Free Republic

Managing Editor David Kupelian takes on XXX-rated press corps............... Dear WorldNetDaily reader, Everyone reading this knows exactly why we elected the most left-wing president in history, even though a recent Gallup poll reveals conservatives are the largest ideological group in the nation. It's because Barack Obama had an advantage no other presidential candidate has ever had – the total backing of the "mainstream media," which was so enchanted by the prospect of a young, eloquent, cool, liberal – and for the first time in history, black – president, that they essentially picked Obama up, held him high over head, and...

The New Face of Washington’s Press Corps As Mainstream Media Decline, Niche and Foreign Outlets Grow Source: Pew Research Center Project For Excellence in Journalism “The corps of journalists covering Washington D.C. at the dawn of the Obama administration is not so much smaller as it is dramatically transformed. And that transformation will markedly alter what Americans will know and not know about the new government, as well as who will know it and who will not. In addition, the contingent of foreign reporters in Washington has grown to nearly 10 times the size it was a generation ago. And...

Here is video of President Barack Obama stopping by the White House Briefing Room just to chum it up with the White House Press Corps. At the 3:20 mark of the video, one of the reporters dares to ask the President a question, and Obama was clearly not happy. He tells them, "I can't end up visiting you guys if every time I come down here I get grilled." Grilled? One reporter asked one question. Obama seems to think he should be able to just "hang out" with the press corps with the unspoken understanding that when he wants to...

Seersucker's out. Pinstripes are in. And no one in the press corps is safe from the president's light asides on fashion choices. WASHINGTON — Even as he talked about North Korea's nuclear ambitions and other weighty matters, President Bush on Wednesday returned to his occasional role as fashion critic to the White House press corps. "If I might say, that is a beautiful suit…. And I can't see anybody else that even comes close," the president told NBC's Kevin Corke, who was wearing pinstripes, in the course of a Rose Garden news conference that focused on North Korea-related diplomacy and...

GREEN BAY, Wis. - On one of the scariest days yet in the five-year battle with terrorists, President Bush prepared to make a speech to reassure the American people. But the White House press corps was 1,000 miles away in Texas. Bush had left his ranch vacation and jetted north for a scheduled closed-door fundraiser. No press plane accompanied him. And so when news broke that Britain had broken up a major terrorist plot, the only ones there to convey the president's reaction were a handful of local reporters and a few pool journalists who ride in the back of...

In a classic example of self-pity, Editor and Publisher writer David S. Hirschman's latest article is so full of whining, moaning, assumption and gnashing of teeth that one would think the world is about to end. All this wringing of hands is over the revamping of the White House Press Room. As many of you know the press room in the White House, the place where countless spokesmen for the President have held innumerable briefings on issues important and not so important, is being shut down and a new one is being built to better fulfill the needs of a...

One can't help but suspect that Karl Rove is already scheming with GOP architects -- and interior designers -- to create a revamped White House Press Room that will further weaken the press corps it so successfully neutered much of the time in the previous one.

As George W Bush joined the last daily breifing in the WH press room which will undergo a nine month renovation, he spent a moment to take some questions. At that time, a reporter shouted: "Mr President, should Mel Gibson be forgiven?" The President laughed and looked into the audience to see who shouted the remark: "Is that Sam Donaldson, forget it your a has been. We don't have to answer has beens questions." First, there was laughter, then silence. But, in the end, Bush did not respond to the question. Developing...

June 14, 2006 — The president was in a jovial mood during his Rose Garden press conference Wednesday, joshing with reporters, excited to aggressively defend the Iraq war in the midterm elections, optimistic about his recent trip to Baghdad. Then he was told a reporter he playfully teased about wearing sunglasses during the press conference has a serious vision problem and is legally blind. By the end of the day, the exchange had merited a presidential apology. The reporter, Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times, said he bears no grudges and accepted the president's apology quickly. "Clearly the president...

