Journo Interrupts Obama With Quacking Duck Ringtone

@bung: He was addressing a gathering of people from the LGBT community on gay rights issues on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Stonewall was a watershed moment in the gay rights movement.

Cut the President some slack on wanting to do something to commemorate it while addressing (extremely valid) criticism of his own backsliding of key issues that got him elected.

@treymen: There is a judge in New York County who really handles it the best:

She has posted 2 signs per wall and one on the door entering her courtroom that read that if a cell-phone rings audibly in her courtroom, the person will be held in contempt of court and fined $500. And she regularly fines attorneys for violating it.

As to your contention that keys can flip it from vibrate to aubible, I don't carry keys in the same pocket as my iPhone. I doubt many people do.

Secondly, and more importantly, the phone can be turned OFF. Even the iPhone can be turned off.

It is tremendously disrespectful to the office of the President. The message it sends is that the owner of the phone does not think enough of meeting with the President of the United States to turn off his/her cellphone for 20 minutes while the President delivers a brief address to the public to commemorate a major milestone in modern American history.

Do accidents happen? Yes. Is that an accident that could have been easily avoided had the person evinced even a modicum of respect and consideration? Easily.

If the phone can be turned off or silenced, then there is no excuse. So here is my challenge to you. Answer me one question:

Why could this person not turn off the phone before the event or even be bothered to turn it to vibrate?

@bung:
nope, because of fawning crap like this:
"As if Obama wasn't already the coolest guy this side of John Shaft"

Shaft would hand this wanna-be his head on a stick.

@WearingBlue4BillyMays_GitEmSteveDave: somebody had a tough childhood...

yogibimbi

"where do you get those ringtones?" - way to go Mr. Prez

yogibimbi

@OMG! Ponies!: because it is unfathomable for, lets say your keys, to hit dedicated physical toggle switch while in your pocket.

In the decade that has passed that has gone from IRC to forums to blogs, there is so excuse for making retarded comments and not expecting someone to call you out.

lol... accidents happen

treymen

Man, Obama is smooth. I've done some public speaking, and I can say with 100% certainty that it takes a lot more than just practice and hard work to be that good in front of an audience. All other considerations aside, this is what the leader of the free world is SUPPOSED to sound like.

Counterglow

@Joshua Jackson: He means cool as in unflappable, not as in "wanna be like him". And if you haven't noticed that he really is incredibly unflappable, then that's your problem, not his.

AreWeThereYeti

@92BuickLeSabre: ***** sake man, you're amateur. JoeB, you got ****** something to say to this prick?

@kremlin-king: Just remember that in like 40 years, that will be a classic oldie.

"Grandpa, do we have to listen to this old folk music? All they do is say the same thing over and over again. Why doesn't he just fuck her like an animal? How did you listen to music before auto-tuning?"

@darkstar: There's also elements from the extreme left wing who feel sold out by Obama because he isn't liberal enough. Dude can't win.

@LoadStar:

what will happen to him? I know nothing about tv

bookmark

@Wrathernaut: My mind has been exploded.

Mooglepinoy22

@bill cant fart: in a quality?!

ninjaviking

You do have to admit, the man (Obama) can stay on track, regardless of how many "electronic ducks" may interrupt. If it was Bush up there, he'd be using that as an excuse to why he keeps stuttering and fumbling over his own words. Then he'd dwell on that for the next 30 minutes... After the speech, he'd demand his Secret Service crew to confiscate that phone with the ringtone, so he can play with it in the bathtub with his rubber ducky. Nice ducky,,,, nice ducky.

LouisJebber

@WearingBlue4BillyMays_GitEmSteveDave:

W..... T..... F..... It's 1:47am.... I am sitting in my home office.. in the dark.. and I live alone.. now I will have nightmares, that cat needs to be blended.

steven5737

Good one!

EricLA2NYC

@jetRink: lol dont worry. The other sound bytes were pretty funny too in your first link. ;)

I'm more embarrassed, as a gay person, that an event commemorating Stonewall, with 100s of gay and lesbian activists and officials and leaders that someone would have a duck quack ringtone. For shame. FOR SHAME!!!!

EricLA2NYC

With all the badass he's been doing lately, I wouldn't be surprised if it was all just PR.

tobz1000

@Lukasz Fabis: Please kill yourself.

cpthook

@92BuickLeSabre: hahaha, +1 just for inserting chuck todd into that beauty.

cpthook

Um, guys, this wasn't a press conference. It was an event arranged by Mr & Mrs President to meet with leaders of the LGBT community on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots (the event that started the gay civil rights movement). Obama made a speech to let the gays know that he hasn't forgotten the campaign promises he made.

rsquared

@[www.aprilwinchell.com]

jetRink

@[www.aprilwinchell.com]

jetRink

guess y'all aren't in on the joke.

if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck.

if it looks like a politician and talks like a politician, it's a politician.

a little inside baseball. washington is a crazy town.

