Althouse: "President Obama signed the Press Freedom Act, and then promptly refused to take any questions."

May 17, 2010

"President Obama signed the Press Freedom Act, and then promptly refused to take any questions."

And the press is free to write that.

78 comments:

ChuckC said...: This is a surprise? My little dog begs for table scraps every night as dinner is served but that doesn't mean I give him any.

That's basically the relationship the White House press has with Obama....lap dogs to their Master.

I treat my dog a lot better than Obama treats the press but like all good dogs they'll still love him no matter what and lap up whatever pablum he puts in their bowls.; 5/17/10, 7:07 PM
mesquito said...: We're way overdue for a presser. The last one, alas, hatched the Cambridge Cops gaffe.; 5/17/10, 7:08 PM
The Drill SGT said...: And he has not held a prime-time White House news conference in many months, despite much pleading from pundits and members of the media.

yeah, like just short of 10 months...

Bush looks like the mostest transparent President everah, compared to The Wan; 5/17/10, 7:17 PM
The Drill SGT said...: That's basically the relationship the White House press has with Obama....lap dogs to their Master.

Whore for the President and you get treated like a .....; 5/17/10, 7:18 PM
Humperdink said...: No teleprompter..no press conference.

End of story.; 5/17/10, 7:18 PM
As my whimsy leads me.. said...: Chuck, the surprise is that CBS is reporting this.

Toy; 5/17/10, 7:26 PM
KCFleming said...: The MSM will just have to go with the press release.; 5/17/10, 7:27 PM
Unknown said...: Agree with whimsy, although ABC's Jake Tapper has done similar stuff over the past year. Maybe the media is falling out of love.

mesquito said...

We're way overdue for a presser. The last one, alas, hatched the Cambridge Cops gaffe.

You mean the Rainbow Beer Summit?; 5/17/10, 7:29 PM
Rialby said...: But but... there's a huge story of an angry pony-tailed high school teacher who claims that some tea partiers stole his "The many moods of Eugene V Debs" poster and opened an opened cardboard box. Why oh why aren't you covering that?!?!?

I hate you Althouse!; 5/17/10, 7:32 PM
Rialby said...: Obama is a total fraud. Oh, and he's going to end up with the blood of millions on his hands just like every other Socialist leader of the last 100 years. That is all.; 5/17/10, 7:34 PM
Ned said...: I do not think it is far fetched to sat obama will not hold another press conference...he has tied himself in so many knots...I see no way to field questions from adults...; 5/17/10, 7:36 PM
Big Mike said...: Everybody calm down. Starting in the spring of 2012 (or maybe in the summer) the press will be publishing articles about how Obama has grown in office, and how transparent his administration is, not to mention how wonderful.

This will be true no matter what happens in the next 36 months.; 5/17/10, 7:47 PM
Dr.D said...: Now if we just had a free press, rather than a lap dog press ...; 5/17/10, 8:11 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I don't always give press conferences.. but when I do, I prefer to say nothing.; 5/17/10, 8:11 PM
Eric said...: And he has not held a prime-time White House news conference in many months, despite much pleading from pundits and members of the media.

Bah. It's not like there's any doubt what Obama thinks about anything, what with his face on the tube almost every day. I understand the White House press corps wants to feel all important asking questions on national TV, but let's just assume he's enchanted about everything and move on, shall we? It's not like they're actually gonna ask any tough questions.; 5/17/10, 8:36 PM
mesquito said...: It's not like they're actually gonna ask any tough questions.

Sure, but there's a very good chance Helen Thomas will ululate.; 5/17/10, 8:43 PM
Methadras said...: Can we get an adult as president again please? This guy is a total dink. A complete failure and he signs a puff ball piece of legislation and the comedy writes itself. This is a ship without a captain, I swear to god.; 5/17/10, 9:08 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: I don't know why each media outlet doesn't just submit questions in writing and put them on their websites. Add the president's answers when/if he answers.

The media should quit bitching about the process. Just compose their questions and put them out there for all to see. Afterall,it's possible their questions just suck. If so, there really is no reason for Obama to have a press conference.; 5/17/10, 9:15 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: I hesitate to defend President Obama but who does regular press conferences anymore?

I don't think PA Governor Fat Eddie Rendell has done one in years.

The liberal lapdog media gets what they deserve and it is barely table scraps.; 5/17/10, 9:17 PM
garage mahal said...: Stop talking to us! Talk to us!

