"It's a source of great frustration here"

The White House press corp (the 'p' is silent... pass it on) is upset with Obama:

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 has even done color commentary at a Georgetown basketball game. But the decision to bypass the White House press corps is no accident.

"It's a source of great frustration here," says Chip Reid, CBS's White House correspondent. "It's important for us to hold the president's feet to the fire."

NBC White House reporter Chuck Todd calls the situation a "shame," saying the administration is trying to control the message rather than allowing Obama to be seen "unscripted."

Obama is trying to control the message?  He doesn't want to be seen "unscripted"?

No way... not The One... he who was anointed without scrutiny by the same people who are upset with him now.

How... ironic.

But it gets better:

Communications director Dan Pfeiffer adds that "not doing press conferences is equated with not taking questions, and that's not true." While the best way for a president to reach the public in the past was "through the reporters sitting in the first three rows of the White House pressroom. . . . there's no question that the Huffington Post, Talking Points Memo and their conservative counterparts can drive a story as well as the traditional powers at the New York Times and Washington Post."

Here's the story that needs to be driven...  Obama is a joke... he is incompetent... he is driving this nation over a cliff... and you people in the media are largely responsible for it...

And now you complain?

Please... take it elsewhere...  we in alternative media will get the truth out... and given Obama's poll numbers, clearly, the truth is getting out.

Comments

[Morgan K Freeberg]

Between the election and the inauguration, I had an immediate-family-member press me, and press me some more and more and more, to take the time to read this "love letter" to the nation called "The Audacity of Hope." On this hamsters-wheel of politely brushing him off, I made use of a wildly extravagant, sweeping superlative:

This person called Barack Hussein Obama has had greater opportunity to "get a message out" than, not only any American alive now, but anyone even vaguely humanoid who has ever walked the face of the earth. The greatest magnitude of opportunity available, and the greatest magnitude of effort applied. ALL of human history. Every last dollop.

I still believe that is true.

Maybe one of the questions the Press CorPs should think of asking, if/when the opportunity arises, is just how long and complex this message really is. By the time Tolstoy had been working over War and Peace for this long, it was all ready to go, albeit in draft form.

Perhaps Holy One needs to learn to manage His time a little bit better. Or noodle out what He's going to be saying before He says it. Less speakee, more thinkee.

[Kitty Myers]

Hey press corpse, talk to the hand ;~)

...

[Locutisprime]

The (p) is silent but the (s) should not be dropped.