I received this story from a friend who is a journalist, and who I trust. He told me the story was spot on. In the story, you'll see blogger Steve Clemons, another friend, quoted. Steve is also someone you can trust. He agrees that there's a problem. This isn't just a story about whiny prima donna reporters, it's about a larger problem, one that Joe and I have written about before.
The press loved Obama during the campaign. We all denied it on our side, but it was true. And all that adulation got the media nothing in return. It's a common story with the Obama campaign and the Obama administration. Being their friend doesn't really get you anything, other than contempt the first time you do something they don't approve of. I've called it "political autarky," the notion that you can and should do everything yourself. The administration doesn't really seem to believe that it needs friends and allies.
Joe, Chris and I, for example, busted our butts helping to get this President elected. A lot of folks who don't enjoy our current criticism of the administration may not realize how much work we did to put Barack Obama in office. We came out swinging against Hillary in the primaries, before Obama was "cool." I went on national TV, repeatedly, and sided with Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton - all the while risking our relationship with the half of our readers who supported Mrs. Clinton. By the end of the campaign, we received a single text message thanking us for our work. That, after raising $43,000 for Barack Obama, being quite possibly their best friend in the blogosphere during the primaries, and doing more than our share of dirty work during the general election.
It's not about expecting something in return. It's about helping people and being spat on in return. I've heard the same story over and over from a number of top Obama supporters, famous names that you'd know, who felt abandoned by the administration after working so hard to elect them. And now you hear the same complaint from gays, Latinos, women, blacks, environmentalists, civil libertarians, progressives, and more. There not only isn't much of a recognition that these people got the President elected, there actually seems to be official disdain for them.
This is not a smart way to do business, or politics.
From Josh Gerstein:
Day-to-day interaction with Obama is almost non-existent, and he talks to the press corps far less often than Bill Clinton or even George W. Bush did. Clinton took questions nearly every weekday, on average. Obama barely does it once a week.
The correspondents association recently met with Gibbs to discuss, in the words of Bloomberg's Ed Chen, "a level of anger, which is wide and deep, among members over White House practices and attitude toward the press.”
A few days later, Gibbs said at one of his briefings, “This is the most transparent administration in the history of our country.”
Peals of laughter broke out in the briefing room.
The numbers speak for themselves: during his first year in office, President Bill Clinton did 252 such Q&A sessions—an average of one every weekday. Bush did 147. Obama did 46, according to Towson University Professor Martha Kumar.
Some reporters say the pushback is so aggressive that it undermines the credibility of Obama’s aides. “The willingness to argue that credible information is untrue is at its core dishonest and unfortunately calls into question everything else the press office says,” one White House reporter said.
Last year, colleagues noticed that David Corn of Mother Jones went through a noticeable dry spell at White House briefings, with Gibbs seeming to overlook his raised hand for a period of several weeks or more.
“I remember tangling with David, but I would just say I think David has probably gotten more questions at the briefing in the last few months than he got in the entire last eight years,” Gibbs said. Corn declined to comment.
Edward Luce of the Financial Times drew the ire of Obama aides for a couple of articles arguing that decision making in the Obama administration is extremely centralized. Neither piece was a devastating indictment of the White House, but they prompted a furious reaction.
“I was just in awe of the pummeling Ed took from top White House people,” said policy blogger and New America Foundation senior fellow Steve Clemons. He began talking to White House reporters and came away convinced that what he calls an “extremely unhealthy” relationship has developed in which the White House generally cooperates only with reporters who are willing to write source-greasers or other fawning articles.
Gibbs referred questions about the Luce stories to McDonough. “Who’s Ed Luce?” McDonough said. “I’m not familiar with that.”
