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Lists! O the humanity…

by Paul Wells on Wednesday, March 25, 2009 12:23pm - 13 Comments

We are saddened to report that the Harper Prime Minister’s Office, apparently with too much time on its hands, has taken to preparing lists of acceptable questioners for Barack Obama. There is no other plausible answer for the president’s strange behaviour:

Breaking with tradition and using a prepared list, Obama did not recognize journalists with The Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Wall Street Journal or USA Today — the last four of which were not picked at last month’s news conference, either. Instead, he called on reporters for Ebony magazine, Stars and Stripes, Univision, and Agence France-Presse..

Obama made clear during the transition that he did not plan to follow the usual journalistic pecking order. As president, he has broken with precedent by having his press office notify correspondents that they will be called on at upcoming news conferences. The more unorthodox approach was highlighted at his first evening session, when he took a question from a correspondent for the Huffington Post, a liberal Web magazine.

Tags: Barack Obama, indignation

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Wascally Wabbit

Pout!
Didn’t see Macleans in that list!

Paul Wells

Snubbed!

Scott M.

Slightly different though… I don’t think the PMO is contacting the individual news organizations to tell them they will be chosen to ask a question, is he? It’s my understanding that he simply picks journalists, with their hands up (or requests in) at the time, but he conveniently misses certain organizations.

anon

Not that I agree with the dubious premise that Harper is stifling freedom of the press by requiring questioners to go on a list, but is it somehow less of an infringement if the contents of a similar list from Obama are communicated to the chosen few ahead of time?

Shenping

Just wondering. Since “nomenclature” means a list of names, can we start calling Party Chairman Harper’s chosen the Nomenklatura?

archangel

Oh, the humiliation.

– Bob Fife
http://carnewsandviews.com jwl

“he called on reporters for Ebony magazine, Stars and Stripes, Univision, and Agence France-Presse..”

That explains a lot, actually. I watched some of that press conference last night and I thought the questions were dire and the questioners were little more than lickspittles.
Sisyphus

There were some lame questions. The lamest were from some of the bigger organizations ( CNN ). But no matter. Whatever question was going to be steered back to the main message anyway.

If you want to become really dispirited take a few minutes to watch some of the CNN coverage of Robert Gibbs’ press briefings most afternoons. I know it’s ridiculous to expect reporters to know a lot about everything. But it would be nice if some of them knew something about anything.

Gibbs is ok, I guess. My wife thinks he’s #2 to Rachel Madow’s #1.

CAPS

All the CNN “Best Political Panel yadayadayada” kept going on about was how the question from the CNN correspondent got Obama angry and that seemed to change his mood etc. Bill Bennett (noted conservative blowhard and degenerate gambler) insisted that Obama looked tired and did a terrible job at the press conference.

Whatever … For the vast majority of “journalists – I’ll decide if I agree or disagree thank you very much and form my own opinon. Just give me the facts, the context and some analysis.

dB

I would probably gravitate towards niche journalists from non-traditional outlets too if I had Ed Henry using his slot to try to get himself a primetime show. Hey, David Gregory asked questions that were jerkish for the sake of jerkishness, and he got Meet The Press out of it. If I’m the WH correspondent for a network or a major daily and I have a huge ego (likely an occupational requirement), I’d probably use the press conference to grandstand too. Good for Obama for at least seeking out unique voices. And before anyone goes there, Fox News was called on as well.

tobyornotoby

And Fox reportedly used its slot to ask some bizarre and incoherent question about communists and socialists resposne to the budget.

Bill Simpson

I listened to much of this, and I found the questions very easy to handle and turn around. Here is a sample:

Why should the public trust the government to handle that authority well?
Why, given this new era of responsible that you’re asking for, why haven’t you asked for something specific that the public should be sacrificing to participate in this economic recovery?
Do you worry, though, that your daughters, not to mention the next president, will be inheriting an even bigger fiscal mess if the spending goes out of control?
Are you confident the charities are wrong when they contend that this would discourage giving?
What would you say to these families, especially children, who are sleeping under bridges and in tents across the country?
I’m just wondering, though, how much you personally wrestled with the morality or ethics of federally funding this kind of research, especially given the fact that science so far has shown a lot of progress with adult stem cells, but not a lot with embryonic?

Nothing real concrete (with a few exceptions) and and none of them phrased in a way to require a hard simple answer.

Very disappointing.
rube

I guess the White House Press Gallery must be livid. Such Quebecoisish humiliation will surely result in Obambi’s term being consumed with gotcha journalism and overt hostility.