The President's Feisty Press Conference

My TIME.com piece on Obama's press conference today begins like this

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And a darkness gathered over the earth, the sun sickened, and all was desolate. In short, another Michael Scherer piece.

"Chances are, he won't be back in that enemy territory for a long time to come."
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And ends like the above. Why won't he back Mike? Is scared of you Chuck and Jake?

"the press corps, which has been deferential through repeated prime-time pressers in the East Room, began to assert itself as never before in his tenure."
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By the way Mike. I love how you deferential you people were doing Bush's years and Clinton's.

Wow this one is a keeper MS. Probably not for the reasons you think.
The media we have-it is all about us.
It reads like an Onion story about how strong and brave the media is.

Michael, me lad,
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This piece truly be a reekin' pile o' subjective amateur psycho-babble sh*t, bucko!
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Next time, take th' time t' be considerin' whether yer contention - seemin'ly th' President were owned by th' press an' won't be back soon t' face 'em ag'in - be valid b'fore embarrassin' yerself (ye're not? Ye ought t' be, laddie, ye ought t' be!) li' this ag'in!
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I be ri' disappointed in ye.
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YARR!

Time magazine asserts: "When government officials come to visit, they enter a different space and are generally asked to prove themselves. Questions fly fast."

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Not quite. "When government officials [approved by the White House press corps (i.e., fellow Democrats)] come to visit" members of the White House press corps get on their knees and ask such probing "questions" like Jeff Zeleny of the New York Times-Democrat did to the clueless socialist, to wit: "What enchanted you the most as president?"

Same story, same theme, different take from David Kutz-
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An animated and testy President Obama during this presser. Partly a function, I think, of him pushing back hard on two media/GOP narratives: one, that he's not been strong enough on Iran so that his recent harsher rhetoric amounts to a shift in his position; and, two, that a public option health care plan would put insurance companies out of business.

Will be interested to see if his rejection of those narratives, and particularly his dismissiveness of reporters who perpetuated them, has the desired effect of shifting the narrative.

More broadly, Obama knocked around reporters for some of the gotcha questions, especially on Iran, telling NBC's Chuck Todd that while the press is on a 24-hour news cycle, "I'm not."
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http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/06/testy.php?ref=fpblg
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Did anyone see the bit@hing from Politico because Obama called on a Huffington post blogger? I'm not linking to them because they are bunch of WATB.

Media analysis:

Media Win! Media Win! Media Win!

P-nnto' s quote zeroed in on the primary factor at work: "media/GOP narratives"

And the press corps, which has been deferential through repeated prime-time pressers in the East Room, began to assert itself as never before in his tenure.

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BUHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
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Come on Time layoffs!!!

Oh my. Michael, you must be glutton for punishment or a masochist. Why on Earth would you come to this forum and promote a story asserting that the White House Press Corpse is somehow a fearsome source of highly penetrating questions for government officials?
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There are two things that nearly everyone in this country, Progressives and Conservatives) agree on: Hitler was bad, and the Mainstream Media is incredibly bad at asking questions of US Presidents.
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We don't all agree on why Hitler was bad, or why the media is bad at asking questions of the President, but we agree on the statements.

Plot thickens.
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On Tuesday, sources told News 4's Nigel Robertson that a state vehicle is missing and was tracked down, not to the Appalachian Trail, but to the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta.
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Sources told Robertson that a federal agent spotted Sanford in the airport boarding a plane. Robertson was told that the governor was not accompanied by security detail.
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Sanford has been out of reach for more than four days, including Father's Day.
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Sawyer has emphasized that the governor was hiking on the Appalachian Trail and that it wasn't something the staff or Jenny Sanford were concerned about.
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But sources told WYFF News 4 that the federal agent who spotted Sanford saw him at the Atlanta airport, which is about 80 miles from the start of the trail.
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WYFF News 4 has not yet confirmed where the plane was going or how the governor got to the airport, but it is clear there are two very different stories.
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News 4 called the governor's office, and was told again by staffers that they stand by their original statement that the governor is hiking the Appalachian Trail. They did not want to comment on this story.
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http://www.wyff4.com/news/19837234/detail.html

Hmmm,
I read through the entire piece and at no time was it mentioned that he made you guys seem like complete idiots.
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Clearly biased reporting in action.

When government officials come to visit, they enter a different space and are generally asked to prove themselves. Questions fly fast.
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Jeebus, Scherer, do you think you belong to the Justice League or something? Get a grip. Obama showed y'all up for the vapid pod of corporate weasels you are.
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But go ahead and pat yourself on the back, if that makes you feel better.

