http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/presiden ... d=12913319Obama's recent signing of the historic New START treaty with Russia and his post-State of the Union cabinet meeting, for example, were both closed to reporters in a break with tradition. And during a recent question and answer session with the president and visiting Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the White House imposed an unusual limit of just one question each from the U.S. and Canadian press corps.
"The administration has narrowed access by the mainstream media to an unprecedented extent," said ABC News White House correspondent Ann Compton, who has covered seven administrations. "Access here has shriveled."
Members of the press have always had quibbles with White House media strategies, calling cut-backs in access an affront to transparency, even as administration officials insist they're simply taking advantage of new technologies.
But some say the current dynamic is different, and dangerous.
"They're opening the door to kicking the press out of historic events, and opening the door to having a very filtered format for which they give the American public information that doesn't have any criticism allowed," said University of Minnesota journalism professor and political communication analyst Heather LaMarre.
That's o.k. - what Obama and his allies are doing is just too important to suffer any criticism. Media criticism is just garbage fueled by a bunch of radical right wing tea partiers who want to stop the good work that the Administration is doing. Access has shriveled, yes. But, that only allows Obama to do more of his righteous work without having to waste time dealing with pesky questions. Now, if this happened in the last Presidency, it would be a breach of transparency and "fascist." But, since it's Obama we know it's o.k., because he's so wonderful.