I think they accidentally left out the word "going" from the title.
An interesting look at the "new era of transparency."
Quote:Obama and the media actually have a surprisingly hostile relationship — as contentious on a day-to-day basis as any between press and president in the past decade, reporters who cover the White House say.
Reporters say the White House is thin-skinned, controlling, eager to go over their heads and stingy with even basic information. All White Houses try to control the message. But this White House has pledged to be more open than its predecessors, and reporters feel it doesn’t live up to that pledge in several key areas:
— Day-to-day interaction with Obama is almost nonexistent, and he talks to the press corps far less often than Bill Clinton or even George W. Bush did. Clinton took questions nearly every weekday, on average. Obama barely does it once a week.
— The ferocity of pushback is intense. A routine press query can draw a string of vitriolic e-mails. A negative story can draw a profane high-decibel phone call or worse. Some reporters feel like they’ve been frozen out after crossing the White House.
— Except toward a few reporters, press secretary Robert Gibbs can be distant and difficult to reach — even though his job is to be one of the main conduits from president to press. “It’s an odd White House where it’s easier to get the White House chief of staff on the phone than the White House press secretary,” one top reporter said.
— And at the very moment many reporters feel shut out, one paper — The New York Times — enjoys a favoritism from Obama and his staff that makes competitors fume, with gift-wrapped scoops and loads of presidential face time.
Read more:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/041...z0mQtV39FZ
Obama only talks when he can control the message. With reporters he can't always control the question which opens his BS answers to scrutiny.
As the article says, all white houses try to control the message.
This is the twitter presidency, though. The general attempt is to have the president's message broadcast directly as-is. It also seems to me that Gibbs is kind of an outsider in the administration and he comes off with the "your guess is as good as mine" message to the press corps.
This is simply BS.
This is the press trying to show how they're independent, and not sucking up to Obama like they did during the elections.
Nonsense. This is simply more of treating the populace like fools. Unfortunately, most people like that.
(04-29-2010 07:32 AM)DrTorch Wrote: [ -> ]This is simply BS.
This is the press trying to show how they're independent, and not sucking up to Obama like they did during the elections.
Nonsense. This is simply more of treating the populace like fools. Unfortunately, most people like that.
You act as if the press were a monolithic entity and as if this were a commentary on the politics of the president, which it isn't.
This is probably a result of outbursts by individual reporters who have the day to day responsibility of getting comments from the administration and are not happy with how they are being handled and treated. This is characteristic of Rahm Emmanuel's reputation as a capricious control freak.
When the reporters complain about the President "going over their heads", their talking about things like Obama visiting with TV personalities like Charlie Gibson.
More than anything, for you to say that this story is BS is also to imply that the White House Staff holds high professional values and they were genuine when they said they intended to be open with the public. The reality is that, IMHO, they're a bunch of amateurs and that they were lying when they promised things like "no lobbyists", "more transparency", yada, yada. I think this article reflects that.
Quote:The correspondents association recently met with Gibbs to discuss, in the words of Bloomberg's Ed Chen, "a level of anger, which is wide and deep, among members over White House practices and attitude toward the press.”
A few days later, Gibbs said at one of his briefings, “This is the most transparent administration in the history of our country.”
Peals of laughter broke out in the briefing room.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/041...z0mV100Tub Wrote:“It’s an odd White House where it’s easier to get the White House chief of staff on the phone than the White House press secretary,” one top reporter said.
Why do you think that is?
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/041...z0mQtV39FZ Wrote:Obama and the media actually have a surprisingly hostile relationship — as contentious on a day-to-day basis as any between press and president in the past decade, reporters who cover the White House say.
...
“They seem to want to close the book on the highly secretive years of the Bush administration. However, in their relationship with the press, I think they’re doing what they think succeeded in helping Obama get elected,” said The New Yorker’s George Packer.
“I don’t think they need to be nice to reporters, but the White House seems to imagine that releasing information is like a tap that can be turned on and off at their whim,” Packer said.
There's a lot of irony in those lines.
Quote:“These are people who came in with every reporter giving them the benefit of the doubt,” said another reporter who regularly covers the White House. “They’ve lost all that goodwill.”
And this attitude, many believe, starts with the man at the top. Obama rarely lets a chance go by to make a critical or sarcastic comment about the press, its superficiality or its short-term mentality. He also hasn’t done a full-blown news conference for 10 months.
(04-28-2010 04:27 PM)BlazerFan11 Wrote: [ -> ]I think they accidentally left out the word "going" from the title.
An interesting look at the "new era of transparency."
Quote:Obama and the media actually have a surprisingly hostile relationship — as contentious on a day-to-day basis as any between press and president in the past decade, reporters who cover the White House say.
Reporters say the White House is thin-skinned, controlling, eager to go over their heads and stingy with even basic information. All White Houses try to control the message. But this White House has pledged to be more open than its predecessors, and reporters feel it doesn’t live up to that pledge in several key areas:
— Day-to-day interaction with Obama is almost nonexistent, and he talks to the press corps far less often than Bill Clinton or even George W. Bush did. Clinton took questions nearly every weekday, on average. Obama barely does it once a week.
— The ferocity of pushback is intense. A routine press query can draw a string of vitriolic e-mails. A negative story can draw a profane high-decibel phone call or worse. Some reporters feel like they’ve been frozen out after crossing the White House.
— Except toward a few reporters, press secretary Robert Gibbs can be distant and difficult to reach — even though his job is to be one of the main conduits from president to press. “It’s an odd White House where it’s easier to get the White House chief of staff on the phone than the White House press secretary,” one top reporter said.
— And at the very moment many reporters feel shut out, one paper — The New York Times — enjoys a favoritism from Obama and his staff that makes competitors fume, with gift-wrapped scoops and loads of presidential face time.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/041...z0mQtV39FZ
Looks like Politico is not getting along with Obama. Probably because it has become more and more rightwing over time.
(04-29-2010 07:32 AM)DrTorch Wrote: [ -> ]This is simply BS.
This is the press trying to show how they're independent, and not sucking up to Obama like they did during the elections.
Nonsense. This is simply more of treating the populace like fools. Unfortunately, most people like that.
I like the way you continually cut to the chase.
If people do not understand the Lame Stream Media has become a top down organization where only those who tow the Media Moguls line gets hired or advances. I liken it to TASS or pravda, which has evolved into more balanced News Org. than in the US.
Lame Stream Media is a propaganda organization, fair minded people know this. The Lame Stream Media Free Press is DEAD.