Free Republic

"Please, no pictures, no autographs," used to be a cocky way of announcing to friends and family that something special had made you a big star for a day. Now it sounds as if President Obama has taken the joke seriously. Mainstream news organizations are fed up. According to an article published on Nov. 21, 2013, by McClatchy DC, a group of the largest news organizations lodged a complaint about how the White House continues to block the press. A blackout of Obama photos, unless taken by real news photographers, is being organized. -snip- Arguably, that kind of photo control...

Official White House photographer Pete Souza shot back at critics this weekend, insisting he is not hogging coverage of President Obama. -snip- Souza's unfettered access to Obama has made him an object of scorn among the White House press corps, who are angry that photojournalists are systematically blocked from covering the President at events. The head of photography for The Associated Press has likened Souza's "visual news releases" to propaganda. Santiago Lyon accused Obama of trying to "bypass the media by releasing a sanitized visual record of his activities through official photographs and videos at the expense of independent journalistic...

Few ceremonies at the White House over the last five years have eluded the lens of Pete Souza, President Obama’s chief photographer and almost constant companion. One that did was Mr. Souza’s wedding, which was held last month in the Rose Garden with the president among 35 friends and family members on hand. Permitting a private citizen to use the Rose Garden for a personal event is extraordinarily unusual, and it attests to the deep ties the president and his photographer have forged, as Mr. Souza has shadowed Mr. Obama on virtually every day of his presidency. Now, though, Mr....

There’s one employee of the White House — other than the Teleprompter of the United States, that is — who never gets a break. His name is Pete Souza. He’s the official presidential photographer. Last week, Souza was hard at work making President Obama look hard at work while vacationing on Martha’s Vineyard.