Want to see some real horse shit? Sun-Times: Journalists Being Shut Out by Obama

[CatWoman]

I'm quite sure the irony is not lost on the lot of you.

According to Sun-Times columnist and long-time Chicago journalist, Carol Marin, journalists at Barack Obama news conferences have come to realize that Obama has pre-picked those journalists whom he will allow to ask him questions at the conference and many of them now "don't even bother raising" their hands to be called upon.

One wonders why journalists are allowing this corralling of the press? Would they have allowed George W. Bush to pre-pick journalists like that? Would they meekly sit by and allow themselves to be systematically ignored, their freedom to ask questions silenced by any Republican? Would journalists so eagerly vie with one another for the favor of Bush like they are Obama's?

For her part, it seems that Carol Marin is starting to wonder at the "bizarro world" that is being invented by the pliant and smitten Obama loving press corps.

As ferociously as we march like villagers with torches against Blagojevich, we have been, in the true spirit of the Bizarro universe, the polar opposite with the president-elect. Deferential, eager to please, prepared to keep a careful distance.

The Obama news conferences tell that story, making one yearn for the return of the always-irritating Sam Donaldson to awaken the slumbering press to the notion that decorum isn't all it's cracked up to be.

The press corps, most of us, don't even bother raising our hands any more to ask questions because Obama always has before him a list of correspondents who've been advised they will be called upon that day.


Will the rest of the press retake their manhood and again become the tough guys they have always claimed to be or are they going to stay so smitten by Obama and their love for The One that they will allow themselves to continue being forced into a subservient role?

One has a sinking suspicion that the press is allowing itself to become Obama's lapdog extraordinaire.

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/warner-todd-huston/2009/01/12/sun-times-journalists-shut-out-obama

[GCP]

1. Oh, for fuck's sake

AAARRRGGGHHH :banghead:

[Cha]

12. Bonzai!

ARRRRRGH...Freakin' Where were they when the lapdogs were helping george bush start the War ON IRaq?

[EraOfResponsibility]

2. I thought journalists were always pre-picked? n/t

[rvablue]

10. They are AND under Raygun, their questions were pre-screened, but you never heard a peep

from the press corps then because their organization would be summarily tossed from the gaggle.

Sam Donaldson tried to go off script and asked Raygun a question that had not been vetted. Donaldson was kicked from his position as White House correspondent so that ABC would still be allowed in the building.

I knew this shit storm re:Obama would start soon enough. Some on here forget what they did to the Clintons, or don't care. Get ready. I would be more upset, but I'm so over the moon that the Shrub-failure-boy is flying home to Texas next Tuesday.

[babylonsister]

3. Consider the source first...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Research_Center

NewsBusters

In the summer of 2005, Media Research Center launched NewsBusters in cooperation with Matthew Sheffield, a conservative blogger involved in the CBS Killian documents story. NewsBusters is styled as a rapid-response blog site that contains posts by MRC editors to selected stories in mass media.



The Media Research Center (MRC) is a conservative<1><2> content analysis organization based in Alexandria, Virginia, founded in 1987 by L. Brent Bozell III. Its stated mission, according to its website, is "to bring balance and responsibility to the news media",<1> and the MRC catalogs and reports on what it asserts to be widespread liberal media bias in the United States press.

The MRC has received financial support from several foundations, including the Bradley, Scaife, Olin, Castle Rock, Carthage and JM foundations.<3>

[SharonRB]

4. Give me a break!

What does she think the press has been doing for the last 8 years? I wish we had an irony smilie.

[napi21]

5. AFAIK, all presidents have pre-picked which journalists they will

call on. Usually, they spread the wealth, so if they call on one group at one presser, they will alternate with others for the next one. I believe the chosing is done by the president's staff.

[LiberalFighter]

8. Isn't that what they did in the movie with Morgan Freeman as President?

[Kaylee]

6. Through the looking glass...I'm choking on the irony of it all.

It's going to be a long 8 years for Newsbusters! :rofl:

[firedupdem]

7. They sound bitter. n/t

[Lost-in-FL]

9. Horse shit. nt

[lunatica]

11. I hope this doesn't continue after the inauguration because I want to see Obama kick ass

I hope it's just that for now it would be counterproductive for the conservative media to be interjecting with their Limbaugh supplied half truths and innuendos disguised as real journalism. But I sincerely hope he'll call on them after the inauguration. I want to see how he handles the idiocy. He might do quite well, basically correcting them and suggesting they get their facts straight before playing at being journalists. Can you imagine what he would make of Jeff Gannon?

I really don't want Obama's administration to pull the crap the Bush administration did about hand-picking their audiences and their venues and the questions the reporters are allowed to ask. I want the tough questions. I want accountability and I want Obama to explain himself.

[AngryAmish]

13. The press is there to write down what Obama says, period.

Many of the questions that this so-called press asks are borderline treason.

We need a new press corp that cares about America.

[Lucky 13]

14. hater