Obama tops Bush at ducking reporters

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

No formal press conference in 215 days

President Obama, who pledged to establish the most open and transparent administration in history, on Monday surpasses his predecessor's record for avoiding a full-fledged question-and-answer session with White House reporters in a formal press conference.

President George W. Bush's longest stretch between prime-time, nationally televised press conferences was 214 days, from April 4 to Nov. 4, 2004. Mr. Obama tops that record on Monday, going 215 days - stretching back to July 22, according to records kept by CBS Radio's veteran reporter Mark Knoller.

The president has seemingly shunned formal, prime-time sessions since his last disastrous presser, when he said police in Cambridge, Mass., "acted stupidly" by arresting a Harvard professor who broke into a home that turned out to be his own. The off-the-cuff comment took over the news cycle for a week, overshadowing his push for health care reform, and culminated in a White House "Beer Summit," where the president hosted white police officer James Crowley and the black Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr.

"He does seem a little snakebit on the whole presser thing," said Julie Mason, a longtime White House reporter and board member of the White House Correspondents' Association.

"At his last big press conference in July, he lost control of the message with his response to the Gates question, and then returns six months later with an unannounced, five-question avail in the briefing room - on a snow day. Was it something we said?"

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/2...=home_headlines

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

[scandal 951]

We have CNBC monitors on the trading floor all day long. I think a day hardly goes by when I don't see Obama's mug up there, making some speech or other. 'Camera shy' is not exactly his biggest problem.

For a somewhat different take on how he handles the press, try this article.

Obama's preferred way of dealing with the mainstream media is through interviews. He gave 161 during his first year, according to the New York Times, compared with 50 by George W. Bush and 53 by Bill Clinton.

Obama is Snubbing the White House Press Corps

The president is subjecting himself to more questions in a variety of ways

By Kenneth T. Walsh

Posted February 18, 2010

President Obama finally held a news conference last week after a hiatus of seven months, the longest gap in a decade. But his aides say Obama is in no hurry to engage with the White House press corps again anytime soon.

This attitude may upset the men and women who cover Obama, but it's part of a larger strategy to greatly expand the president's options for communicating with the public. Actually, Obama isn't shielding himself from scrutiny; he is subjecting himself to more questions in a variety of ways, not just from the "mainstream media," to keep him in greater contact with the world outside the White House.

On Super Bowl weekend, Obama talked at length with Katie Couric, the anchor of CBS Evening News. He took questions from House Republicans in a much-praised performance on January 29. He has met with Senate Democrats in Washington, hard-pressed workers in Ohio, and students in Florida, and he has addressed the concerns of YouTube users via the wonders of computer technology. Before that, he became the first president to appear on the Jay Leno and David Letterman late-night talk shows. He has given interviews to ESPN and People magazine. He holds periodic town-hall meetings across the country. He plans to have a televised "summit" February 25 with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders to hash out a way to revive healthcare legislation.

"The president believes that part of the president's job is to tell the country what he thinks," says a White House spokesman. "And while he wants to explain his views, he wants to hear what's on people minds. It's important to get outside the bubble of the presidency." Adds the spokesman: "There's an advantage in taking questions from people who don't live and work in Washington and who are outside the cable-news, beltway echo chamber."

Overall, there's no doubt that Obama is snubbing the White House press corps. Not only has the president shied away from full news conferences; he has also declined to take a few reporters' questions at many public events on his schedule, which had been a habit of his predecessors.

Even when he holds a news conference, Obama tends to give reporters relatively short shrift. His opening statements sometimes go for 10 minutes, leaving only about 50 minutes in the traditional hourlong format for questions. His answers often run long, eating up more time, and he calls on only 12 reporters or so, with an emphasis on TV correspondents and the wire services. This constricted pattern held true last week, when Obama spoke at length in his opening remarks and managed to call on a half-dozen reporters in 33 minutes.

White House strategists say that reporters are too eager to play "gotcha" with the president and that they don't focus on what's of most concern to every­day Americans. As a result, Obama's preferred way of dealing with the mainstream media is through interviews. He gave 161 during his first year, according to the New York Times, compared with 50 by George W. Bush and 53 by Bill Clinton. (U.S. News was part of the mix: I interviewed Obama for a cover story on leadership a few months ago.) Obama's pattern is frustrating to the television reporters on the White House beat because when the president does grant TV interviews, they are often with network anchors or Sunday-show hosts, not with the regular White House correspondents.

There are larger trends at work. The mainstream media have less clout at the White House because the public has developed such a disdain for journalists and because the media have become more fractured than ever, with smaller audiences than in the past. The old power brokers

in Washington, such as the broadcast networks, no longer hold sway.

