White House's 'On-The Record' Meeting With 'Influential Columnists'

[babylonsister]

http://mediamatters.org/strupp/201005260051


White House's 'On-The Record' Meeting With 'Influential Columnists'

May 26, 2010 3:50 pm ET by Joe Strupp


The White House set up a special on-the-record meeting today between the incident commander overseeing the Gulf oil spill, Thad Allen, and a handful of columnists, according to Yahoo News' Michael Calderone.

"Among those on hand were the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne and Eugene Robinson, Wall Street Journal's Jerry Seib, and Newsweek's Howard Fineman," Calderone writes. "Robinson told Yahoo! News that he was invited by email Tuesday night to attend the meeting, which he found 'quite helpful' in getting direct answers to questions about the how the administration's dealing with the mess in the Gulf. He also acknowledged that that bringing in leading opinion makers--as the White House did before on issues like Afghanistan and health care reform--can be helpful to the administration in making it clearer what steps its taking."

The gathering is in addition to an Obama press conference set for Thursday afternoon, which has wrongly been labeled his first since July.

Calderone also clarified the fact that Obama has held pressers more recently, noting:

"CBS News Radio reporter Mark Knoller, the press corps unofficial record-keeper, agrees the July presser was the 'last formal, prime-time news White House news conference,' but points out that Obama did make a surprise appearance in the briefing room in February, and took six questions. 'I count that as a White House news conference,' Knoller said, noting that other 'news organizations seem to be ignoring that session so they can report he hasn't held a news conference since last July.'"

Calderone added: "Ann Compton, a long-time ABC News White House correspondent, also pointed out that Obama took some questions at the Nuclear Security Summit in April."

[robinblue]

1. It is part of the WH media strategy--related to the oil spill.......

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100526/pl_ynews/ynews_pl2269


WH pulling out all the stops to defend oil spill handling to media

26 mins ago

The White House, continuing its effort to push back against negative media coverage of the government's handling of the oil spill, held an on-the-record meeting Wednesday between incident commander Thad Allen and several influential political columnists.

Among those on hand in the Roosevelt Room meeting were the Washington Post's E.J. Dionne and Eugene Robinson, the Wall Street Journal's Jerry Seib and Newsweek's Howard Fineman.

Robinson told Yahoo! News that he was invited by email Tuesday night and found the meeting "quite helpful" in getting direct answers to questions about the administration's handling of the mess in the gulf. He also said that bringing in leading opinion makers — as the White House has done before, on such issues as Afghanistan and health care reform — can be helpful to the administration in making it clearer what steps it's taking.

"I think they want to do what everybody in this city always wants to do: Get their side of the story across," he said.

After a contentious briefing Friday at which reporters complained that their oil-spill questions weren't being answered, Allen joined Press Secretary Robert Gibbs in the briefing room Monday. Meanwhile, administration officials including Obama adviser David Axelrod have been hitting the cable airwaves.

And Thursday will be the next move by the White House to help shift the narrative: President Obama is scheduled to take about 10 questions from reporters at 12:45 p.m. Eastern. Just Tuesday, the Washington Examiner's Byron York wrote how the president hadn't held a formal news conference since July 22. "A lot can happen in 307 days," he wrote, "which is far longer than George W. Bush or Bill Clinton ever went between news conferences."

[Cha]

2. Good, I knew they would do a

counter offensive to get the facts out..suck on that carville.

[robinblue]

4. I am glad to see the WH going on the offensive. I said this

recently-the WH needs to get out there day after day and tell the people what the Fed gov is doing.

[eleny]

3. Good, glad to hear this! Thanks, b

[Itchinjim]

5. knr

[discopants]

6. not the story according to Fox

watching Shep Smith's show earlier (I was a captive audience on the eliptical at the gym) and a woman reporter came on and said something like "she had heard from another reporter that Obama had called in several reporters who the WH thought was not reporting positively about the administration's handling of the crisis ... to threaten them and set them straight" and Shep Smith even repeated her words as if he was really questioning her bullshit.

[treestar]

7. Hypocritical Faux

To criticize the POTUS during a crisis. Guess it just depends which President.