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Photo: EPA/robin van lonkhuijsen
The Daily Signal
Journalist:
Obama Administration More ‘Restrictive’ and ‘Dangerous’ Than Any In
History
Kate Scanlon
October 28, 2014
USA Today Washington Bureau chief Susan Page is the latest in a series
of journalists to criticize the White House on transparency.
At a White House Correspondents’ Association seminar on Saturday, Page
described the Obama administration as “more restrictive” and “more
dangerous” to the press than any other administration in history.
The Washington Post reports that her remarks were a “clear reference”
to White House claims that Fox News’s James Rosen may be in violation
of the Espionage Act.
The Post described the WHCA seminar as a means for its members “to
strategize over how to open up the byways of the self-proclaimed most
transparent administration in history, as well as to compare war
stories on the many ways in which it is not.”
Correspondents at the seminar described briefings where no names or
quotations from officials present could be released and the need to go
around the White House to other federal offices in order to receive any
pertinent information at all.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz told the Post:
We believe in the value of transparency, and that is why we work to
provide as much access as we can. That said, the press has a
responsibility to always push for more access and if they didn’t, they
wouldn’t be doing their jobs.
Bloomberg White House correspondent Margaret Talev told the Post that
the White House would not even tell her what type of wine was being
served at state dinners.
Journalists also expressed their frustrations that the day before the
seminar, when President Obama met with Nina Pham, a Texas nurse who was
recently declared Ebola-free, only photographers were admitted. No
print or television reporters were permitted to be in attendance.
Former ABC News White House correspondent Ann Compton told the Post she
“struggled to fathom” why the White House would restrict access to the
Pham meeting: “She’s been in government medical care for the last how
many days? And she walks out unexpectedly looking terrific — why
wouldn’t you want the world to see that the U.S. is doing what the
White House has said? So today makes no sense to me.” [emphasis in
original].
According to the Post, print and television reporters were also barred
from a Sept. 16 meeting between Obama and another Ebola survivor, Dr.
Kent Brantly.
The White House has been accused by journalists of delaying or altering
press “pool” reports and restricting access to information. White House
journalists are in the beginning stages of testing a system to bypass
White House involvement in the distribution of the reports.
Read this and other articles with links at The Daily Signal
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