At his press conference this morning, President Bush, who often makes inside jokes when familiar reporters pose questions, asked Los Angeles Times reporter Peter Wallsten, who was wearing sunglasses outside, “Are you going to ask that question with shades on?” Bush noted that there was "no sun" but added, “I’m interested in the shade look, seriously.” Turns out Wallsten is legally blind and wears the sunglasses due to a rare genetic disorder called Stargardt’s Disease. But Wallsten later told the ThinkProgress web site that Bush’s comments did not offend him at all. “I never advertise it to him. I’ve never...

Reporter Paul Wallsten, a leftist reporter, asked the president a question today during the press conference while keeping his sunglasses on. The president commented on the sunglasses in this exchange: Bush: You gonna ask your question with shades on? Wallsten: Yes... Bush: But there's no sun out here. Wallsten: It depends on your perspective. Bush: Touché. Daily Kos nutjobs are claiming that Wallsten is blind. Unless it happened recently, I think the nutjobs are just making stuff up (again). Wallsten is featured on the left of this picture:

NEW YORK At his press conference this morning, President Bush, who often makes inside jokes when familiar reporters pose questions, asked Los Angeles Times reporter Peter Wallsten, who was wearing sunglasses outside, “Are you going to ask that question with shades on?” Bush noted that there was "no sun" but added, “I’m interested in the shade look, seriously.” Turns out Wallsten is legally blind and wears the sunglasses due to a rare genetic disorder called Stargardt’s Disease. But Wallsten later told the ThinkProgress web site that Bush’s comments did not offend him at all. “I never advertise it to him....

By E&P Staff Published: June 13, 2006 3:20 PM ET NEW YORK President Bush's sudden trip to Baghdad caught White House reporters by surprise -- deliberately so. But, as always, a few were chosen as pool reporters for the trip, as detailed by E&P this morning. Now, in a pool report from one of the reporters left behind, Julie Hirschfeld Davis of the Baltimore Sun, we get a glimpse of the ruse and how the reporters here, at Camp David, experienced it -- under armed guard, as it happens. Davis titled her pool report: "In Which The Intown Pool Discovers...

Snow was questioned during the White House Briefing about the Marriage Ammendment. At one point the reporter (David?) jumped in with a debative, pointed question and Snow replied "Oh C'mon.." and the reporter retorted "No, don't c'mon me..". To which Snow showed a "WOAH" facial response, laughed and said "this is what people have been waiting for!" Got a good laugh from the room. Also funnied about how some people want our troops to sing "Kumbaya" all the time, when we're supposed to fighting. Seems like he's doing a good job. Use of humor and "help me help you, media...

I am posting this placeholder because according to C-Span3 There will be a White House News Briefing very shortly with Tony Snow. It was scheduled at 12:30 EDT but is late. This is the non-fancy ping.

MR. SNOW: Hello. I don't have anything new since the gaggle, so let's just go to questions. Terry. Q You said today that Israel should have serious talks with Mahmoud Abbas. Do you think that Abbas has the authority to conduct final status negotiations? MR. SNOW: Well, look, we are not ready to jump to final status negotiations, you understand, Terry. But what we're going to do is we're reiterating our concern that we get two-party talks that lead ultimately to final status negotiations along the road map to peace. I mean, I know I'm using all the jargon here,...

Tony's First Press GaggleBy Josh Marshall - May 12, 2006, 12:27 PM Tony Snow holds his first White House press gaggle. Check it out below the fold ... TONY SNOW: Okay, first thing, very quickly through the President's schedule for today. As you know, there's a meeting with the former Secretaries of Defense and State, that will be taking place in about 25 minutes in the Roosevelt Room. There will be pool at the end for photos, and, obviously, a stakeout afterward. The President also, at 1:55 p.m., East Room, open press, remarks at the Celebration of Asian Pacific American...

