Today's Presidential Press Conference of Obama
Presidential news conferences aren't what they used to be.
Barack Obama's 52-minute encounter with the White House press corps Wednesday was less of an illuminating give-and-take and more of a television promotion in which the president demonstrated his ability to avoid answering questions and at the same time showed a fresh sense of confidence and command spawned by his re-election victory last week.
Six of the 10 reporters whom Obama called on were from television networks with relatively big audiences: CNN, Telemundo, NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox. Two were from large wire services, Associated Press and Reuters.
In addition, the press corps has fewer cards to play. The public doesn't side with the mainstream media the way it used to. Instead, Americans dislike and distrust the media and don't think the reporters represent them and their interests. As a result, a president feels little or no reluctance to stiff reporters or dodge their questions.
Obama did this at the end of Wednesday's session when a correspondent shouted a query at him, violating the protocol under which journalists are expected to raise their hands politely and silently in an effort to be recognized. Obama grinned and said, "That was a great question but it would be a horrible precedent for me to answer your question just because you yelled it out." This demonstrated once again that every president makes the rules of engagement, and the media play by them or get shunted aside.
Ken Walsh covers the White House and politics for U.S. News. He writes the daily blog "Ken Walsh's Washington" for usnews.com, and is the author of "The Presidency" column for the U.S. News Weekly.
Barack Obama's 52-minute encounter with the White House press corps Wednesday was less of an illuminating give-and-take and more of a television promotion in which the president demonstrated his ability to avoid answering questions and at the same time showed a fresh sense of confidence and command spawned by his re-election victory last week.
Six of the 10 reporters whom Obama called on were from television networks with relatively big audiences: CNN, Telemundo, NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox. Two were from large wire services, Associated Press and Reuters.
In addition, the press corps has fewer cards to play. The public doesn't side with the mainstream media the way it used to. Instead, Americans dislike and distrust the media and don't think the reporters represent them and their interests. As a result, a president feels little or no reluctance to stiff reporters or dodge their questions.
Obama did this at the end of Wednesday's session when a correspondent shouted a query at him, violating the protocol under which journalists are expected to raise their hands politely and silently in an effort to be recognized. Obama grinned and said, "That was a great question but it would be a horrible precedent for me to answer your question just because you yelled it out." This demonstrated once again that every president makes the rules of engagement, and the media play by them or get shunted aside.
Ken Walsh covers the White House and politics for U.S. News. He writes the daily blog "Ken Walsh's Washington" for usnews.com, and is the author of "The Presidency" column for the U.S. News Weekly.
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