Posted on 03/24/2009 5:29:08 AM PDT by rightwingintelligentsia
At a time when his Washington honeymoon is turning into a hazing, President Barack Obama and his team are launched on a strategy to sail above the traditional White House press corps by reaching out to liberal commentators, local reporters and ethnic media.
The highest-profile moments in the new approach have been well-noted, such as the president giving an interview to progressive radio host Ed Schultz and Obama calling on a reporter from the liberal-leaning Huffington Post at his first news conference.
But those moves are only part of a much larger strategy aimed at communicating directly with audiences the White House believes are more sympathetic to the president’s agenda — and one in which much of the work is being done by Obama’s top advisers.
On the day Obama released his ambitious spending plan, the administration put White House budget director Peter Orszag on a conference call with liberal-leaning writers. Senior administration aides have followed up by promoting the budget to local radio talk shows during morning drive time.
Jared Bernstein, Vice President Joe Biden’s economic adviser and a favorite of the labor-liberal wing of the Democratic Party, also held a conference call with friendly reporters.
White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has done conference calls with black and Hispanic media outlets.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Couldn’t be more highly filtered, would you say?
Obama seeks filter-free news | JONATHAN MARTIN... sail above the traditional White House press corps by reaching out to liberal commentators, local reporters and ethnic media.
LOL. I wonder if that lying scumbag, Jonathan Martin, wrote the misleading headline as well as the fawning praise of "liberal commentators .. and ethnic media."
I don’t remember Bush inviting Conservative bloggers to sit in the White House Press Room though...
While it’s important for a President not to forget the “base” that put him there, I don’t recall other Presidents being so blatant about it. Maybe it’s because it’s combined with his other actions (like vilifying Rush, and trying to push a Fairness Doctrine on us) that I can’t remember Bush or Clinton doing things like this...
Heck, last I remember Bush really taking the time to talk to “us” here on the right was during the Amnesty debacle when he called us racists...
If you can perhaps remember something I’m completely overlooking I’d be glad to listen though. :)
He’s already go most of them in his pocket. He doesn’t even need to do that unless the media starts actually reporting the truth about him... Then you’re right... Look for Obama to say something like “the NY Times failing” will just be too hard for our economy to handle, we must “save it” by turning it into a State-Run media outlet... He could do this with quite a few of the papers out there right now — many are already stopping their print editions...
It’ll probably be pretty easy for Obama to interfere with our TV communications if he really wanted to - especially now that we’re all on digital. Scramble the signal, and voila! No outside news for anyone... (Yes, I have several types of tin-foil helmets that I use at various times! LOL)
So you’d rather Obama be under the table about it?
So the liberal Washington Press Corps ain’t friendly enough?
Isn’t Obama filtering the news by selecting who asks questions or conducts interviews?
Didn’t they have the Gridiron last weekend? I haven’t heard athing about it.
This is a kick in the teeth for the elite MSM reporters who long ago set up their own “pecking order”.
Yes, Bush tried it once. It was a conservative blogger (don’t remember his name). The media had a hissy fit and his press pass was revoked.
Some pigs are more equal than others.
Carville and Begalla.
I believe that Biden went.
LOL! Obama is playing with fire, now. The WH press corps is a narcissistic bunch — if they feel slighted by Obama’s new tactic, they’ll go after him.
This will backfire, these people don’t think he is leftist enough.
Where did this “liberal leaning” moniker come from?
so obama’s big lie propaganda is in danger of falling apart.
Obama needs free mortage and free gas woman. He does not need his useful idiots any more.
If obama is bypassing the WH press corps then why are they even being paid to be there? they just cheerlead anyways.
James Dale Guckert, aka "Jeff Gannon."
Wikipedia Entry for Jeff Gannon.
In addition to describing Mr. Gannon/Guckert's interaction with the Bush WH press organ, the Wiki article is interesting for its description of the restrictions on access to the formal propaganda fabrication process.
Yup, that’s who I was thinking of.
What gave you that idea?
What I’m saying is that I don’t recall Bush or Clinton doing this - which you claim they did. Did Bush have members of the Conservative blogosphere sitting in the White House Press Corps room? I know Clinton didn’t because there were no blogs back then, really... I don’t recall Bush making a special effort to speak to Conservatives.
What this shows more than anything else is that Obama is playing this game for all its worth. If he can make the case for putting a liberal blogger in the Press Corps then his arguments regarding the fairness doctrine will be that much stronger. I personally have NO PROBLEM with bloggers in the press corp - I think it’d be a somewhat welcome change. However, if Obama is still going to claim to be a uniter, and not a divider, then he should be welcoming people from “both sides” to join the press corp, not just his personal sycophantic followers from HuffPo, or DailyKos.
Ahhh... see there you go. I had forgotten about that whole thing.
That’s all I was asking for - an example, because I couldn’t recall any off-hand...
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