From the New Kid, Proceedings With CautionBy Dana MilbankSaturday, May 13, 2006; A02 Depending on how you look at it, Tony Snow's first briefing as White House press secretary yesterday morning started either 18 minutes late or 12 minutes early.Shortly before the start of his 9 a.m. "gaggle" -- the daily off-camera briefing -- the White House paged reporters to say the gaggle would instead start at 9:30. But to the dismay of reporters showing up at 9:30, Snow had begun the briefing, at 9:18.Kelly O'Donnell of NBC News was steamed. "This was 9 a.m., then pushed back to 9:30,...

Issues & Insights Snow Stirs It Up Posted 5/12/2006 The Media: When President Bush introduced his new spokesman, Tony Snow warmly told the White House press corps he wanted to offer help. Surprise! The doctor started by writing prescriptions. ... he wasted no time handing out giant horse pills. It's a joy to watch our journalistic brothers and sisters struggle to swallow them. The stiff dosages come as e-mails, reports The Washington Examiner's Bill Sammon: "Since starting his job, Snow has challenged five major news outlets in a clear signal that he will be more aggressive than his mild-mannered predecessor,...

Bush Lampoons Self at Press Corp Dinner By ELIZABETH WHITE, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 20 minutes ago WASHINGTON - It was twice the fun for members of the White House Correspondents' Association and guests Saturday night when President Bush and a look-alike, sound-alike sidekick poked fun at the president and fellow politicians. "Ladies and gentlemen, I feel chipper tonight. I survived the White House shake-up," the president said.But impersonator Steve Bridges stole many of the best lines. Vice President Dick Cheney and his hunting accident were targets of his humor on a couple of occasions."Speaking of suspects, where is...

Jim VandeHei of the Washington Post filed an official complaint with Press Secretary Scott McClellan and DEMANDED that the TV sets in the press area of Air Force One be changed from FOX News to CNN. Here's a flash for Jim VandeHei, YOUR newspaper is partnered with MSNBC, not CNN. If MSNBC isn't good enough for the Washington Post's own reporters, why should anyone else watch it? No wonder MSNBC is in a laughable third place. Way to go Scoop...there's a reason Drudge is a multi-millionaire and you're not.

White House scribe asks for the remote Press corps asks to watch CNN on Air Force One It wasn't the price of gasoline, Darfur or the rebuilding effort in New Orleans that preoccupied the White House press corps Thursday aboard a flight on Air Force One. It was what channel they could watch on the White House televisions, Fox or CNN. During a briefing led by White House spokesman Scott McClellan as President Bush was traveling to New Orleans, Louisiana, the Washington Post's Jim VandeHei asked why the White House televisions always seemed to be tuned to Fox News and...

The controversy du jour aboard Air Force One today was one near and dear to the hearts of many otherwise happy couples: Command and control of the TV tuner. “It’s come to my attention that there’s been requests – this is a serious question – to turn these TVs on to a station other than Fox, and that those have been denied,” Washington Post reporter Jim VandeHei told Press Secretary Scott McClellan. “My question would be, is there a White House policy that all government TVs have to be tuned to Fox?” “Never heard of any such thing,” said McClellan,...

Naming Tony Snow press secretary is President Bush's most promising decision since Hurricane Katrina winded him nearly seven months ago. The president should let the veteran commentator craft and disseminate the administration's message in clever and concrete ways, as the capable Snow can do. Snow approaches his position with something that outgoing press secretary Scott McClellan lacks: the ability to communicate. McClellan, surely a nice man who loves his country and his family, looks pained and frightened at his briefings. Sniffing blood in the water, reporters chomp into him like sharks devouring a walrus. This leaves McClellan with little to...

In naming Snow, president chooses a press secretary unafraid to voice his 'own opinions' WASHINGTON - After being tapped by President Bush as the new White House press secretary, Fox News personality Tony Snow on Wednesday wasted no time switching on his spin machine, describing his past differences with the administration as an asset now. "They want people to express their opinions," Snow said of the famously insular Bush White House. "You're not coming here to drink the Kool-Aid, you're coming to serve the president." As an outspoken conservative pundit, Snow has called Bush politically "impotent" and complained in his...

