A media savvy Obama shuns the Press conference

After a year in office, Mr. Obama has managed to do what every modern president may have wanted to do but never did: effectively shut out the reporters who work just a few feet from the Oval Office

reports the New York Times adding that it has been seven months since a full blown White House event

Instead says the paper

he has fundamentally altered the way a president deals with the news media. Instead of open-ended sessions with multiple reporters, he prefers one-on-one interviews, particularly with television anchors. He gives far more interviews than his two most recent predecessors did, reflecting the conclusion that the format is a more effective means for getting his message through.

Fox attracts the largest audience for Obama's Afghnaistan speech

It appears that over in America,politicians can still command large TV audiences.

The figures out for Barack Obama's speech at Westpoint academy when he announced future policy in Afghanistan reached over 40m people.

The strange thing being,or perhaps not so strange was that it was Fox news that got the highest ratings attracting over 4.55 million of those viewers, more than CNN and MSNBC combined.

The irony being that that was the station that the Obama regime attempted to freeze out earlier in the year.

Remember this from Anita Dunn, the White House communications director.

“We’re going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent,“As they are undertaking a war against Barack Obama and the White House, we don’t need to pretend that this is the way that legitimate news organizations behave.”

Report on Obama and nothing else

Journalists travelling with Barack Obama to Saudi Arabia have been told to report only on the visit and nothing else.

This is what one journalist received from the US state department

The Saudi government is permitting journalists accompanying President Obama entry into the country without a visa or the usual customs procedures. While in Saudi Arabia, therefore, journalists are expressly prohibited from leaving the hotel or engaging in any journalistic activities outside of coverage of the POTUS visit. Those who do so risk arrest and detention by Saudi authorities.

Obama returns to twitter

Yes I and 573,502 of his followers finally got an Obama twitter message his first since 19th Jan

A return to the medium which served him so well during the elections?

Twittering while Barack speaks

This from Dana Milbank writing in the Washington Post

President Obama spoke of economic calamity and war last night in that solemn rite of democracy, the address to the joint session of Congress. And lawmakers watched him with the dignity Americans have come to expect of their leaders: They whipped out their BlackBerrys and began sending text messages like high school kids bored in math class.

The first new media President calls the first blogger

Described as a bookend moment by the New York Times,President Obama's first White House news conference saw the calling of Sam Stein, a reporter for The Huffington Post.

It marks an important breakthrough for the political blogging fraternity in the States as acceptance at the highest level for a non old media journalist.

It is difficult to see the same thing happening here.Imagine Gordon Brown calling the next question from Iain Dale as an example of how far things have gone across the water.

Obama of course can be described as the first new media president.Whilst his twitter account probably wasn't the difference in the margin over John McCain,it certainly helped to create awareness of his campaign.

Interestly continues the paper

The White House decided in advance which reporters would be selected. And on Monday night, correspondents for The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, Time and Newsweek were not on the list.

Maybe the Obama media operation is missing something

Journalists play an important role as filters of information-fact?

An interesting point from Emma Heald writing over at the Editor's Weblog.

Emma is discussing the Obama regime's rush to embrace new technology to communicate with the masses and makes a salient point.

This by-passing of the traditional media works just fine for an event such as the inauguration, when the inauguration team's Twitter feed and blog provided fans with updates throughout the day. But when it comes to politics and the day-to-day workings of government, different issues arise with regards to 'information' direct from the source. It is essential to remember the vital role that traditional media has played for the past few hundred years as a intermediary between those in power and the masses: to provide an independent informed voice that can filter out the propaganda amongst the real news.

New administration keen to embrace the new media

It appears that the new administration in Washington is keen to get the message over that it will embracing the new media technology.

This announcement appeared on the White House website as the swearing in was in progress

One of the first changes is the White House's new website, which will serve as a place for the President and his administration to connect with the rest of the nation and the world.

adding that

This site will feature timely and in-depth content meant to keep everyone up-to-date and educated. Check out the briefing room, keep tabs on the blog (RSS feed) and take a moment to sign up for e-mail updates from the President and his administration so you can be sure to know about major announcements and decisions.

