For an administration that likes to talk about "transparency", the Obama White House has earned the worst reputation for ostracizing media in modern American history.Remember, in October of 2009, Obama's minions unsuccessfully attempted to ban cable news leader Fox News from the White House press pool.
Now, the most thin-skinned president ever (he's 'historic') is engaging in an all-out P.R. war with the ultra-left wing rag The San Francisco Chronicle.
Let's recap:
First, the Chronicle reported that the 'Administration exercise[d] its control freak streak' by threatening the paper after it reported unfavorable news:
It seems that Team Obama was none too pleased that veteran Chronicle political reporter Carla Marinucci posted a 40-second video of a group of supporters-turned-protesters serenading the president a cappella - "We paid our dues ... where's our change" - at a recent fundraising breakfast at San Francisco's St. Regis Hotel. The protesters' objection: the treatment of Wikileaks source Pfc. Bradley Manning.
The White House threatened that Marinucci would no longer be allowed to serve as a pool reporter during future Obama swings west. Marinucci's apparent offense was shooting video during an event that was closed to broadcast journalism...
...An administration truly dedicated to transparency would not require journalists to be "in the tank" as a condition of being in the pool.
Second, using its online public relations arm (the so-called "Politico", aka last refuge of downsized WaPo hacks), the White House denied it threatened the left-wing San Francisco newspaper.
The White House is denying that it threatened to exclude the San Francisco Chronicle from presidential events in its coverage area after one of its reporters recorded a video of singing protesters at a fundraiser last week that was restricted to print reporters...
...White House spokesman Josh Earnest told POLTICO on Friday that the Chronicle’s claims are “not true,” and that no such threat was ever made, but he wouldn’t provide further details...
Finally, the Chronicle today called the White House liars.
In a pants-on-fire moment, the White House press office today denied anyone there had issued threats to remove Carla Marinucci and possibly other Hearst reporters from the press pool covering the President in the Bay Area.
Chronicle editor Ward Bushee called the press office on its fib:
Sadly, we expected the White House to respond in this manner based on our experiences yesterday. It is not a truthful response. It follows a day of off-the-record exchanges with key people in the White House communications office who told us they would remove our reporter, then threatened retaliation to Chronicle and Hearst reporters if we reported on the ban, and then recanted to say our reporter might not be removed after all.
The Chronicle's report is accurate.
If the White House has indeed decided not to ban our reporter, we would like an on-the-record notice that she will remain the San Francisco print pool reporter.
I was on some of those calls and can confirm Ward's statement... Messy ball now firmly in White House court.
Mr. Producer, please cue the Joe Wilson "You lied!" soundtrack.
Oh and, hey, Nahanni -- where's the buttered popcorn, dear?
Hat tips: Drudge Report and Mark Levin.