Let's play the Opposite Game!; 5/17/10, 9:19 PM
Rialby said...: Methadras - if only this was a ship without a captain rather than the Exxon Valdez. Is it just a coincidence that Joseph Hazelwood and Obama have never been seen in the same place at the same time?; 5/17/10, 9:20 PM
Rialby said...: Garage - you're smart and you always make intelligent and well-reasoned points.

Ok, your turn.; 5/17/10, 9:20 PM
Joe said...: What's the point anyway? Most the reporters would have just tossed verbal softballs. Better to not hear the zero at all, than to hear him drone on to easy questions.

(In other news, he got food companies to cut calories in many of their products. I can't believe anyone is falling for such idiocy.); 5/17/10, 9:30 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: And the press is free to write that.

Some ( okay, maybe only one ) here would argue that you are not free to write that. Since you are not a member of the press, with its lofty standards, freedom of the press does not apply to you.; 5/17/10, 9:32 PM
Rialby said...: I hate President Barack Hussein Obama. There, I said it.

(original credit goes to Jonathan Chait; artistic license to Rialby); 5/17/10, 9:33 PM
LonewackoDotCom said...: Meanwhile, what you won't hear about from Althouse, bloggers, or the MSM is a new state law that won't save and might cost addition money and that might reduce government transparency.

Things like that are the last things the establishment wants to talk about, but few on the outside care.; 5/17/10, 9:35 PM
Rialby said...: According to the NY Times, the slam dunk candidate from CT - Dick Blumenthal - just got himself busted pretending to be a Vietnam Vet. Doh!

Go Schiff.; 5/17/10, 9:36 PM
The Drill SGT said...: Rialby said...
According to the NY Times,

My guess is that the NYT outed him now because they knew the GOP candidate (who really is a Nam Vet [19 months]) had the facts.

Outing him now allows the Dems to regroup with an alternate candidate; 5/17/10, 9:45 PM
KCFleming said...: I can't really complain, much as I wouldn't watch anyway, or read the stories that arose from it.

It's just been, well, not exactly fun, but at a minimum amusing, watching him lie to his own supporters ...over and over again.; 5/17/10, 9:47 PM
The Drill SGT said...: It's just been, well, not exactly fun, but at a minimum amusing, watching him lie to his own supporters ...over and over again.

Question 1, that he doesn't want to answer till after the Nov elections?

Q: Do you still stand by your 2008 categorical pledge not to raise taxes, any taxes on families making less than $250,000?; 5/17/10, 9:53 PM
Unknown said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/17/10, 10:15 PM
Unknown said...: And Obama is free not to answer questions.; 5/17/10, 10:17 PM
Unknown said...: I forget which blog does it, but Ann could replace her Obamedy tag could with Obamateurism and it would be more fitting.; 5/17/10, 10:28 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: OT

Has Hugh Grant ever done anything other than reprise that Four Weddings and a Funeral role?

I'm sick of him.; 5/17/10, 10:37 PM
Jeremy said...: So, all of a sudden...CBS...part of the "liberal" media is the source for the local tea bagging wing nuts?

No wonder you hypocritical fools spend half your life with testicles dangling in your mouths.; 5/17/10, 10:38 PM
KCFleming said...: "And Obama is free not to answer questions."

Even when he promised otherwise.
Because Obama promises are vaporware.; 5/17/10, 10:43 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Edutcher:

It's Hot Air that does the Obama Amateur Act of the Day.

And Fuck you Jeremy you asswipe.; 5/17/10, 10:44 PM
Phil 314 said...: Actually I rather like it...

less cowbell

(Though admittedly there is much irony in this particular story.

Hey where's Ritmo?); 5/17/10, 10:44 PM
Jeremy said...: Whining about Obama not answering questions is the standard tea bagging high pitched whine...considering Bush had fewer press conferences than any previous president and took more vacation days than any.; 5/17/10, 10:45 PM
KCFleming said...: Hey, it's jeremy, the community college fruit bat fellatio king!; 5/17/10, 10:45 PM
Jeremy said...: Lem - "Has Hugh Grant ever done anything other than reprise that Four Weddings and a Funeral role?"

And I bet he worries about that every day of his miserable life.

Especially considering how much better yours is going.; 5/17/10, 10:47 PM
Jeremy said...: Rialby - You're a racist, bigoted asshole.

There I said it.; 5/17/10, 10:49 PM
Jeremy said...: The Drill SGT - And Bush was big on press conferences?

