Posted on 02/24/2013 5:02:49 PM PST by Sub-Driver
CBS's Bill Plante: Obama Administration 'Undercutting First Amendment,' 'It's State-Run Media' By Noel Sheppard Created 02/24/2013 - 4:01pm
Bill Plante, CBS News Senior White House Correspondent, made a rather shocking statement Sunday about the Obama administration's media strategy.
Appearing on CNN's Reliable Sources, Plante said that to the extent the White House is able to "put out their own material" without the Washington press corps, "they're undercutting the First Amendment...it's state-run media" (video follows with transcript and commentary):
HOWARD KURTZ, HOST: Bill Plante, you've been patrolling that building since Ronald Reagan. Does the White House press look a little self-involved, a little whiny as I said earlier, complaining about this Tiger incident?
BILL PLANTE, CBS NEWS SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: We've gotten used to being called whiny lapdogs. I've heard it for 30 years. But this is not about a picture of Tiger Woods. This is about access to the president. And access to the president has been cut and pushed and curtailed over every administration I've covered.
And here's the nub of it, Howie: this administration has the tools to reach people on their own. They don't need us as much. And to the extent that they're able to do that, they're undercutting the First Amendment, which guarantees a free press through many voices. If they put out their own material, it's state-run media.
Conservative radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin have been talking about state-run media since Obama was elected. It's nevertheless extraordinary to hear this from someone at CBS News.
Of course, it would have been nice for Plante to say this before Election Day.
Regardless, it's going to be interesting to see whether more in the media begin making this case or if the lapdogs will just continue lapping.
Stay tuned.
Perhaps a visit from the Gestapo as well. In my opinion, Hitler would have recruited out of this Regime and been proud of them all, ya think? O?BayMe’s Death Panels would have fit right in at Auschwitz as well.
Who cares if they got to kiss the butt of Tiger Woods? Or his women - or his friend Obama? Not me.
I care that they never got the Benghazi story... or the Fast and Furious story - of the 'why the hell is Homeland Security buying enough bullets to kill all the citizens in the United States six times over'....
Tiger Woods? No porn queens around Tiger to be shocked by? Yawn. CBS sucks... really, who cares what the little suck-ups whine about - they're 'news' in the style of Rather - a guy who makes it up to help 'his side'... Or they don't cover stuff to help their side... or they only want to cover the idiotic ... or all of the above. Yawn, yawn, yawn - a million yawns.
Like a spouse sometimes the last to know
When the MSM chose to investigate the status of Joe the Plumber’s trade license and the DNA of Palin’s Down Syndrome child, INSTEAD of Baraq’s falsified past, I knew the final transition had occurred.
They went from “strong liberal bias” to “full fledged member of the regime”.
bttt
the Useful Idiots are now just Idiots
“Americans” didn’t elect him; the Media and the unions put him in office.
oops. did not see your post before i posted.
Like I have always said for years. The media will not say anything bad about democRATS until the Rats start treading on the first ammendment. It has now been started.
It looks like Ezra Klein of Journolist fame is the enforcer. He whooped up on Bob Woodward for breaking ranks on who’s responsible for the sequester.
Members of the modern day press are more like stenographers for democrat PR firms. Dems call in stories - and editors pretend to ponder if the story should be used - knowing the source in biased liberal. Somehow - after much soul searching - they decide 'YES" it's a good story even if it is from a liberal elite. And they make that phony decision many times every day, every week, every month. I have zero respect for these self-serving delusional liberal members of the press...
Sometime I get the feeling he’ll sustain a head wond, survive, and people will marvel at his wonded head.
The press protects Obama, but Obama doesn’t trust the press to protect him. He’s just basically dishonest and assumes that everyone else is also dishonest.
Yeah, I think he's a plant.
I don’t buy. Saying it doesn’t make it so.
He never explains how does the WH, putting out propaganda by means other than MSM, undercuts the first amendment ?
Oh sure. Weasel in Chief of the RATagandists.
