Free Republic

The White House Press Office has refused to give the Boston Herald full access to President Obama’s Boston fund-raiser today, in e-mails objecting to the newspaper’s front page placement of a Mitt Romney op-ed, saying pool reporters are chosen based on whether they cover the news “fairly.” “I tend to consider the degree to which papers have demonstrated to covering the White House regularly and fairly in determining local pool reporters,” White House spokesman Matt Lehrich wrote in response to a Herald request for full access to the presidential visit. “My point about the op-ed was not that you ran...

Jay Carney lamented Tuesday that the conspiracy theory about President Obama’s birth is getting “serious attention” while more important matters are getting overlooked. CNN’s Ed Henry asked the White House press secretary to react to Donald Trump’s seemingly constant presence on TV, in which the real estate mogul has stoked the myth that Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii. In response, Carney said that CNN itself had reported a “highly credible piece on an established fact” — that “the president was born in the United States of America.” “This was a settled issue,” Carney said, calling it “unfortunate” that “for whatever...

White House press secretary Jay Carney was asked today why President Obama did not give a statement on Easter. He laughed it off. Barack Obama released statements for the Muslims holidays of Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, the Hajj, and Eid-ul-Adha last year. Just last month he released a statement for the Persian Nowruz holiday. The Hill has more: Carney also scoffed at media reports calling out the White House for not releasing a statement commemorating Easter on Sunday, explaining Obama and his family attended church services in Washington. “The president went to church yesterday, it was well-covered. I’m not sure if we...

New White House Press Secretary Jay Carney punted on Iran, fumbled a question on the national debt, and blamed Bush just ten minutes into his first press briefing.

President Obama named ex-journalist Jay Carney as the next White House press secretary on Thursday, rounding out a broad personnel restructuring within the West Wing after the midterm elections. With new Chief of Staff William M. Daley already on board, Obama has an almost entirely new senior lineup - even if many of the faces are familiar. He has shed some of his most longtime loyalists, including outgoing press secretary Robert Gibbs, and moved others into official campaign roles ahead of his 2012 reelection bid. What has emerged is a staff that is well-versed in the ways of the Obama...

WASHINGTON – Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary and one of the most visible and forceful advocates for President Barack Obama, is quitting his job to become an outside political adviser. The change is among the many expected in the coming days as Obama redefines his leadership team to get ready for a re-election bid and a more powerful Republican Party. Gibbs said he would be leaving the White House by early February. The top contenders to replace him are two of his deputies, Bill Burton and Josh Earnest, and Jay Carney, who is the press secretary to Vice...

WASHINGTON – White House press secretary Robert Gibbs says he is resigning his job as the president's chief spokesman.

(CBS/AP) President Barack Obama will hold a post-election news conference on Wednesday. The White House said Tuesday that Mr. Obama will take reporters' questions Wednesday at 1 p.m. in the East Room.

Robert Gibbs: 'I don't plan on leaving' By: Matt Negrin August 11, 2010 03:30 PM EDT Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, revisiting a newspaper interview in which he blasted “the professional left” for criticizing President Barack Obama, brushed off calls for his resignation during Wednesday’s daily briefing, and said his remarks were the result of frustration with pundits who haven’t given the administration its due. "I don’t plan on leaving, and there's no truth to the rumor that I've added an inflatable exit to my office," he quipped to reporters, a reference to the frustrated Jet Blue flight attendant who left...

Video of Rick Sanchez discussing Fox News getting the front row seat in the WH briefing room with CNN's Ed Henry, it takes about one minute for Sanchez to take a cheap shot at Fox, Ed Henry actually defends the Fox News WH reporters (Video)

<p>The White House Correspondents Association voted unanimously Sunday afternoon to move Fox News to the front row of the White House briefing room.</p> <p>The seating change was prompted by the resignation of veteran UPI reporter Helen Thomas.</p> <p>According to Ed Henry, the senior White House correspondent for CNN and member of the WHCA board, the Associated Press will move to the front-row middle seat formerly occupied by Thomas.</p>

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama has signed a law intended to provide more protections for a free press around the world. The law, the Daniel Pearl Freedom of Press Act, expands efforts to identify countries where press freedom is being violated.

<p>From CNN White House Producer Xuan Thai Obama declined to answer questions at bill signing for the Freedom of Press Act.</p>

Neil Cavuto: “No where in that exchange nor in the rest of the interview...did Michael Brown ever say that this White House was behind this spill...That is beyond laughable. Here is what is not: dismissing what Mr. Brown did say about a president who may have botched a lot since that Gulf spill, just as Mr. Brown argued the last president did in the immediate aftermath of that Gulf hurricane. He was criticizing his old boss. Mr. Brown says he has become an expert on botched responses: that is why I had Michael Brown on. Robert Gibbs seems to have...

As a Fox reporter brings up criticism likening the administration's response to [the Gulf oil spill] to President Bush's reaction to Hurricane Katrina, Gibbs launches into a tirade on Fox News for bringing former FEMA Director Michael Brown on the air to discuss the accusation that the Obama White House purposefully leaked the oil to walk back environmental and offshore drilling policies. "You should call headquarters, my friend," Gibbs says to the Fox reporter, asking him to talk with the person who decides which guests to book. "Your network put on the former FEMA director to make an accusation that...

Press airs grievances to Gibbs By: Mike Allen April 17, 2010 12:06 PM EDT White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs met with a delegation from the White House press corps for 75 minutes on Thursday in an effort to improve frayed relations between the two sides. Ed Chen, a White House correspondent for Bloomberg News who is president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said he asked for the meeting “to clear the air because in my 10-plus years at the White House, rarely have I sensed such a level of anger, which is wide and deep, among members over...

CNN is reporting Obama plans to barnstorm nation and tell voters the benefits of Obamacare and tout the historical "Change" in the "Hope & Change" Mantra.

Sensing victory, President Barack Obama is planning to make a statement to the nation Sunday night after the House takes its final vote on health care legislation. The White House announced late Sunday afternoon that Obama would speak from the East Room in the evening, with the timing to be determined. SNIP(Talking Points Memo says the House vote is expected to take place sometime after 10 p.m. EDT.

"There definitely aren't a lot of laughs around the briefing room these days," says Washington Examiner White House correspondent Julie Mason. "Robert's little digs and evasions have lost their power to amuse — particularly since we haven't had a presser since July."

Obama: GOP and Dems Together Can Spur Job Growth CHARLES BABINGTON WASHINGTON – Appealing for bipartisanship in a town where it's hard to find, President Barack Obama sat down with Democrats and Republicans Tuesday to spur cooperation on job creation, deficit reduction and health care overhaul. He promised to do his part — but warned he would take Republicans to task if they don't do the same. "The people who sent us here expect a seriousness of purpose that transcends petty politics," Obama said afterward, making a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room. He started his remarks to...