Yesterday, President Barack Obama had a daytime press conference that is being viewed with outrage by many in the media world. That ‘outrage’ is manufactured and displaying ignorance.
Obama presaged the questioning with a statement that included much discussion of the Waxman-Markey American Clean Energy and Security (ACES) Act which is going to be up for a vote this Friday in the House. This is a massive bill, with significant implications. Was the media outrage because no journalist got around to asking a question to this significant piece of legislation? No. Energy and Environment evidently aren’t on the table either for the White House press corps or other journalists around the country.
No, instead, the “outrage” derives from what might be seen as some mishandling of President Obama’s turning to the second questioner, Nico Pitney of The Huffington Post. Obama turned to Nico with the following:
Obama said to Pitney, “Nico, I know that you, and all across the Internet, we’ve been seeing a lot of reports coming directly out of Iran. I know that there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet. … Do you have a question?”
From Faux News to the pages of The Washington Post the outrage skyrockets from people who, pointedly, ignored the fact that the Bush Administration planted a Republican gay prostitute operative posing a journalist in press conference after press conference. They are misrepresenting, repeatedly, something that just a little honest searching of the ‘google tubes’ would provide value.
Dana Milbank attacks the Obama team and Pitney as posturing some form of daytime soap opera in Stay Tuned for More of “The Obama Show”.