Good spot-Daniel Bennett

How Obama tapped into Social Networking

Good piece to read in the New York Times which examines how Barack Obama tapped into Social media during the election campaign

Like a lot of Web innovators, the Obama campaign did not invent anything completely new. Instead, by bolting together social networking applications under the banner of a movement, they created an unforeseen force to raise money, organize locally, fight smear campaigns and get out the vote that helped them topple the Clinton machine and then John McCain and the Republicans

And of course the point is that

when he arrives at 1600 Pennsylvania, Mr. Obama will have not just a political base, but a database, millions of names of supporters who can be engaged almost instantly. And there’s every reason to believe that he will use the network not just to campaign, but to govern

Hat Tip Social Media

Israeli paper accused over Obama prayer

An Israeli newspaper is under investigation after it published a prayer note left at Jerusalem's wailing wall by Barack Obama.

Slate magazine reports that

Traditionally, visitors fold these notes and leave them wedged between the stones in the wall, where the prayers remain until their official collection and burial. But Obama's note was taken by a student at a Jewish seminary (after several others had searched for it) and passed along to reporters.

Without going into the in and outs of Jewish law,the paper,The Maariv broke a law which says that notes left at the wall are the property of God and thus should not be used for other purposes ie selling newspapers.

Strangely though it might come down to privacy.Israel unlike the Uk does have a privacy law that contains a clause saying

There shall be no violation of the confidentiality of the spoken utterances, writings or records of a person."

Revenge is sweet

Following the New Yorker's front page cartoon of Barack Obama and his wife in the White House,it appears that revenge has been exacted.

According to the Huffington Post reporting on the Democratic candidates world tour,

Forty journalists, including such leading correspondents as Dan Balz of The Washington Post, will be aboard his plane for next week's swing through Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and England.
The campaign received 200 requests for press seats on the plane.
Among those for whom there was no room was Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent of The New Yorker. The campaign, which was furious about the magazine's satirical cover this week, cited space constraints in turning him away.

How Fox nearly missed Jackson's comments

One of the stories of the week concerning Jesse Jackson's off air comments about Barack Obama nearly didn't get picked up.

The Huffington Post reports that

Jackson made the comments to a guest before an interview on Sunday's "Fox & Friends," whispering that Obama was "talking down to black people" and that Jackson wanted to "cut his nuts off.
The comments went unnoticed in the control room, Bill Shine, Fox News' senior vice president for programming, said Thursday.
The scathing remarks first came to the attention of an employee working the overnight shift Sunday, who transcribed the tape as part of training for the network's ongoing digital conversion. Otherwise, "it potentially would have not been discovered," Shine said.

More evidence of Fox News bias

A Freudian slip.Perhaps as Fox news analysit Liz Trotta seems to suggest that it would be better if both Osama and Obama were knocked off

A lucky break for a Sports reporter

A case of being in the right place at the right time.Hold the front page reports the story of a Western Daily press reporter who was interviewing John Cleese about football when

The 68-year-old actor revealed he was poised to become speech writer to Barack Obama if Obama was nominated as the Democratic candidate.

The interview was to

discuss Bristol City's push for promotion to the Premier League, as John is a City fan and follows their exploits from his home in America.

Not suprisingly the news that John was writing scripts for Barack drew worldwide attention and put the reporter Nathan Jones in the spotlight( You can read the story HERE

Triumph for citzen journalists on the Obama campaign

The triumph for citizen journalism across the Atlantic where one of the Huffington Post's 1800 citizen journalists scooped dome remarks made by Democrat candidate Barack Obama.

Mayhill Fowler covered a speech( you can see it here) that he made in Pennsylvania where talking about working class voters he said

"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."

It was one of those off the guard moments that the main networks didn't pick up.I fact Fowler,a Obama supporter pondered for 5 days before publishing it.

