President Obama generally enjoys the unquestioning adulation of the national media (FOX News excluded), but the media lockout from the Tiger-Obama round has some fuming:
The President had enjoyed a round of golf with Tiger Woods on Sunday – a fact that only emerged by chance after media were banned from attending the event. The traveling pool of journalists who follow the President’s every move were reportedly furious after being shut out of his round of golf and not being allowed on to the club grounds.
It has long been a White House tradition that pool reporters cover the President’s rounds of golf and even have the opportunity for a few questions on the course.
The President waved as he jogged up the steps of Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport on Monday evening while a White House aide heaved golf clubs and large bags on board.
When he landed back in Washington and walked across the White House lawn, several frustrated reporters collectively shouted to the President to ask if he had beaten Tiger Woods.
Despite appearing to have heard the question, the Daily Caller reported, Obama did not answer and just smiled.
The Huffington Post reports that the President tried to make amends with the traveling press by spending a quick 10 to 15 minutes with them in the back of Air Force One as they headed back to D.C.
Proving that he was not dropping the secrecy act anytime soon, all of the reporters involved had to agree that the conversation was off the record, meaning that they could not officially report anything that he said and had to keep their reflections of the conversation in extremely vague terms.
‘He didn’t come back because he had to tell us something. He came back to hang out,’ reporter Scott Wilson from The Washington Post, who was serving as the pool reporter on Monday.
The weekend is the latest in a string of incidents that have prompted press backlash against the self-titled ‘transparent’ President, with Politico reporting today that withholding access is just one of the ways in which his administration works to avoid the tough questions and promote their brand.
The outrage over the lack of transparency comes as much of the bill for the pricey trip will be paid for by tax payers, yet President Obama did not feel it appropriate to even release one photo of his time out on the course.
And from Politico:
“The way the president’s availability to the press has shrunk in the last two years is a disgrace,” said ABC News White House reporter Ann Compton, who has covered every president back to Gerald R. Ford. “The president’s day-to-day policy development — on immigration, on guns — is almost totally opaque to the reporters trying to do a responsible job of covering it. There are no readouts from big meetings he has with people from the outside, and many of them aren’t even on his schedule. This is different from every president I covered. This White House goes to extreme lengths to keep the press away.”
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/obama-the-puppet-master-87764.html#ixzz2LM6e4Q3G
Knowing the media circus that surrounds Tiger—let alone the President—I wonder how they thought lack of access couldn’t become an issue.
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If the President put in that much effort working with Congress and Republicans, our country might be in better shape. But thank goodness we’ve been able to keep the top secret golf results out of the hands of our enemies and those pesky terrorists.