President Bush's decision to hire conservative commentator Tony Snow as his chief spokesman reflects a consensus among the president and his top advisers that his White House operation has been too insular and needs to be more aggressive in engaging with the news media and other Washington constituencies, according to Bush aides and outside advisers. Snow, who in his roles as a pundit on Fox News and elsewhere has rapped Bush on several occasions, joined the White House only after extracting a promise that he would become an adviser to the president on day-to-day strategy. If Bush and his team...

WITH Scott McClellan's announcement that he will hang up his flak jacket after nearly three years as White House press secretary, maybe it is time to ask one last question, even if he won't be around to answer it: Why continue with the daily press briefings at all? Oh, there are reasons. Someone has to explain that tomorrow the president is meeting the German chancellor, and that next week he will be in Cincinnati talking with concerned citizens about — choose one — a) the prescription drug benefit b) the future of Social Security or c) new ways of turning...

I wanted to share a brief Saturday Night Live skit I saw this weekend because of an amusing tidbit. In this skit, the cast portrayed a number of make-believe resignations in the Bush administration. In the last part, the skit used a scenario where Scott McClellan resigned as press secretary and the White House replaced him with a snippy teenage girl (portrayed by host Lindsay Lohan). Lohan’s character held a press conference where she made life difficult for the press corps. She belittled the reporters, brushed off their questions, and acted visibly bored about having to talk to them at...

Mike McCurry, who was President Bill Clinton's press secretary a decade ago, is kicking himself to this day for ever allowing the White House briefings to be televised live. "It was a huge error on my part," Mr. McCurry recalled the other day after watching a relentless White House press corps badger Scott McClellan, the current White House press secretary, about a hunting accident in which Vice President Dick Cheney shot a friend, Harry M. Whittington, and delayed telling the news media about it. "It has turned into a theater of the absurd." SNIP But today, those on both sides...

Let’s start off by saying that it’s not easy - for those celebrated members of the fourth estate who waive the valued White House press credentials about for entry into the holy of holies and to impress the barstool queens, waitresses and lushes at their favorite watering holes - peppering the poor lad representing a Republican administration with spite, questions laden with vitriol and dripping with pique and looking cool, calm and collected while they do it.

Remember the SNL skit during the lead up to the Gulf War which had the press asking questions during a Pentagon briefing such as “ When exactly will we attack, from which direction and what forces will be used” and “What secret code do we use and how does it work?”.Matthews, yesterday, questioning Rob Scavone, the executive vice president, general counsel at P&O Ports, North America, which presently runs the ports the Dubai Ports World is seeking to operate.......... MATTHEWS: What I'm trying to get at if something were dangerous to come into the country, a container of nerve gas...

I wasn't able to view the dust-up on last Sunday's Meet the Press and went to the MSNBC/Meet the Press website to view it on line. Interestingly, just as Mary Matlin was troucing Gregory, the on-line version went off. I've emailed them but no reply. The video feed was 48:15 minutes long but it cuts out at 38:57. I tried it three times - to no avail. Anyone else have the same problem? Though, honestly, I can see why Meet the Press wouldn't want to keep it up there, it looked as though Gregory was about to cry with Mary...

NBC White House correspondent David Gregory ate a little crow Sunday on this "Meet The Press," apologizing for his arrogant behavior during White House press briefings dealing with the shooting of a hunting companion by Vice President Cheney. Reacting to the storm of criticism leveled by the public at the Washington press corps for complaining that they were not told immediately about the incident, leaving the job of reporting it to a small-town Texas newspaper, Gregory apologized for his boorish behavior. "I think I made a mistake,” he told host Tim Russert. "I think it was inappropriate for me to...

