Comments on: The Press Corps Versus The White House, Part Two

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:54:51 +0000

They were some pretty tough questions. But they’re not the sort of “gotcha” questions Beltway journalists associate with “tough.” They’re meant to extract policy information, whereas Beltway journalists are typically only interested in extracting political information. What’s the President to do, when the press does an awful job at covering policy? How else are people supposed to get pertinent information?

By: lib4

lib4 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:55:34 +0000

The media is one to complain about staging
Every single one of the poltical media talk shows including Hardball, Hannity, Larry King, Lou Dobbs O’Reilly, Reliable Sources, MTP, This Week, Maddow and Olbermann all prep the interviewees about the content of the questiuons they are about to asked during the segment. Am I to assume all these shows are “staged” b/c the interviewee knows the general context of the questions before hand??? Puh-leeze this is nonsense and they know it.

During the Bush era when people were detained and ARRESTED for showing up to town halls with innocuous clothing I didn’t hear a peep about “staging” from the media.

The media needs to stop complaining and do its job which is J-O-U-R-N-A-L-I-S-M not stenography and the mindless regurgitation of childish village gossip and hackenyed narratives.

By: williamc

williamc — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:19:44 +0000

You too have a happy America’s Bday sbj. I too want some of the President’s bad ideas to fail (Bipartisan Outreach, saving the Multinational Banks, DADT/DOMA waiting), but I want all Americans to succeed, like Adams and Jefferson, we can agree on the broad outlines of agreement

By: sbj

sbj — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:04:38 +0000

@williamc: Have a great Independence Day! I think it’s possible for Obama to have a successful presidency and for conservatives to be satisfied with much of it. I want some of Obama’s bad ideas to fail – but I want success for my country.

By: williamc

williamc — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:57:39 +0000

sbj, you and I are on the same side in this one, and your comment at 334 is correct. I am not disputing those facts that you present. You and Helen Thomas and I are on the same page; the Obama White House is managing the media, and only the righties seem concerned about it. The problem for you is that no one here cares about the feelings of the right wing noise machine or the MSM reporters; one group is filled with crazed ravenous dogs, out for blood because every great idea they have had in the past 20 years has turned out to be a failure when put into practice and the other played the part of sycophantic lapdogs for 6.5 years, cheerlead us into war without cause or reason and then muddied the water when the economy fell apart with their he said/she said way of doing business that left us without a clear explanation of what caused what.
The MSM is not liberal, the MSM is stupid, and conservatives have started drinking their own kool-aid in believing that liberal and stupid are one-in-the-same.
Trust me, if the President screws up, you’ll all be happy; we will be devastated, and its a win-win for you…

By: flounder

flounder — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:53:22 +0000

Why wouldn’t they “pre-screen” the questions from You Tube to find good ones that people rated highly? I could think of no bigger waste of time than asking the president a bunch of questions from wingers don’t intend on bringing anything positive to the debate:
“Why are you such a Socialist?”
If Republicans wanted to be taken seriously in the health care debate, they might drop the the Beevis, Butthead, and Boehner routine.
And I watched the ABC Health Care program. Are you going to deny that ABC “pre-screened” the questions to satisfy the haters? If not, how did wingers like a CEO of an insurance industry and the President of the AMA manage to get tickets and get their questions chosen ahead of 170 other people who were at the thing and hoping to ask a question?

By: sbj

sbj — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:23:58 +0000

@williamC: At last! Someone finally gets it!

By: Palolo lolo

Palolo lolo — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:14:01 +0000

Ahh the pampered princes of the MSM are having a hissy fit
because they’re been shown up publicly . How dare some interloper come in and actually ask tough questions. Don’t people realize if it doesn’t come from the MSM,it doesn’t count?

By: williamc

williamc — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:13:08 +0000

folks, I think we are missing sbj’s counterpoint in all this…”Obama sucks, stop drinking the kool-aid libtards, if Bush did this blah blah blah”…

By: Mimikatz

Mimikatz — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:07:33 +0000

As long as the press (hello Chuck Todd? Chip Reid?) keeps asking shallow questions that treat politics/government as a sporting event, you can hardly blame Obama. Bush needed to be protected because there was only so much he could be prepped on. Obama wants to be sure information gets out there. There is a difference.

By: flounder

flounder — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:01:49 +0000

The traditional press corp asks about A-Rod and smoking. If they hadn’t made themselves so irrelevant we wouldn’t be at this point.
And I was reading that the AP reporter traditionally get the very first question at these things. I think the AP Reporter gets as much of a head’s up as Pitney ever did.

By: sbj

sbj — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:34:02 +0000

@Chris: Dude, it was a hand-picked audience. The online-submitted questions were pre-screened and selected by Obama’s staff.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:11:42 +0000

If this was a George Bush event there wouldn’t be any press allowed and all attendees would be screened prior to entrance. No wait a minute, George Bush wouldn’t even be having a Town Hall on health care because in the Republican Fantasy World, there is nothing to reform.

By: mike from Arlington

mike from Arlington — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:09:40 +0000

I think the WH should change the daily pressers and grab a random 20 people from outside the WH four days a week and give the press 1 day a week. Try it out for a month or so.

By: alan

alan — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 19:03:00 +0000

We are attacking a group of the Entitled. The MSM Village types are annoyed that they are losing their ability to drive the news cycle. Response: go into high indignation mode. They are having to amend their daily playbook.
Perhap they can arrange special dinners as a new line.