It was love at first sight when the press corps got a load of Barack Obama’s flashy performance at the 2004 DNC. That’s when the infatuation began. The marriage wouldn’t take place for another four years, when the media threw their old lovers, the Clintons, under the bus and eagerly said “I do” to the one during the Democrats’ long-fought primary.
After the newlywed glow petered out, though, journalists realized they were hitched to an abusive spouse. Ideologically, the fourth estate is on the same page as the Obama administration. But when it comes to touchy-feely parts of the relationship — communication, access, sweet scoops whispered in their ears — there’s a deplorable lack of interest.
The increasing angst is typified by Obama’s joke at a White House correspondence dinner last year that “most of you covered me” and “all of you voted for me.” The press was not amused. And the antagonism has only grown over time, as explained in an expansive Politico story on the Obama administration’s ill treatment of the media.
It has all the trappings of a dysfunctional marriage. The press wants to communicate with Obama via direct questions, but he’s in a no-access meeting or playing golf. The press wants behind-the-scenes access, but Obama is too busy feeding exclusives to his mistress, The New York Times, and he doesn’t even try to hide the affair.
He gives the quiet treatment to The Wall Street Journal and scolds Fox News — and in so doing telegraphs a message to other journalists: criticize me, and we’ll freeze you out. Or worse.
If Obama is guilty of press beating, then White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is the enabler. He makes the president look like a paragon of humility in comparison. He excels at covering for the big guy’s indiscretions, and is virulent in defending Obama’s name from the slightest hint of criticism.
“It’s not unusual to have shouting matches or the e-mail equivalent of that,” one White House reporter told Politico. “It’s very, very aggressive behavior, taking issue with a thing you’ve written, an individual word, all sorts of things.”
Every president likes to kick around the press a little. George W. Bush did it, and Bill Clinton before him. But never before has a president so adored by the fourth estate so substantially neglected, scorned, and belittled it. It’s a pattern in keeping with the arrogant bravado that characterizes the rest of Obama’s outlook.
The president’s press-beating ways also have a darker undercurrent. With declining revenues trimming newsrooms across the country, and the real possibility of once prominent metros going belly-up over the next decade, the press is more beholden to the government than ever. Dan Rather has suggested a bailout for journalists akin to those doled out to bankers and auto manufacturers, and some in Congress are on board. A media bailout would push already ideologically-aligned journalists into funding-reliant journalists.
The press already is locked in a love-hate relationship with nowhere to turn. And just like an abused spouse, most journalists aren’t even sure they want to escape. Obama might ignore — even beat — them, but at least they enjoy the safety net of his liberal presence in the Oval Office. They might gripe and whine, but the bootlicking continues.
David N. Bass is an associate editor of Carolina Journal.