" [T]he debate playing out in the blogosphere, cable airwaves and on talk radio pits the Vice President against an allegedly left-wing, overly cynical, prissy White House press corps in a tizzy because it wasn't the first to know and angry because it hates the President and Vice President anyway. " That's exactly right. And it comes from NBC's David Gregory. Gregory goes on to announce that this description is "nonsense," but of course Gregory has not allowed himself to be questioned outside of his network. He doesn't return calls and he won't make himself available for questions about what...

Dick Cheney's hunting accident could not get the "Dump Dick" reaction or traction the MSM was hoping for. I can easily visualize the bloodthirsty MSM having prayer vigils, pleading with their god(s) to take Cheney's victim, that one tough cookie, Harry Whittington, off the face of the earth so that the Veep could be forever hounded by the Libs, arrested, and then impeached. "The best laid plans of mice (vermin), not men" waiting in their dark cellars under the New York Times for something to chew on. The RIM (Reality Impaired Media) is somewhat like the American Public Schools...

Sitting in armchairs waiting for handouts not the best way to get scoops Members of the elite White House press corps this week have acted more like animals that have been kept in captivity for so long that they can’t find news unless it is forced down their open gullets at a daily press briefing. The Cheney hunting accident story embarrassingly revealed this fact, which probably explains the greater-than-normal anger and outrage of White House correspondents over the last few days. “Why weren’t we told?” has been the refrain, not “How did we miss that story?” The White House press...

A question for the White House press corps: Who the hell do you think you are? Seriously. Exactly how egomaniacal are you people? The question is spurred by your conduct the other day over this Dick Cheney matter. The vice president was involved in a hunting accident and all of a sudden it wasn’t about him or what happened, it was how you weren’t notified. Like the world revolves around you. And you started acting like idiots. Juvenile, arrogant, antagonistic idiots. It was a shameful spectacle that further alienated regular Americans and showed, in the view of many, your bias...

NBC REPORTER TO WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN: 'DON'T BE A JERK' Tue Feb 14 2006 08:54:18 ET NBCNEWS chief White House correspondent David Gregory warned President Bush's spokesman on Monday not to be a "jerk!" The heated exchange came during a press gathering at the White House. Gregory asked White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan about the Cheney hunting accident. 'David, hold on, the cameras aren't on right now,' McClellan replied. 'You can do this later.' 'Don't accuse me of trying to pose to the cameras,' Gregory said, voice rising. 'Don't be a jerk to me personally when I'm asking you...

12:27 P.M. EST MR. MCCLELLAN: Good afternoon, everyone. Let me begin with one update on the schedule today. The President will today -- or today is submitting his 2006 Economic Report to the Congress. The Council of Economic Advisors will be hosting a press briefing here shortly, at 1:30 p.m. today. Our economy is strong and growing stronger. The U.S. right now is experiencing a very healthy job market, with nearly 4.8 million jobs created since the summer of 2003. And for 2006, the Council of Economic Advisors projects a steady growth rate, in the range of 3.4 percent, which...

First Lady Laura Bush and her daughter Barbara are greeted by Pope Benedict XVI Being a member of the White House Press Pool, especially when you are subject to the strict rules of the Vatican, is not nearly as glamorous as some may imagine. As the print pool reporter for the First Lady's five-day trip to Italy, responsible for sharing my reporting with my fellow journalists in the Fourth Estate, I experienced that firsthand during Mrs. Bush's visit to the Pope Thursday morning and learned the 5 Rules of the Press Pool when you're visiting the Pope. 1) Don't...

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush played host to the White House press corps Thursday night for a private off-the-record dinner at his ranch. The casual affair of fried catfish, potato salad, coleslaw, homemade cheese and chocolate-chip cookies followed a tradition in which Bush and his wife, Laura, have the press covering his annual August vacation out to the their ranch in central Texas as a sort of thank-you.

In a July 17 story, Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen of the Washington Post had to admit, in recapping White House statements about the Valerie Plame case, that White House spokesman Scott McClellan was usually careful to disavow involvement "in any illegal leak, though his public statements clearly left an impression of a White House aloof to the affair." This is the key to understanding White House statements about the case and the reported White House role. If you read the transcripts of McClellan's briefings, it is clear that McClellan had denied a White House role in a criminal disclosure...