Some political activists and pundits are calling on Obama to have regular sessions of "question time" with Congress, similar to what the British prime minister does with members of Parliament. White House officials are skeptical, arguing that the regularity would encourage legislators to use rehearsed talking points to concoct the best sound bites. The fear is that question time would quickly degenerate into an adversarial ritual and make an already polarized environment even worse.

But Obama advisers say that an occasional session with legislators is a good idea. They see it as part of an overall media approach based on the concept that diversity is good and more is better.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

We have CNBC monitors on the trading floor all day long. I think a day hardly goes by when I don't see Obama's mug up there, making some speech or other. 'Camera shy' is not exactly his biggest problem.

For a somewhat different take on how he handles the press, try this article.

Obama's preferred way of dealing with the mainstream media is through interviews. He gave 161 during his first year, according to the New York Times, compared with 50 by George W. Bush and 53 by Bill Clinton.

Obama is Snubbing the White House Press Corps

The president is subjecting himself to more questions in a variety of ways

By Kenneth T. Walsh

Posted February 18, 2010

President Obama finally held a news conference last week after a hiatus of seven months, the longest gap in a decade. But his aides say Obama is in no hurry to engage with the White House press corps again anytime soon.

This attitude may upset the men and women who cover Obama, but it's part of a larger strategy to greatly expand the president's options for communicating with the public. Actually, Obama isn't shielding himself from scrutiny; he is subjecting himself to more questions in a variety of ways, not just from the "mainstream media," to keep him in greater contact with the world outside the White House.

On Super Bowl weekend, Obama talked at length with Katie Couric, the anchor of CBS Evening News. He took questions from House Republicans in a much-praised performance on January 29. He has met with Senate Democrats in Washington, hard-pressed workers in Ohio, and students in Florida, and he has addressed the concerns of YouTube users via the wonders of computer technology. Before that, he became the first president to appear on the Jay Leno and David Letterman late-night talk shows. He has given interviews to ESPN and People magazine. He holds periodic town-hall meetings across the country. He plans to have a televised "summit" February 25 with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders to hash out a way to revive healthcare legislation.

"The president believes that part of the president's job is to tell the country what he thinks," says a White House spokesman. "And while he wants to explain his views, he wants to hear what's on people minds. It's important to get outside the bubble of the presidency." Adds the spokesman: "There's an advantage in taking questions from people who don't live and work in Washington and who are outside the cable-news, beltway echo chamber."

Overall, there's no doubt that Obama is snubbing the White House press corps. Not only has the president shied away from full news conferences; he has also declined to take a few reporters' questions at many public events on his schedule, which had been a habit of his predecessors.

Even when he holds a news conference, Obama tends to give reporters relatively short shrift. His opening statements sometimes go for 10 minutes, leaving only about 50 minutes in the traditional hourlong format for questions. His answers often run long, eating up more time, and he calls on only 12 reporters or so, with an emphasis on TV correspondents and the wire services. This constricted pattern held true last week, when Obama spoke at length in his opening remarks and managed to call on a half-dozen reporters in 33 minutes.

White House strategists say that reporters are too eager to play "gotcha" with the president and that they don't focus on what's of most concern to every­day Americans. As a result, Obama's preferred way of dealing with the mainstream media is through interviews. He gave 161 during his first year, according to the New York Times, compared with 50 by George W. Bush and 53 by Bill Clinton. (U.S. News was part of the mix: I interviewed Obama for a cover story on leadership a few months ago.) Obama's pattern is frustrating to the television reporters on the White House beat because when the president does grant TV interviews, they are often with network anchors or Sunday-show hosts, not with the regular White House correspondents.

There are larger trends at work. The mainstream media have less clout at the White House because the public has developed such a disdain for journalists and because the media have become more fractured than ever, with smaller audiences than in the past. The old power brokers

in Washington, such as the broadcast networks, no longer hold sway.

Some political activists and pundits are calling on Obama to have regular sessions of "question time" with Congress, similar to what the British prime minister does with members of Parliament. White House officials are skeptical, arguing that the regularity would encourage legislators to use rehearsed talking points to concoct the best sound bites. The fear is that question time would quickly degenerate into an adversarial ritual and make an already polarized environment even worse.

But Obama advisers say that an occasional session with legislators is a good idea. They see it as part of an overall media approach based on the concept that diversity is good and more is better.

I remember that - its essentially the opposite of what Bush did. He allowed reporters to interview him when he was clearing brush on his ranch or playing golf. The thinking was that it made him appear down to earth, that the President was an affable, easy going man of the people. Unfortunately one of the unintended consequences of that is it made him look somewhat crass (remember "We have to stop these terrorist killers. Now watch this drive!")

It's just image management.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

most open and transparent administration in history

the joke's on us

[Scott & Lai 12]

most open and transparent administration in history

the joke's on us

Nah, only on those who actually believed that.