Not suprisngly though his opponents pick up on the remarks,Hillary Clinton calling them "elite and out of touch"

The power of You Tube and Barack Obama

Barack Obama's speech last week in Philadelphia has attracted over 3.2m viewers and 6000 comments.

Two things strike a chord.First of all,the sheer power of the medium,three million people watch a 45min political speech.

Secondly the power of the man and the message.Maybe politics is changing in America.

When off the record means on the record

Or is it the other way around and does this show the differences between journalism on either side of the Atlantic?

One of Barack Obama's advisors is forced to resign over remarks made to the Scotsman newspaper in an interview.Samantha Powers was quoted as saying that Hillary Clinton was a "monster".

The comments given in an on the record interview to Gerri Peev.

The story as told by Fraser Nelson is as follows

It was an on-the-record interview but after Powers misspoke she instructed Peev “that’s off the record”. Peev had made no such agreement, and ran with the story

After the remarks were picked up by US websites the Scotsman reports that

Samantha Power, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author who made the remark, said: "With deep regret, I am resigning from my role as an adviser to the Obama campaign. I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton and from the spirit, tenor and purpose of the Obama campaign. And I extend my deepest apologies to Senator Clinton, Senator Obama and the remarkable team I have worked with over these long 14 months."

Kirsty McLuckie writing in the paper thinks it was justified in publishing the comments

SOME say it is unfair to have quoted the member of Barack Obama's campaign team who blurted out "Hillary Clinton is a monster" to a Scotsman journalist and immediately claimed it as off the record as well as off the cuff. But don't believe that anyone who is anywhere near a presidential hopeful at this stage in the game ever says anything that isn't carefully scripted. Even the denial that it was ever said will have been worked on by a team of advisers before the off-the-cuff

But was the paper right or should it have used its discretion?

The affair has also shown up the difference between UK and US journalism.Iain Martin says the affair shows that

American hacks are often too polite and trusting of politicians' motives. Only this late in the race for the nomination is the press asking serious questions of Obama

For him the differences are that on the one hand

The Americans, who have a knock-about tradition from the last century which they like to forget, take pride in having constructed a full-blown 'profession', equal to the law and medicine, with academic posts, a literature on the subject and very self-important prize ceremonies. Fine, but I blame Watergate.

Whilst on this side of the pond

the Brits as a breed have tended to be more rumbustious, cheekier, a little more inquisitive and wary of the powerful. There are excesses, but overall the sense is of British journalism being noisier and more vibrant. Competition is fierce, which until the age of the internet it was not in the US. And that might be the problem.

Some amusement for the weekend

War breaks out at Washington Post over Obama article

Via Editor and Publisher.


The Washington Post's story yesterday on its front page about Democratic candidate Barack Obama has ruffled a few feathers.

The article by Perry Bacon began

In his speeches and often on the Internet, the part of Sen. Barack Obama's biography that gets the most attention is not his race but his connections to the Muslim world.
Since declaring his candidacy for president in February, Obama, a member of a congregation of the United Church of Christ in Chicago, has had to address assertions that he is a Muslim or that he had received training in Islam in Indonesia, where he lived from ages 6 to 10. While his father was an atheist and his mother did not practice religion, Obama's stepfather did occasionally attend services at a mosque there.

and refers to the persistent rumours in the blogosphere that he is a Muslim plant.

Post cartoonist Tom Toles, has taken exception to the article and the cartoon that accompanied it.

The Toles cartoon shows a reader looking at an article in an unnamed paper with the headline: "Obama's eating of vegetables fuels rumors about him."
The text of the story reads: "Barack Obama doesn't hide his enjoyment of peas and beans, fueling Internet rumors that he's a jihadist vegetarian who will take the oath of office with his hand on a slab of damp tofu.
"He denies the rumors, but sure does eat a lof of vegetables, including tofu at times, and the real significance of the rumors is how they will hurt him if they get repeated enough.