President Obama seems to provide gratuitous soundbites to Fox News and the terrible right -wing radio critics every time he speaks "off the cuff" and without the aid of his precious teleprompter. Because of this, the WH Administration has kept our inexperienced president on a short leash when addressing the press. If it is not a scripted interview with a friendly news outlet, the administration washes their hands of the idea. Now we are starting to witness the arrogance and thin-skin which the WH is beginning to operate concerning the press, avoiding then, ignoring them, and bypassing them whenever they see fit- Now the press is beginning to get angry... If this continues, it wont be long before they decide to get even...
Obama and his administration entered the White House coming off an intense primary against Hilary Clinton and prevailed in their election defeat of McCain by using a strict set of rules which they applied concerning how to control their message and image to the public through bypassing the national press. This strategy by Team Obama allowed their campaign to take their message directly to the masses by using the internet, in-house videos, and carefully orchestrated interviews which featured “softball” questions by friendly members of the main stream media.
At the time, the MSM was already so enthralled with Obama and disgusted with Bush (and any Republican) that they were more than willing to comply with his campaigns demands and write only flattering articles. This is one reason why many people still really have no idea who Barack Obama is as a man and politician. The media loved his story. They loved his race and intelligence and so they neglected to dig any deeper because they were absolutely stuck in the moment and saw themselves as the authors of his magical and mystical tale.
However, he remains, still a relatively blank slate, no one ever questioned his hundreds of “present” votes while in the Illinois Senate, researched his “questionable” associates and business partners in Chicago, or questioned why he wouldn’t release his college transcripts after he pledged he would in a primary debate with Clinton (Mrs. Clinton did keep her promise and released her thesis paper and call logs from the Clinton presidency)
Upon entering the White House, Obama pledged to have “The most open and transparent presidency that any president has had” and did this by releasing the WH visitor logs and improving the WH web content. This is not open or transparent and the press is beginning to get irked.
In today’s Politico.com, the cover story (Why Reporters are down on Obama) goes into great detail and great length (7 pages) to describe the daily battle the White House Correspondence Association has dealing with the WH and this Administration to gain access, obtain quotes, or to simply get a phone call returned.
It also provides instances of the Administration providing “scoops” to The New York Times and other newspapers which give them favorable coverage in their papers. The article also points out examples of how Press Sec. Robert Gibbs “favors” different news organizations during his daily press conferences by calling on the news organizations he trusts and ignoring ones who publish unflattering articles about the administration, such as The Wall Street Journal. This goes along with the administrations past efforts to marginalize Fox News as a “real” news organization because they question Obama’s Policy’s.
The article goes on to say that- “During his first year in office, President Bill Clinton did 252 such Q&A sessions—an average of one every weekday. Bush did 147. Obama did 46, according to Towson University Professor Martha Kumar.”
These Q&A sessions are just informal times when a president has a break and allows the press to ask them some questions pertaining to the country’s current events of that time. Obama’s 46, lowest of the past two presidents, provides another example of Obama’s hesitation to speak unscripted to the press.
For an Administration which prided itself on transparency and promises that continually, Obama and his staff have been more private and secretive than even the Bush presidency.
Lest forget the time when Obama slipped the press to leave the WH to attend his girls soccer game, a big no-no and major breach of presidential protocol.
Another gripe from the press pool occurs when the WH releases their own behind-the scenes coverage of events closed to the press which always portray the president and their guests in such a glowing light- Now, not that they shouldn’t be portrayed “glowingly” however, these videos are created by people on the WH payroll and are totally bias. Then these videos are released to all the major news organizations which air them as actual “news”.
What would be the problem with having the pool reporters capture their own coverage of the events that they are supposed to attend?
Yet, this is starting to be a real problem for the WH. The press is a notoriously fickle bunch, who thinks that they wield the power to make or break candidates and stories when they see fit. Obama and his team have decided, for better or worse, to continue to bypass the press by trying to take their messages directly to the people by stonewalling the press pool.
Yet, this is starting to be a real problem for the WH. The press is a notoriously fickle bunch, who thinks that they wield the power to make or break candidates and stories when they see fit. Obama and his team have decided, for better or worse, to continue to bypass the press by trying to take their messages directly to the people by stonewalling the press pool.
In doing this, they will eventually have to face the wrath of a press corp. who is agitated and feeling disrespected by an Administration which many inside the press probably feels they contributed in helping him to win the presidency.
The press turns on politicians with the flip of a coin- and no president has been able to ever fully escape the scrutiny and wrath it brings when they do. As such a thin-skinned administration, using such arrogance when dealing with the people who are responsible for handing you the keys to the presidency- may come back to haunt them.
· "No, no. I have been practicing...I bowled a 129. It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something." - during an appearance on "The Tonight Show", March 19, 2009 (Obama later called the head of the Special Olympics to apologize)
· "The Cambridge police acted stupidly."
· "I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about doing any séances." -–after saying he had spoken with all the living presidents as he prepared to take office, Washington, D.C., Nov. 7, 2008 (Obama later called Nancy Reagan to apologize)
· "UPS and FedEx are doing just fine, right? It's the Post Office that's always having problems." –attempting to make the case for government-run healthcare, while simultaneously undercutting his own argument, Portsmouth, N.H., Aug. 11, 2009
· I think when you spread the wealth around, it's good for everybody." -- defending his tax plan to Joe the Plumber, who argued that Obama's policy hurts small-business owners like himself, Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 12, 2008
· "It's not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations." –speaking at a San Francisco fundraiser about his troubles winning over some small-town, working-class voters, April 11, 2008
· "I've now been in 57 states — I think one left to go."
tim - u da man!
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