Obama's Post-Constitutional Wingmen

[Geee]

American Spectator:

"Good evening, everybody. (Applause.) I would like to welcome you all to the 10-day anniversary of my first 100 days. (Laughter.) I am Barack Obama. Most of you covered me. All of you voted for me. (Laughter and applause.) Apologies to the Fox table. (Laughter.) They're -- where are they? I have to confess I really did not want to be here tonight, but I knew I had to come -- just one more problem that I've inherited from George W. Bush. (Laughter.)"

-- President Obama addressing the 2009 White House Correspondent's Dinner

You don't interrupt the president.

So goes the media narrative in the wake of the media hysteria surrounding the Daily Caller's Neil Munro and his so-called "heckling" of President Obama.

Yeah, right. This is bunk.

A pluperfect illustration of a double-standard, as was illustrated in this space yesterday with a video clip of the White House press corps not only interrupting then-President Ronald Reagan as he read a statement but then shouting and shrieking at him as he left the room.

But is there more than meets the eye in this dust-up over Mr. Munro? (Munro, by the way, a longtime professional who formerly reported for the respected National Journal has answered his critics here stating the obvious -- he had no intention of interrupting the President but simply thought the President had finished his statement.)

Yes. There is more here. A lot more. None of it pretty.

Someone needs to say this: There is a culture of corruption in the media world that is the White House press corps.

Let's be specific.

This corruption -- corruption defined as not honestly reporting the news or asking hard questions of the President of the United States and his White House colleagues -- revolves around three very real, very specific problems. And a looming fourth problem that we will get to shortly.

• Problem One: Access -- Not unnaturally, White House reporters want access to the President, the Vice President, and the White House staff. That is, in theory at least, why there is a White House press corps in the first place. They are there to report to the rest of us -- the "rest of us" defined as both the American people and the world at large -- what's going on in the Oval Office and environs.

Sounds unremarkable, yes? In practice -- no. What happens in the real world is that the White House -- the President personally and his band of loyalists, generally represented to the press by the White House press secretary -- always have a message to get out. This fact of daily presidential necessity effectively sets up a world class game of the carrot-and-the- stick -- with the White House in charge.

If the White House likes you -- you being a White House reporter -- then presto! You get the carrot! You get the access to the President and all that this implies -- his staff, his Vice President, his wife. Even more of a bonus -- the White House will signal to your news organization that someone outside the immediate presidential orbit -- a Cabinet Secretary, say, or a major presidential ally on Capitol Hill or even outside the government -- will talk/confide/leak to your guys.

[logicnreason]

An excellent article which finally got around to the stain changing the law (regarding immigration) on his own with nary (save for Neil) a comment from any of the "press corps". It does bring up the brilliance of the democrats tho.... 1. The dems have now placed themselves firmly in the minds and hearts of the illegals ("Well, maybe I won't be able to stay, but my beautiful children sure can! Thank you democrates!") Guess who they'll vote for come November?? 2. The dems have put the right in an impossible position. a. if the right demands the stain adhere to the law and the constitution, they'll be painted by the dems as "anti Spanish American" (or whatever race is "hot" at the moment) b. if the right says nothing, then by fiat, the dems have been allowed to alter the law by presidential decree. Either way....the right cannot win this issue. The only mistake the stain and the administration made was doing this so far from election day. Would have been better for them to announce this in mid-September or so. The other thing that makes one wonder is: if the presidential decree is so "right", why was it not done 2.5 years ago? How many "innocent" children of illegal aliens have been deported since then? Why now?? Come on! It's election season, isn't it? And the stain is falling behind. What better time. Saw the former judge Napolitano <SP?>on TV this AM ranting about how it was illegal for the stain to have made this decree. OK judgy-wudgy...if it's actually illegal, who is going to bring suit? Who is going to complain openly? Who is going to make a case of this? My bet....the right will maintain its cowardly silence....rom-knee will hedge and spin and ignore....and the dems will win the point....again.

[nickydog]

"These are not journalists -- they are White House poodles." Excellent article.