President in rift with reporters? 'If you are not White House press, they just don't care'

Posted: May 25, 2010
9:17 pm Eastern

By Stewart Stogel
© 2010 WorldNetDaily

NEW YORK – By the time President Obama left graduation exercises at West Point Saturday, many an academy official probably had a smile to bestow.

From their gratitude at seeing him leave.

Obama, it seemed, stepped on a few toes at the United States Military Academy.

First came the request not to play "Hail To The Chief." A request the White House eventually "re-thought" and rescinded.

Then came the way the White House treated the local press.

They ignored them.

"If you were not part of the White House press corps (Obama's press reps ignored you). ... They could not care less," lamented a West Point publicity official.

Looking back at Obama's first trip to West Point last December, the official pointed out how the White House provided communications and food to the Washington press corps but segregated the local media to an auxiliary room with nothing but a lone TV monitor and a pitcher of water.

"It was a disgrace," confided the West Point official, who also admitted he was embarrassed by the episode.

So, what happened Saturday?

Local press covering the Obama visit got virtually nothing from the White House Press Office. Some had to rely on White House reporters to get copies of Obama's speech or other handouts.

"If you are not White House press, they just don't care," said a second West Point official.

The West Point bumbles came on the heels of Obama's visit to New York May 13 when press credentials were confirmed only hours before the president's arrival, leaving many to pass on media coverage.

When Air Force One arrived at JFK for that visit, fewer than a dozen people were there to greet the president.

Two of those on hand were a "well connected" mother and young son waiting for a "precious" photo op.

When Obama saw the thin crowd waiting for him, he dashed off Air Force One, waved in the distance and headed for his helicopter to Manhattan.

Not only did the 44th president disappear into the clouds, his advance team took off too, leaving the few press at the airport wondering what was going on.

Once in mid-town, Obama's PR team seemed to "forget" to confirm the president would be meeting Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Police Chief Ray Kelly to discuss Homeland Security budget cuts.

The White House advance team told pool reporters they knew of no such meeting, though New York press had been reporting the event all day.

Even after the meeting. a brief transcript only went to Washington press corps.

By the time Obama returned to JFK, only one cold and shivering AP photographer remained.

If that wasn't enough, the resident White House reporters are also showing signs of strained relations.

Last Friday, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs exchanged words with CBS's Chip Reid when Gibbs was asked whether the administration, in lieu of British Petroleum's failures in the Gulf of Mexico, "just stands there as a spectator and hopes for the best?"

Gibbs' retorts became a hot topic when he appeared on "Face The Nation" with Bob Schieffer Sunday morning.

The Obama veteran took the opportunity to offer an apology to CBS.

But, say White House media, it is not an isolated incident.

It was not too long ago that Obama challenged Fox News' "credentials" as a "news organization."

Even the mainstream press has noted the situation. According to a commentary from David Limbaugh, "the liberal New York Times has begun to notice it, as indicated by this headline: 'Obama Turns His Back On the Press.'"

"If the mainstream media were not so ideologically wedded to Obama's big-government agenda, they would be doing more than pointing out his secrecy and hypocrisy with the occasional headline," Limbaugh wrote. "They'd be skewering him daily for his marked inaccessibility. Not having a genuine news conference since July would be remarkable for the least transparent administration, let alone one that made openness a signature campaign issue."

WND also reported when Gibbs put on a stand-up comedy routine to deflect questioning about the president's refusal to open himself up for more questions from the Washington press corps.

But reporters at the briefing applauded Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House, when he suggested he president should take more questions from more reporters. Kinsolving is one of the most senior reporters on the beat, having served since the Nixon administration.

"It would be a wonderful thing if he had allowed all reporters – just as it would be wonderful if you would allow these front-rowers two questions and then go all the way back to the back and then come back and let them start again. That would be fair," Kinsolving said.

Kinsolving had asked about Obama's unwillingness to hold press conferences, sparking an extended grilling by Gibbs on just exactly what constitutes a press conference.