Michael Kelly was one of the best writers of his generation and an extraordinarily gifted observer of politics and culture. Despite having grown up in Washington to become a member of the media elite, Kelly was also one of the few writers willing to turn a scathingly critical eye at the press itself. I've often wondered what Kelly's reaction would be to the atmosphere in Washington these days; what he might have written about the coverage of the war and, more recently, how he would have viewed the flap over Karl Rove and the CIA leak investigation. As it turns...

ABC News reporter Terry Moran made a name for himself by challenging White House spokesman Scott McClellan's request that Newsweek do more to correct the damage it inflicted on the Muslim world by publishing the false Koran-in-the-toilet story. Moran asked whether McClellan was trying to act like editor of Newsweek. McClellan might have made a better editor. After all, Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker was traveling and didn't see the final version of the dubious story before it was published. Moran also made news when he went on the Hugh Hewitt radio show and not only acknowledged an anti-military bias in...

The Bush administration is considering kicking the Washington press corps out of the White House -- at least for a month or so, that is. The stuffy, packed, run-down White House briefing room has become something of a safety hazard over the years and may require a top-to-bottom renovation this summer, according to administration officials. President Bush, who sometimes holds news conferences in the room, recently made a personal pitch for a new, airier briefing room, taking some reporters by surprise. "Listen, whoever thought about modernizing this room deserves a lot of credit," Bush said at the end of the...

[Snip] MR. McCLELLAN: There, he'll probably talk about Social Security. If he has any more to say -- if you're asking me about the Terri Schiavo case, I expect if he did it would be at the first conversation event. Q Not at the pool event? MR. McCLELLAN: No, I wouldn't expect at the pool event. Q You said "if" he did, so you expect him to say something? MR. McCLELLAN: Well, he may. I'll keep you posted. Q Has he been getting updates on the case? And did he talk to Gonzales about the Justice Department's move to file...

What's a Press Corps to Do? By Dan Froomkin Special to washingtonpost.com Friday, March 18, 2005; 12:33 PM What should the press corps do the next time the White House calls a background briefing and demands that no one identify the briefer by name? Walk out en masse? That's not likely to happen, members of an august panel at the National Press Club grudgingly acknowledged yesterday. Well, how about if someone outed the briefer's identity to a blogger? The panel was called "Confronting the Seduction of Secrecy: Toward Improved Access to Government Information on the Record," and it featured a...

Former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer was so concerned about Talon News reporter James Guckert's potential ties to the Republican Party that he stopped calling on him at press briefings for about a week in 2003, Fleischer told E&P today. "I found out that he worked for a GOP site, and I didn't think it was my place to call on him because he worked for something that was related to the party," Fleischer said in a phone interview. "He had the editor call me and made the case that they were not related to the Republican Party. He...

Giving "Gannon" a pass Questions remain about how a fake reporter working for a fake news operation got White House press credentials without a background check. By Eric Boehlert Feb. 11, 2005 | Before abruptly quitting his post this week as White House correspondent for the GOP-friendly group Talon News, Jeff Gannon enjoyed unfettered access to White House briefings. He gained that access not by going through the normal full background check most journalists face when obtaining a "hard pass," the ultimate White House credential, but rather by getting day passes, which require only an abbreviated background check. According to...

WASHINGTON – After a pointed question at a White House press briefing two weeks ago, a massive left-wing investigation of Talon News and Jeff Gannon's personal and business affairs was launched and was said to reveal that he was associated with homosexual website addresses. Left-wing bloggers, specifically Media Matters, which ironically is run by former conservative and once-closeted homosexual David Brock, have made a name for themselves by taking the scalp of this conservative journalist by the name of Jeff Gannon. His crimes were that he was too pro-Republican, attended White House briefings, and asked questions unfair to Democrats. This...