The New Republic, the so-called liberal press that spent the primary cheering Obama and portraying Hillary Rodham Clinton as psycho, says the media may be falling out of love with Obama. Of course we know that the media is no one's friend and falls in and out of love whenever it is profitable to do so.
The piece excerpted below makes some serious charges as well as some ludicrous ones. Ludicrous ones like: Hillary Clinton's campaign people were hostile to the press "for no reason." Yeah, no reasons whatsoever!
So now, the poor press is complaining that the Obama campaign is mean to them. Unbelievable. Can the honeymoon really be ending so soon?
End of the Affair by Gabriel Sherman:
Reporters are grumbling more and more that the campaign is acting like the Prom Queen. They gripe that it is "arrogant" and "control[ling]," and the campaign's own belief that Obama is poised to make history isn't endearing, either. The press certainly helped Obama get so far so fast; the question is, how far can he get if his campaign alienates them?
. . But, as Obama ascended from underdog to front-runner to presumptive nominee, the flame seems to have dwindled. Reporters who cover Obama these days grouse that Obama's flacks shroud the campaign in secrecy and provide little to no access. "They're more disciplined than the Bush people," a reporter on the Obama trail gripes. "There was this idea of being transparent, but they're not. They're total tightwads with information."
"They're an arrogant operation. Young and arrogant," one reporter covering the campaign says. "They don't believe in transparency with their own campaign," another says.
Reporters who have covered Obama's biography or his problems with certain voter blocs have been challenged the most aggressively. "They're terrified of people poking around Obama's life," one reporter says. "The whole Obama narrative is built around this narrative that Obama and David Axelrod built, and, like all stories, it's not entirely true. So they have to be protective of the crown jewels." Another reporter notes that, during the last year, Obama's old friends and Harvard classmates were requested not to talk to the press without permission.
Barack Obama Media Bias Politics Liberal News
