Never fails.
Obama shows up, makes some silly and pointless speech about himself … err … about the country, and the Left salivates like one of Pavlov’s dogs who just heard a bell ring. Not to mention the weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth from the MEDIA crying for their Messiah, claiming he was a better president and they felt safe with him in the White House.
Brian Stelter was impressively pathetic.
But other media types remember President Obama a tad differently, like Sharyl Attkisson, who quotes several different outlets talking about the media ‘abuses’ from the Obama administration.
Flashback: Remember that time virtually all major press orgs quietly complained about Obama admin. unprecedented acts vs reporters? “This is the most closed, control freak administration I’ve ever covered.”–David Sanger, chief Washington correspondent, The New York Times, 2013.
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
Oops.
We remember.
“It’s turning out to be the administration of unprecedented secrecy and unprecedented attacks on a free press.” –2013, New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan wrote earlier this year,
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
New York Times even.
"The adminis.’s war on leaks & other efforts to control information are the most aggressive I’ve seen since Nixon.. when I was one of the editors involved in The Washington Post’s investigation of Watergate."–Len Downie, 2013.
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
Most aggressive since NIXON.
“Sources are more jittery & more standoffish..The Obama admin has been extremely controlling and extremely resistant to journalistic intervention. There’s a mind-set and approach that holds journalists at a greater distance.”–2013, Michael Oreskes, sr managing editor, AP
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
Extremely controlling and extremely resistant to journalistic intervention.
A "chilling effect created across govt …as a check on government and elected officials. It serves to shield & obscure the business of govt from necessary accountability," 2013 Washington Post national security reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran.
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
Chilling.
"By allowing its own campaign against national security leaks to become grounds for trampling free expression, the admin has put a significant piece of its very own foreign policy and human rights legacy at risk.” 2013, Suzanne Nossel, executive director of PEN American Center
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
“Covering this White House is pretty miserable in terms of getting anything of substance to report on." — 2013, Financial Times correspondent Richard McGregor
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
Guess they got bored covering Obama’s favorite color for eight years.
“The Bush administration had a worse reputation, but, in practice, it was much more accepting of the role of journalism in national security.”–2013, Marcus Brauchli, former executive editor of The Washington Post.
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
Oops.
"Obama admin is far worse than the Bush admin” in trying to thwart accountability reporting about govt. EPA “just wouldn’t talk to us” about environmental policy review panels “filled by people w/ ties to target companies.”–2013, Ellen Weiss, Washington bureau chief for Scripps
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
"They are obsessed with taking advantage of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube & every other social media forum, not just for campaigning, but governing. They are more disciplined about cracking down on staff that leak, or reporters who write things they don’t like.”– 2013, Politico
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
Ben Rhodes has even admitted the Obama administration was more concerned about controlling the news than having it reported.
“There is no access to the daily business in the Oval Office, who the president meets with, who he gets advice from,” 2013, ABC News White House correspondent Ann Compton, who has been covering presidents since Gerald Ford.
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
But Trump and stuff.
"In past, we'd often be called in at the beginning of meetings to hear president’s opening remarks, & could talk to attendees outside after. This president has wiped all that off the map. He’s the least transparent of 7 presidents I’ve covered.” 2013, ABC's Compton
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
Reporters and editors said they often get calls from White House complaining about news content about the administration. 'Sometimes their levels of sensitivity amaze me—about something on Twitter or a headline on our website.' 2013, Washington Post Managing Editor Kevin Merida.
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
“The Obama people will spend an hour with you, off the record, arguing about the premise of the story. If the story is basically one that they don’t want to come out, they won’t even give you the basic facts.”–2013, Josh Gerstein, Politico.
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
“There’s almost an obligation to control the message..More insidious than chilling effect of the leaks investigations is the slow roll or stall. People say, ‘I have to get back to you. I have to clear it with public affairs.’” 2013, Eric Schmitt, national security, New York Times
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
See? Controlling the message.
The chilling lesson for reporters and sources “is that seemingly innocuous e-mails not containing classified information can be construed as a crime.”–2013, The Times’s Shane.
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
After Obama admin seizure of AP phone records, coalition of 50+ news orgs—incl Society of Professional Journalists, ABC, NBC, CNN, NPR, New York Times, and Washington Post issued strong protest letter. https://t.co/7wNZhmMHVm
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
The news organizations charged in their letter that the Justice Department “appears to have ignored or brushed aside almost every aspect” of its own four-decade-old guidelines governing subpoenas of journalists and news organizations. — 2013
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
"I can remember only one similar event in 17 yrs as Wash. Post exec editor. In '08, FBI dir. Mueller formally apologized to me & NYT for unexplained secret seizure of phone records of foreign reporters. Justice Dept. guidelines had been violated, no subpoena issued."–2013 Downie
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
"Some of the administration’s new govt info policies contain vague privacy exceptions that could be used to hide records crucial to accountability reporting about health care, govt subsidies, workplace accidents, or detentions of terrorism suspects."–2013, Downie
— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) September 8, 2018
Media have seriously short memories.
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