Free Republic

What are you afraid of, Mr. President? I know it must be tough dragging yourself to these glitzy fund-raisers and mingling with rich people who shower you with money and affection. Who needs an unfriendly reporter shouting an unscripted question at you, or checking to see whether any of the guests are getting government contracts? We all know Obama has an aversion to tough questions. During the campaign, he would refuse to engage with most local media, and reporters who camped out at the rope line got a stern talking-to from a campaign staffer. But using the White House press...

<p>The surreal week in Washington was brought to a fitting climax on Friday when Barack Obama handed the presidency over to Bill Clinton for 20 minutes. “I’m going to take off,” he said.</p> <p>“You’re in good hands,” the president informed the press corps, patting his predecessor on the back. And take off the president did.</p>

President [Barry Hussein Soetoro] gave the White House press corps the slip last night. He’s done it again. How many times is this president going to give the White house press corps the slip before the people of the United States realize that there is a problem? What other president in the history of the United States of America has ever had to disappear with whereabouts unknown? (see previous post) If one remembers, and I do, this is supposed to be the most ethical, transparent, open presidential administration in the history of the United States of America. So why does...

President Obama spent some time away from the traveling press corps last night, the Wall Street Journal reports. Obama is always accompanied by a "pool" reporter when he travels, who notes the president's movements and reports back to the rest of the White House reporters. But last night, with the President in Muskoka, Ontario for the G-8 summit, the White House sent the pooler away. From WSJ: Last night, the White House sent the press corps — which by agreement stays close to the president in order to report on any incident — back to Toronto, leaving the president 150...

Who'll take Helen Thomas's front-row seat in the White House briefing room? The lobbying is in full swing, with Fox News and Bloomberg News trading passive-aggressive gibes. In a letter last week to the White House Correspondents' Association board, Fox's Bill Sammon wrote that his network was promised in 2007 it would get the spot when Thomas retired, having come in second to CNN in the seat-jockeying that occurred when the front row was widened. He called Bloomberg "a financial niche news outlet, not a general interest news organization like Fox." Oooh!

Small things often mean something. In 1998 a little know figure by the name of Osama bin Laden declared war on the United States of America. But because America is powerful and al Qaeda wasn’t perceived as a threat because they were so insignificantly small we overlooked the threat. On April 10, 2010 the president of the United States of America snuck out of the White house without the White house press corps to record his every move. Why? (see story) There must have been a good reason for breaking years of protocol. No, there was only a cover story...

Six months ago, network executives were complaining that the White House was costing them tens of millions of dollars by pressing them to carry presidential news conferences in prime time. Problem solved: President Obama hasn't held a full-scale news conference since July. Instead, he answered a dozen people's questions last week on YouTube, most of them easily finessed and -- extra bonus! -- no annoying follow-ups of the kind posed by real, live journalists. It would be hard -- impossible, actually -- to argue that Obama hasn't been accessible to the media, not with his constant television interviews. The man...

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...

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...