"I read through the entire piece and at no time was it mentioned that he made you guys seem like complete idiots."
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This from Mike Allen. Front page story over at politico.
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What Obama didn't mention.
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A couple of surprising words were missing from President Barack Obama's 55-minute news conference on Wednesday: “Iraq” — and “Afghanistan.”
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Also MIA: “Korea,” “Pakistan,” “soldiers,” “surge” and “war” — as well as the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines.
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The omissions were partly a result of the short attention span of the press, which did not ask about those topics after the president did not mention them in his opening statement.
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But the silence
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on those subjects also provides a striking illustration of one of the singular differences between Obama and his predecessor.
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Whereas President George W. Bush invoked his status as wartime commander in chief so often that it seemed like a crutch, Obama has much more of a domestic focus, and resists rhetorical calls to arms like “war on terror.”
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It's the Mars and Venus of the 43rd and 44th presidencies.
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But don't be looking for “enemy,” “troops” or “wounded” in the press conference. They aren't there.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/24106.html#ixzz0JIgnV2c5&D

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When government officials come to visit, they enter a different space and are generally asked to prove themselves. Questions fly fast.
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Were those questions about Iran, or GOP babble points? I couldn't tell the difference.
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But congratulations for feeling good about recycling neocon rubbish: Where are the flying unicorns?!!!
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Here's a better translation of this presser than Michael Scherer's.

And the press corps, which has been deferential through repeated prime-time pressers in the East Room, began to assert itself as never before in his tenure.
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That reminded me of another time when the press, in their opinion, began to assert themselves.
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http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/05/28/gibson/

"Here's a better translation of this presser than Michael Scherer's."
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Stu-Thanks for saving me time. I was looking for an accurate transcript.

"When NBC's Chuck Todd asked for the second and third time what consequences Iran would face for violating the human rights of election demonstrators, Obama protested. "I answered. I answered," the President said, giving no concrete answer at all. "I answered your question, which is that we don't know how this is going to play out. O.K.?" Obama queried rhetorically, clearly not caring what Todd thought"
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Having just watched this Todd comes off not so much as a jerk than as a dope.
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"Draw a line in the sand Mr President! And then when things change tomorrow, as we know they will in this fluid situation, we can harp about it for the next 4 years"

I wish Todd has asked Obama if he now feels he is black enough. Remember when Mike's super hero press was obsessed with that question?

The press might be just be antsy and eager to engage because for the last eight years they had to deal with Beavis. At the very least, President Obama held his own. Look into Obama's eyes and you'll see a challenge. Look into McCain's or Palin's eyes and you'll see the backs of their heads.

Michael Scherer:
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When government officials come to visit, they enter a different space and are generally asked to prove themselves.
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What country are you talking about?
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Surely not this one.

James Dale Guckert (born 1957) posed as a conservative columnist under the pseudonym Jeff Gannon and was given credentials as a White House reporter between 2003 and 2005, eventually being employed by the news organization Talon News during the latter part of this period. Gannon first gained national attention during a presidential press conference on January 26, 2005, when he asked United States President George W. Bush a question that some in the press corps considered "so friendly it might have been planted."[1] Gannon routinely obtained daily passes to White House briefings, attending four Bush press conferences and appearing regularly at White House press briefings. Although he did not qualify for a Congressional press pass, Gannon was given daily passes to White House press briefings "after supplying his real name, date of birth and Social Security number."[2] Gannon came under public scrutiny for his lack of a journalistic background prior to his work with Talon[3][4] and his involvement with various homosexual escort service websites using the professional name "Bulldog".

I really, really hope that you're being ironic here, Michael Scherer.
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I mean, you don't actually believe that there's been an adversarial press corps confronting the Executive on behalf of the American people with a dogged insistence on straight answers (and a contemptuous disregard for high ceremony) , right?

DAVID GREGORY: I think [Scott McClellan is] wrong. He makes the same kind of argument a lot of people on the left have made. I tried not to be defensive about it. I've thought a lot about this over a number of years, and I disagree with that assessment.
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I think the questions were asked. I think we pushed. I think we prodded. I think we challenged the president. I think not only those of us in the White House press corps did that, but others in the rest of the landscape of the media did that.
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If there wasn't a debate in this country, then maybe the American people should think about, why not? Where was Congress? Where was the House? Where was the Senate? Where was public opinion about the war? What did the former president believe about the prewar intelligence? He agreed that -- in fact, Bill Clinton agreed that Saddam had WMD.
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The right questions were asked. I think there's a lot of critics -- and I guess we can count Scott McClellan as one -- who thinks that if we did not debate the president, debate the policy in our role as journalists, if we did not stand up and say, "This is bogus," and "You're a liar," and "Why are you doing this?" that we didn't do our job. And I respectfully disagree. It's not our role.
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MATTHEWS: OK. Let me go to -- let me go to Mike Allen.

Sometimes I can't tell where the irony stops, and you begin, Michael Scherer.
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Help us out: on the one hand, "Questions fly fast.", on the other "the press corps, which has been deferential through repeated prime-time pressers in the East Room".
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What, is the press corps aware of facing Mecca?
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It can't be that the location of the presser is the determiner of the quality of serious interrogation by the Fourth Estate of the man granted high authority by the electorate...?
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You're kidding...you're not arrogant or disconnected enough to really believe that the White House press corps largely functions as a public interested check on government, do you?
You're far, far too objective about your own profession and its failings to be that obtuse...
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...Right, Michael Scherer?

So the point is the media has started to moderate somewhere between Fox's "Obama is killing the country" and MSNBC's "Rush Limbaugh is the nation's most imminent problem". I'll believe it when I see it.

uh, i'm confused. the presser i watched had president obama laughing in the white house press corpses' faces. chip reid's harrangue was shamelessly cribbed from newt/st johnnie/senator huckleberry's talking points.

seriously, michael, get over yourself.