Some presidents have used the promise of access to the president as a weapon to control what the press said about them. This is not true of all presidents, but of some recent ones. The latest example of this in the Obama administration (where there have been a number of instances of this practice) occured during the fund-raising visit of President Obama to Boston today.
Today's Boston Herald reports:
"The White House Press Office has refused to give the Boston Herald full access to President Obama's Boston fund-raiser today, in e-mails objecting to the newspaper's front page placement of a Mitt Romney op-ed, saying pool reporters are chosen based on whether they cover the news "fairly."
""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 wrote in response to a Herald request for full access to the presidential visit."
I suspect that Mr. Lehrich's definition of fairness means favorable to President Obama. The op-ed piece Mitt Romney wrote was about jobs--the lack of them. Evidently, that is not a White House approved topic, particularly for the front page.
The article further reports:
"In April 2010, Bloomberg's Ed Chen, president of the White House Correspondent's Association, met with then-Press Secretary Robert Gibbs to hash out complaints about limitations on the press, saying, "In my 10-plus years at the White House, rarely have I sensed such a level of anger ... over White House practices and attitudes toward the press."
"Last month, a San Francisco Chronicle editor reported the White House threatened to bar Hearst reporters from pool duty after a Chronicle reporter shot video of protestors mocking Obama at a fund-raiser.
"Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor who has followed White House-press relations at right-leaning Instapundit.com, said a pattern appears to be developing."
It's all about control. As we enter the election season, be aware that what you read in the paper may be the result of that paper's wanting to have access to the President. The mainstream media has been under attack in recent years for its lack of fairness. The actions of the Obama administration will not result in a more balanced media. Keep that in mind as you read the election reporting.
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