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Obama vs. the press corps
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(AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
A battle has been brewing lately between the Obama administration and the White House press corps. Tensions didn’t appear to be building to the casual observer, but it - whatever it is - hit it’s apex during “Nico-gate,” the revelation that Nico Pitney of the Huffington Post was chosen before the president’s June 23rd news conference to ask a question. Pitney, who has been liveblogging the Iranian revolution since the day of the election, not only asked a question about Iran, but asked a question directed to Obama from an Iranian citizen.
Now, veteran journalists are furious at Obama. Helen Thomas, perhaps the most recognized reporter in the corps, told CBS News that she had never seen seen an administration control the media so much, going so far as to say that even “Nixon didn’t try to do that.”
The problem is that the press corps isn’t asking anything we citizens care about. They ask questions about Bo the dog, whether Obama is still smoking, how he feels about Michael Jackson’s death, and if he finds being the president “enchanting.” We don’t care. The reason Nico Pitney was allowed to ask a question is because his was relevant to a crisis that Americans have been glued to since June 12th. And the media wonders why bloggers are gaining so much power.
It’s because, through the internet, bloggers have more of a connection with what the average citizen wants to know about. According to Arianna Huffingon, the president did not know what Nico’s question was going to be before he asked it. He was told that he might be called on, so to have a question prepared. All they asked was that the question be from an Iranian source, seeing as Nico had been in contact with more Iranians in Tehran than almost any other journalist.
While this has been billed as an Obama versus the press corps fight, in reality this is between traditional news sources and bloggers. The fact is that Nico Pitney had the best coverage of anybody on the Iranian revolution, and continues to have nonstop coverage while most other organizations have moved on to Governor Sanford’s e-mails and continuous coverage of Michael Jackson’s death, a week after it happened. Thomas and other journalists claiming conspiracy are grasping for straws, desperate to save their position in the White House briefing room. To do this, they need to focus on asking hard-hitting questions rather than allowing bloggers do it for them.
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