White House: we were shocked that Tucson memorial crowd hooted and hollered throughout because our APPLAUSE signs were actually quite discrete

I don't know what you thought while watching the memorial service in Tucson, but the raucous crowd's cheers, shrieks and crowing struck me as wildly inappropriate and -- at worst -- borderline disrespectful. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said he was surprised at the crowd's behavior as well.

I will say that I read the speech several times and thought that there wouldn't be a lot of applause if any. I think many of us thought that. But I think there was a celebration, again, of the lives of those who had been impacted. Not just at that grocery store but throughout the country. And I think that, if that is part of the healing process, then that's a good thing.

Really?

I, for one, feel certain that the White House had no earthly idea the quad Jumbotrons were telling the audience to applaud every six or seven words.


Update: Charles Johnson: 'Shut up, wingnuts! Everyone knows that the respectful crowd could distinguish closed captioning from commands to applaud... because all memorial services use Jumbotrons, free T-shirts and $3 drafts!'

Update II: Ed Driscoll: "...the excuse du jour will be that these weren’t stage directions, just merely the assumption that the president would have to pause while the expected hosannas rained down upon him. But presumably, if you put 'APPLAUSE' into the text on a Jumbotron, a sufficient number of people in the audience will do just that."

Update III: iOwnTheWorld: "Many on the left were quick to point out that the “applause” that appears on the screen are not prompts but closed-captioning. Really? ... I think it’s WORSE that it’s closed-captioning. ... Had some ass prompted the people to cheer, boo, applaud, act like morons and completely inappropriately, I would still have a scintilla of hope that maybe the left could be rehabilitated. Nope. Sadly the screen was merely reporting the goings-on. Scary, huh?."

Hat tips: Gateway Pundit and Larwyn. Linked by: Michelle Malkin and Memeorandum. Thanks!