Boston Herald, welcome to the official “Enemies List!”
No, my Herald colleagues, you aren’t the first journalists to feel the wrath of President Richard Milhaus Obama. And you won’t be the last.
Giving a reporter the boot because you don’t like the Herald’s coverage — classic Obama, says David Freddoso, author of the book “Gangster Government,” who reminded me that during the 2010 campaign, the president promised that “We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends.”
And the Boston Herald is not one of the president’s friends.
Remember the White House’s self-declared “War On Fox News?” Upset by unfavorable coverage, they declared that Fox was “not a legitimate news organization,” tried to get a Fox reporter banned from a press pool interview and announced no more Obama interviews for the rest of the year. Team Obama only backed down when other media outlets objected.
Last month the White House kicked San Francisco Chronicle reporter Carla Marinucci out of the local press pool for recording protesters at an Obama event. And according to Chronicle editor at large Phil Bronstein, “more than a few journalists familiar with this story are aware of some implied threats from the White House of additional and wider punishment if Carla’s spanking became public.”
Then there was the Orlando Sentinel reporter stuck in a closet during a Joe Biden fundraiser by White House hacks. “Every time I . . . stepped out to see what was going on a staffer told me I couldn’t come out yet,” Scott Powers reported.
And now it’s the Herald.
“I tend to consider the degree to which papers have demonstrated to covering the White House regularly and fairly in determining local pool reporters,” White House spokesman Matt Lehrich said.
Some conservatives are using this to mock “the most transparent administration in history,” but I disagree completely. Team Obama is beyond transparent — it’s utterly shameless.
Seriously — barring “unfriendly” reporters from political events? What’s next — a Biden speech about the “nattering nabobs of negativity?”
The last time we had a president this paranoid about his enemies, Woody Allen was still making movies that were actually funny.
And remember, this is the administration that wants prospective government contractors to disclose how much money they've given to Republican causes before they get the government contracts.
2 comments:
It would be funny if it were not so sad and dangerous. With a media that is increasingly monolithic in scope, we are getting less diversity of message. Instead we get one or two versions of every event. If the Obama administration sanitizes that then it seems we are getting no real news at all. He's done this before. He bounced the Dallas Morning News writer from the campaign jet after a column dissecting some of his waffling. Reporters banned, reporters ignored, fewer press conferences than W., no allowance for questions asked, failure to be able to answer without a teleprompter....this measures up as someone who knows his message is tenative and who isn't very confident in the theme. That's not leadership.
Ellen K
I'm was reading an interview with Helen Thomas from Playboy (who would have thunk it, it has articles) and she was asked was about the new media and she hates it. She was complaining there were no standards, no editing, everyone with a camera is a reporter but there is no judgement. I guess Thomas really hates it because it showed her blatant Anti-Semitism and that got her fired. But another thing is she knows people in the media have much less control over what people know now. Thank God for that.
Not to mention she hates Fox....
Now if we can get some kids with smart phones near Obama more....
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