James Hare

"As if Obama wasn't already the coolest guy this side of John Shaft" - Wow, easy with the Obama love big man! Does somebody have a crush or what? Didn't you hear what he almost did to the autobots in Transformers 2?

Joshua Jackson

@bung: The President or the duck guy?

@bung: No; on one hand you've got the left jizzing all over themselves because of him, and on the other hand is the right (read: faux news) claiming he's the antichrist or hitler.

I have to say I'm a liberal but I think people expect too much of him. He's a great president but he isn't God. (Or satan, bill)

@OMG! Ponies!: iPhone batteries aren't removable? I thought there was a law made against no removable batteries for safety n what not.
Though if there was I guess Apple just ignoring with the their laptops the past year.

Queer Duck lives!

furrina

@blash: As for the iPhone "I can't remove the battery" crowd. No, you can't remove the battery; you have a dedicated physical toggle switch that switches to vibrate.

In the decade that has passed since the Motorola StarTAC, there is no excuse for a cellphone to go off at such an inopportune time.

@WearingBlue4BillyMays_GitEmSteveDave:

For the last time stop calling me Burger...fssss...my name is Bob!!!

Man that cat is pissed!

Imtheredude

@WearingBlue4BillyMays_GitEmSteveDave: I wonder just how badly that cat has been abused.

Can't this guy go a day without being on television?

I'm glad he didn't go daffy in response.

CaptainHoratioMcCallister

Of course, his press secretary also knows how to handle idiot reporters that don't know how to set their phone to silent:
Robert Gibbs vs. Cell Phones - watch more funny videos

LoadStar

Dang, I didn't know my farts were that loud. I've been here in Kentucky all day long. And the last time I was in DC was July of last year.

nightwheel

@OMG! Ponies!: *shoves a screwdriver into my iPhone's back, trying to get the battery out*

blash

That reporter is a dead man when his boss finds out about this.

Wonder if that journalist will be dead or vanish by morning?

Kingteddybear

@WearingBlue4BillyMays_GitEmSteveDave:

Wtf? Satan's cat? lol!

chrstphr

@hellrider: What a coincidence, that's also my favorite browser!

drokcab

@GitEmSteveDave: Holy crap. That is amazing.

@Wrathernaut: HAHHAHAHAHA....i donno why others have not complemented on this...niiiice

not bad...most people interfered with shoes when bush was in power....

urbanturban666

@kremlin-king: i just have the piano "ping" from that song for texts

Sorry, that was me.

Duckspwn

This is the ringtone I have for most people on my contact list:

+ Watch video

@kremlin-king: Nine Inch Nails sorry...

@OMG! Ponies!: Yeah there seems to be a lot of disrespect. At the very least regardless of who the president is, keep the disrespect outside.

Here's a quarter; go out and buy yourself some decorum.

Folks, it's real simple. Turn your phone to "vibrate". Or turn it off. You're questioning the President; I'm fairly certain that asking the President questions as part of your work duties takes precedence over anyone who may be calling you.

If you don't know how to turn the phone to vibrate or how to turn it off, remove the battery.

Metal Gear Solid codec beep. Best. Ringtone. Ever.

That, or crazy Tyler Durden screaming "YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE I'VE BEEN LOU!!!".

dry-roasted-peanuts

I see what u did there

Sergio Sardo

I like the awkward stares that I get when Closer by Nine Nails rings for me and I tell them it's my grandma calling, I never get a room full of lulz though.

He should of said; "Is Obama gonna have to choke a bitch?!?" :P

@Adam Gomez:
Right, because a political leader giving a speech in front of a large audience of journalists is the same kind of setting as a stressed-out actor getting interrupted again and again by a half-witted DP.

Lukasz Fabis

But, did the ringtone echo?

@Adam Gomez:

"Am I going to walk around and rip your **** notepad out, in the middle of press conference? Then why the **** are you quacking right through my speech? Quack-quack-quack-quack - like this in the background.

What the **** is it with you? What don't you **** understand? You got any **** idea about - "Hey, it's **** distracting having somebody's phone start Quacking behind Chuck Todd in the middle of the **** speech? Give me a **** answer! What don't you get about it?"

@mdhunter38:

I didn't get your comment, but I used the Google and figured it out.

oh man, I would have liked to see Obaminos get crazy on that dude.

The nicest part of this episode is, for the first time, there is an American president who can use the term "ringtone" and not either sound fake or like total douche.

mdhunter38

Looks like Obama took notes from Christian Bale's little incident.

I'd have loved to see him go ballistic though.

Adam Gomez

@bill cant fart: Not just for gays, but for ducks.

Duck ringtones are a story of the movement for fairness in a quality?

Is that the iPhone duck ringtone?? I like going with xylophone myself. .

hhkim515