Monday, March 14, 2011

Inside The White House Press Corps - How Obama Bullies the Press


There's an interesting piece out by veteran reporter Keith Koffler, who used to be part of the White House press corps while working at Roll Call. In it he beats up the Obama Administration for its systematic and heavy-handed tactic of bullying and intimidating journalists who dare to write critically of Prez Zero:

President Obama’s conference on bullying Thursday was deeply ironic to some in the White House press corps. That’s because every reporter who regularly covers the place knows that President Obama’s staff has a policy – an actual, pre-conceived policy – of bullying.

It’s a tactic that amount to no less than suppression of speech. By the “openness” administration.

The White House bullies reporters to try to ensure favorable coverage. When White House officials, particularly members of the press office, see a story they don’t like, they often call and verbally abuse the reporter who wrote the piece.

In diatribes often peppered with obscenities, they complain of profound injustice, bias, lack of relevance – anything they can think of to get reporters to back off their story.

It’s not just a series of uncontrolled outbursts. It is a planned, methodical, and highly artificial effort to either squash a story or get inside a reporter’s head so they think twice about doing a piece next time that negatively impacts Obama.

That this is an actual policy is evident from the consistency of the practice and its implementation by nearly every member of the White House press office staff. They are all nice, affable people who suddenly switch into an unmarked gear and begin running you over at full speed.


Even more interesting is when Koffler, who's been around awhile, contrasts the sleazy, disrespectful way Obama treats the press with the way the Clinton and Bush Administrations did.And yet, these people, by and large, still worship The One.

Ah well..I suppose a bit of honesty leads to lack of access and perhaps ultimately the unemployment line, and these people do have families to feed...

Read the whole thing, it's worth the detour.


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1 comment:

LOUIELOUIE said...

i was going to say something about a sack and hair...........but can't remember what it was..........