You're full of shit...as usual.; 5/17/10, 10:51 PM
JAL said...: Reminds me how the Vs use the media (ABC, Wenesday after LOST).

The head reptile-in-diguise, Anna, has used the press and given a particular reporter special access previously. Recently on a big story she ignored him, which made him more anxious to get back in her graces so he would have the "scoop" .... [Tune in next week.]

Maybe the President's just being a tease.; 5/17/10, 10:54 PM
JAL said...: Correction: That's Tuesday, after LOST.

Still don't get how the networks play musical chairs with the programs.; 5/17/10, 10:57 PM
Fred4Pres said...: How about the freedom to make things up? Semper lyius.; 5/17/10, 11:15 PM
Fred4Pres said...: No mention of who killed Danny Pearl by President Obama. Why is that?; 5/17/10, 11:34 PM
MadisonMan said...: One of my favorite episodes:

This is a Press Conference! The last thing I want to do is answer any questions!; 5/17/10, 11:36 PM
Fred4Pres said...: Semper lyius. How do you tell that Conn. U.S. Senate candidate Richard Blumethal (D) is lying? He claims he served in the Marines in Vietnam.; 5/17/10, 11:48 PM
Revenant said...: We're way overdue for a presser.

"Overdue" implies that we expect something worthwhile to come out of an Obama press conference. Honestly, though, if he never held a single press conference during the remaining two and a half years of his political career, why would we even care?; 5/17/10, 11:55 PM
LonewackoDotCom said...: Teaparty useful idiot heartbreak, teaparty leader cheer: Marco Rubio flip flops on Arizona immigration law. Heh.

In other news, here's why you can't trust what Brendan Nyhan writes.; 5/17/10, 11:57 PM
Patm said...: The press got what they wanted: a fantasy president.

Mother always said be careful what you ask for, you might get it.; 5/18/10, 12:32 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I'm going to miss the Sox Yankee game tomorrow night to go to a tea party meeting..

The way they lost to the Yankees earlier tonight was just brutal.

The came back from a 6-0 deficit at the end of 2 innings only to loose in the bottom of the night, having a 2 run lead 9-7.

Papelbon seems to have lost his last nerve.

The Tea Party will be a welcomed distraction.; 5/18/10, 1:15 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Blow Out - Radiohead; 5/18/10, 1:29 AM
Penny said...: We may all enjoy the irony of Chip Reid's article, and we may all enjoy that the press is finally saying something negative about Obama, but damn? This is what passes for news these days?

That a Chief White House Correspondent for CBS files such a report, that doesn't even include the ACTUAL name of the new act, the Daniel Pearl Press Freedom Act, in honor of the journalist for the WSJ who was beheaded in Pakistan, is a shameful day for Reid and CBS for printing it.

We should expect the press to give us the FACTS, not their commentary on those facts...EVEN when we might agree with that commentary.; 5/18/10, 3:21 AM
Anonymous said...: Did anyone force reporters to show up at the bill signing? Did anyone force CBS to report on it? Instead of whining about the way they are being played by the WH, maybe the press ought to grow a pair and simply not show up at the next press briefing by Obama's Press Secretary or not show up at meaningless bill signings like this one. Let's see if the WH needs the press more than the press needs the scraps being thrown on the floor by the WH.; 5/18/10, 4:08 AM
AllenS said...: Obama is a community organizer, not a community question answerer.; 5/18/10, 6:43 AM
Anonymous said...: "No mention of who killed Danny Pearl by President Obama. Why is that?"

He might have to use the forbidden
"I" word. Can't have that. He might choke on it.; 5/18/10, 6:54 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: A New Clue to Explain Existence

The new effect hinges on the behavior of particularly strange particles called neutral B-mesons, which are famous for not being able to make up their minds. They oscillate back and forth trillions of times a second between their regular state and their antimatter state. As it happens, the mesons, created in the proton-antiproton collisions, seem to go from their antimatter state to their matter state more rapidly than they go the other way around, leading to an eventual preponderance of matter over antimatter of about 1 percent, when they decay to muons.

Whether this is enough to explain our existence is a question that cannot be answered until the cause of the still-mysterious behavior of the B-mesons is directly observed, said Dr. Brooijmans, who called the situation “fairly encouraging.”; 5/18/10, 6:59 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: Strange.. from something I wrote the other night.

..to envision an infinitesimally thin corporeal body and at the very same time envision the same corporeal body as fat and as wide as its opposite and start to do it over again but quicker and more vividly. switching so fast that the idea seem to be to get both to happen simultaneously.

