Sometimes something is so apparent that even Big Media (the BM for short) has to acknowledge it. Okay, so in this case it’s ex-BM. But it still stands as acknowledged.
Several veteran and prize-winning journalists who covered presidents from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush say that the current crop of White House correspondents are too timid and deferential and have played a role in killing the impact of presidential news conferences.
Unfortunately, what DIDN’T get acknowledged is the lapdog deference the press corp has for Il Duce. I guess you can’t have everything…
The BM’istas try to create the illusion that the deference shown Il Duce was also extended to King George the Dim.
“If you watch an Obama news conference, and watched a Bush news conference previous to that, where correspondents sit in their seats with their hands folded on their laps, [it’s] as if they are in the room with a monarch and they have to wait to be recognized by the president,” says Sid Davis, the former NBC Washington bureau chief who covered nine presidents. “It looks like they are watching a funeral service at [Washington funeral firm] Joseph Gawler’s and it shouldn’t be that way.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. Bush was treated with a hostility previously reserved for Richard Nixon by the BM during his 8 hapless years in office.
I have no love for George Bush. But let’s tell a straight story, shall we? The deference issue is specific to Obama. Period.
It remains to be seen if the White House press corps’ behavior will change [/sarcasm].
The truth is, the only thing that will make the White House press corps return to a position of asking tough questions and being confrontational is a change of president.
The Tizona Group 