Conservative radio hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Mark Levin have been talking about state-run media since Obama was elected. It's nevertheless extraordinary to hear this from someone at CBS News. Of course, it would have been nice for Plante to say this before Election Day.
And now, at the true beginning of the end of Democracy, just before the beginning of a true dictatorship, does Mr. Plante understand what has happened. How sad.
It would not surprise me one bit
Limbaugh, Hannity, Levin and the rest are “state run media” as well. If they weren't they would have reported on Obama’s highly questionable eligibility, his questionable attendance at Columbia, his many social security numbers, the odd and **convenient** deaths surrounding his eligibility, and many other non-safe topics.
When the MSM chose to investigate the status of Joe the Plumbers trade license and the DNA of Palins Down Syndrome child, INSTEAD of Baraqs falsified past, I knew the final transition had occurred.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
When Rush, Hannity, Beck, Ingraham , Levin, and the rest ignore Obama’s eligibility I knew it was the end.
Well, sir, you and your brethren-in-kind of the American Media, foisted this “fellow” upon us, and now YOU are having “buyer’s remorse”????
Find a good twig on a tree and sit on it!
He’s just whining that he doesn’t have the exclusive access to the white house the old media used to have. That gave the old media the ability to act as the bottleneck for information the public saw. So today they amp up their adoration of the Obama to get back into his good graces.
But in any event, cutting out CBS has nothing to do with freedom of the press. If they really want to become relevant again, they should start talking about fast and furious and benghazi.
“And here’s the nub of it, Howie: this administration has the tools to reach people on their own. They don’t need us as much. And to the extent that they’re able to do that, they’re undercutting the First Amendment, which guarantees a free press through many voices. If they put out their own material, it’s state-run media.”
They’re pissed because they didn’t get a photo op with Tiger Woods.
They’re pissed because the President and his minions can conduct an internet campaign without benefit of giving them schmooz time.
They are pissed because it is their prerogatives that are being abused.
They are NOT pissed because the President is suborning the First Amendment. Or because he is governing against the will of the people. Or that he lies every time he opens his mouth.
They are pissed because they aren’t allowed to report and broadcast all of the lies on an exclusive basis.
What a self-engrossed little prick...
They are pissed off because Obama has “out grouped” them...
What do you think anonymous?
My Dear Mr. Plante - you may begin exercising your First Amendment rights at any time you choose.
...and yet, Bill Plante, extremist liberal, will whine about this on a show nobody watches.
When it comes to his own work, Bill Plante, extremist liberal, will continue to suck up to his little tin god Obama. Just like the rest of his pablum-eating colleagues.
Anyone see that “interview” by CBS’s 60 Minutes with Obamugabe and Hitlery? NO tough questions, no challenges, just more boot licking.
I would point out that the First Amendment does not compel anyone to exercise their right to self expression.
5.56mm
Wound, wounded. That was an iPhone post.
Plante is right in his conclusions (state-run media), but his reasoning is completely wrong.
The administration -- or any other political voice (e.g., Sarah Palin seems to know how to do this) -- is perfectly free to work around the self-appointed gatekeepers to put out the message they want to spread. The job of a free press would be to analyze and critique such information and to frame it in a newsworthy fashion.
But we don't have a free press, at least among the traditional main players. They have willingly put on the yoke of being nothing more than a mouthpiece for the Democrat party in exchange for recognition as the proper gatekeepers of information. An actual free press -- the so-called "new media" is a threat to them because it disrupts their status as part of the self-annointed elite.
What Plante is whining about really isn't the White House doing anything to the 1st Amendment, it's complaining that the priesthood is being bypassed by one of the deacons, so to speak. This is nothing more than Pravda calling TASS state-run media -- of course it was, but so was Pravda.
I actually approve of this, and hope that future Repub administrations do the same. If there's an official White House web site from which official statements are issued, and which host the president's videos of his positions, then it's that much harder for the MSM to distort his positions, and much easier for people to point out such distortions by pointing to the original material.
No worries. Great minds have similar thoughts.
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