I had forgotten all about this..

Now I'm looking forward to see if it happens again. even thought I know its not something that i can summon at will.. not now.

I also remember been able to do this while half awake and half asleep.. again I was in my teens.

5/16/10 1:33 AM; 5/18/10, 7:14 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: I could care less if he ever holds another press conference. All he does is look down his nose and lecture so the less I see of him, the happier I am.; 5/18/10, 7:16 AM
Opus One Media said...: Oh you rightwing assholes. When your hero, Mr. Bush, disappeared for about a year and you had to show your ID and pledge everlasting support to him to even see a public speech in a public building, you clowns now scream and whine over a couple months and in particular, "i'm not taking questions".

OK. get it? He wasn't taking questions. And what? Freedom of the Press? Ann, you need to stop listening to Meade whine. Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech are, fortunately, not the same.

What do you want? jeff gannon talon news?; 5/18/10, 7:17 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Oh you rightwing assholes.

Oh dear such vitriol so early. Your hemorrhoids flaring up again? Or is the nurse late in changing your diaper?; 5/18/10, 7:21 AM
Rialby said...: HD - I hope you end up treated like the Kulak you are.; 5/18/10, 7:24 AM
Tank said...: What's the difference? Obama has a Press Conf, takes one question, talks for 20 minutes without answering the question, then - he's done. This is really inside baseball stuff; the press is upset about being dissed.

Hey, Jeremy got ten words out before talking about testicles in his mouth. He's always got those testicles in his mouth.; 5/18/10, 7:28 AM
KCFleming said...: "the still-mysterious behavior of the B-mesons"

Indeed, the bizarre B-mesonic rituals remain quite cryptic.; 5/18/10, 7:35 AM
Michael said...: One thing about Obama, you know he's lying when his lips are moving.; 5/18/10, 7:39 AM
RobertL said...: I guess they had to elect him to find out what's really in him.....; 5/18/10, 7:45 AM
Opus One Media said...: Rialby said...
HD - I hope you end up treated like the Kulak you are."

Not rich yet but certainly no landed peasant. Tell me Rialby, there seems to be some glory in your eyes about being a mindless putz who just does and thinks what zealots tell him/her. I never saw the fascination. You obviously do. Can you explain the allure of being without a soul of your own?; 5/18/10, 8:02 AM
Mick said...: When will Althouse, Volohk (and all of his supposed Federalist geniuses) stand up for the Republic, and as Constitutional Scholars decry the illegal Presidency of Obama. He is not a Natural Born Citizen (he only admits to being Native born), since he was born subject to the jurisdiction of Britain (father was Kenyan). Their silence is deafening. They are either Cowards, or not that smart.; 5/18/10, 8:10 AM
Rialby said...: Yes, I am a fool for zealotry. I guess you're just a fool.; 5/18/10, 8:11 AM
X said...: hey garage, thank god for vicki from pasadena, huh?; 5/18/10, 8:20 AM
Synova said...: Quite honestly... he's right to refuse to let himself be subservient to the press. The press shouldn't be ass-kissing, but they should be most interested in communicating what people want to know and less interested in the sensational.

It's that "standards" thing.; 5/18/10, 8:59 AM
garage mahal said...: Comrade: What did I miss? Vicki?; 5/18/10, 9:01 AM
GMay said...: garage "polanski" mahal writes: "Stop talking to us! Talk to us!"

Talking to. Answering questions.

Big difference champ.

Everyone is sick of hearing the same recycled speeches over and over and over. Even when he deigns to answer questions, he copies and pastes from his ripped off speeches.

But as someone already said - no teleprompter, no Q&A. The guy just. can. not. handle. it.; 5/18/10, 9:48 AM
Ann Althouse said...: @Mick Get a life. The last line of enforcement for that constitutional provision was Congress, when it accepted the electoral votes and declared a winner. It is over. Obama is President. Deal with it.; 5/18/10, 9:50 AM
GMay said...: Professor, forget it. Mick is a fairly tireless birther.

Before I was banned over at VC, he routinely tried to hijack many a thread. I know you need to do the obligatory denounce-the-birther-lest-ye-receive-the-taint thing, but you're better off ignoring him.; 5/18/10, 10:14 AM
bagoh20 said...: "It is over. Obama is President. "
I know, but there is still hope. The B-mesons may still have their day.; 5/18/10, 2:27 PM