corps bothered neither to ask about Gates nor to find out why the briefing was off camera.
My additional thought as I read the article was Carney wanted to ‘turn off the spotlight’ in which he is consistently looking as though he is a ‘deer’ caught in the headlights of a fast approaching car. The result is this postings title! 
Thank God for the citizen press! At least there is another avenue for the truth to emerge.
