Bravo to the two reporters who confronted White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs over the Obama administration’s screening policy for town hall meetings, which basically amounts to an attempt to control the press (see video here). You can see Gibbs squirming for four minutes, trying to use humor to duck out of this line of questioning, but to no avail. He never offers a response that directly addresses the main point of the reporters’ questions: the fact that the administration decides which town hall questions are permissible and which ones are not. Regardless of what the questions may ultimately be, the basic principle of preselected questions is, well, a bit questionable itself.
The press has been the unofficial sponsor of the Obama campaign and presidency for a couple of years now. But when Obama tries to control them (like he is controlling everything else in this country), it is refreshing to see at least some journalists calling him on it. Is it possible that the press may one day revolt against the president that they virtually created? Are journalists more committed to the ideal of a free press than they are to Obama?
July 8, 2009 at 5:59 pm |
yeah, thank God for a free press. Love’em or not they have played a big part in keeping the society open and free.