Category

Free press

• 09.24.09
  Stop reading
  Free press, Words from President Obama (0)

  And to think, Gibbs works for the guy who is asking for the power to shut down the internet in case of emergency. He tells people what information sources they shouldn't use. "I think this is media generated," Gibbs told reporters on Air Force One. "Stop reading those London tabloids."  [URL here.] There are lots of things politicians can say to deflect issues (or non-issues) like that. Maybe Gibbs ought to try a wording that's a little less thuggish given the sensitivity about Obama's attitude toward free speech.
  
  
• 02.11.09
  Insulation
  Bash the Messenger, Free press (0)

  The WSJ editorial page editors are probably not too concerned about being dropped from the list of special reporters who get pre-selected to kiss President Obama's ring and ask him nice questions at his news conferences, which is probably why they are the ones to comment on the situation: Presidents are free to conduct press conferences however they like, but the decision to preselect questioners is an odd one, especially for a White House famously pledged to openness. We doubt that President Bush, who was notorious for being parsimonious with follow-ups, would have gotten away with prescreening his interlocutors. Mr. Obama ...
  
  
• 01.24.09
  How to get a compliant press corps
  Free press (0)

  Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin has got to be jealous of Barak Obama these days. Putin had to have over 20 journalists murdered in order to get the rest of them to be as compliant as the ones covering Barak Obama. Just how compliant are Obama's people? Carol Marin of the Chicago Sun-Times explains: The press corps, most of us, don't even bother raising our hands any more to ask questions because Obama always has before him a list of correspondents who've been advised they will be called upon that day. And Obama did it without firing a ...
  
  
• 11.02.08
  Fairness
  Free press, Free speech (0)

  So Obama doesn't support reimposing the Fairness Doctrine. That's good, I guess, considering his chilling statement that he wants to "clarify the public interest obligations of broadcasters who occupy the nation’s spectrum." But will he go to the mat for the First Amendment? As far as I can tell, he has had absolutely no experience in bucking the wishes of the Democrat establishment. Why would he start now?
  
  
• 10.17.08
  Clarify the public interest obligations
  Bash the Messenger, Free press (0)

  Barak Obama's web site says he wants to encourage diversity in media ownership rather than consolidation. That's a good goal, but there are no specifics and it would be contrary against every specific policy he has ever supported. So color me suspicious. He needs to be questioned on just how he thinks he would accomplish that. Also consider the weasel words in the same paragraph in which he talks about diversity: "As president, Obama will ... clarify the public interest obligations of broadcasters who occupy the nation’s spectrum." That doesn't sound like an endorsement ...
  
  
• 08.18.08
  Threatening Russian citizens
  Free press, Russia (0)

  News item: "Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has promised what he called a shattering blow to anyone threatening Russian citizens." It would have been nice if he had been around to offer those protections to Anna Stepanovna Politkovskaya and a couple hundred other journalists who were Russian citizens.
  
  
• 02.14.08
  Why murder Anna Politkovskaya?
  Free press, PutinLogic, Russia (0)

  When Anna Politkovskaya was murdered, there were Putin defenders who questioned what he would have to gain from being associated with such a thing.   Here's the answer to that question, from Newsweek: In the news conference, which lasted nearly five hours, Mr. Putin won applause from the hundreds of local journalists present when he touted Russia's economic achievements.