Ace
Ace of Spades HQ
11/20/2013
Obama largely denies access to media photographers, due to his typical Nixonian paranoid control-freak obsession with his image.
That might surprise you — as it well may surprise the press — given the fact that the press chooses to depict Obama, when left to its own devices, as an angel descended to earth or actual god among us.
Nevertheless, Obama was apparently concerned that the 75% of the press photographers attempting to deify him through carefully-angled Halo Photography might be somewhat undermined by the 25% who just took pictures of him, depicting him as a man, possibly in unflattering ways. And he couldn’t abide that.
Ron Fournier commits some journalism and takes Obama to task for running a propaganda machine on the taxpayers’ dime. And yes, he’s that forward in his criticism…
…”You guys,” Mills said, “are just like Tass.”
Comparing the White House to the Russian news agency is a hyperbole, of course, but less so with each new administration. Obama’s image-makers are taking advantage of new technologies that democratized the media, subverting independent news organizations that hold the president accountable. A generation ago, a few mainstream media organizations held a monopoly on public information about the White House. Today, the White House itself is behaving monopolistic.
…Unlike media photographers, official White House photographers are paid by taxpayers and report to the president. Their job is to make Obama look good. They are propagandists – in the purest sense of the word…
…The problem is that the Obama White House is simultaneously restricting access of independent media while flooding the public with state-run media…
The complete article is at Ace of Spades HQ.
Related: Here is a statement from the White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA):
November 21, 2013
The White House Correspondents’ Association today joins dozens of news associations and media outlets in protesting White House policies that ban photojournalists from covering the president at certain events while releasing government photos and videos of the same events.
“Journalists are routinely being denied the right to photograph or videotape the President while he is performing his official duties,” the WHCA and other news organizations said in a letter Thursday to White House Press Secretary Jay Carney.
“As surely as if they were placing a hand over a journalist’s camera lens, officials in this administration are blocking the public from having an independent view of important functions of the Executive Branch of government.”
The letter, also signed by such groups as the American Society of News Editors, the Associated Press Media Editors and the White House News Photographers Association as well as individual media outlets, notes that the White House has argued that certain events with the president are private and should not be opened to the news media.
However, in instance after instance, the White House has proved that claim false by allowing its own photographers and videographers into the same events and then releasing those photos or videos to a nationwide audience.“You are, in effect, replacing independent photojournalism with visual press releases,” the groups said in the letter.
The practice is a troubling break from tradition, and belies the president’s vow to be more transparent.”The right of journalists to gather the news is most critical when covering government officials acting in their official capacities,” the letter said.“Previous administrations have recognized this, and have granted press access to visually cover precisely these types of events, thus creating government transparency. It is clear that the restrictions imposed by your office on photographers undercuts the President’s stated desire to continue and broaden that tradition. To exclude the press from these functions is a major break from how previous administrations have worked with the press.”
The groups asked for a meeting to make the case face to face for a change in policy.
The White House Correspondents’ Association represents the White House press corps. It will mark its 100th year next year.
–The board of the WHCA
For more information, contact WHCA President Steven Thomma at 202-383-6042 or sthomma@mcclatchydc.com
As if you hadn’t noticed: Halperin: There’s no doubt press failed to scrutinize Obamacare until now Because “Mitt Romney”?
Update: Obama Woos Liberal Journalists With Another Off-the-Record Meeting
On Thursday, Fox News’ Ed Henry tweeted that MSNBC hosts Ed Schultz and Lawrence O’Donnell, as well as Ezra Klein of the Washington Post and Fox News’ Juan Williams, had been invited for a private off-the-record chat with President Obama. Obama’s signature program, Obamacare, has been flailing in the press for weeks, and Obama apparently believes that it is about time to reshift the narrative…
