It's the media's own fault Obama doesn't respect them. After 4+ yrs. of their sickening fawning why should he?

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2/20/13, "Obama’s obedient lap dog," NY Post, Michael Goodwin

"Members of the national media are never so unattractive as when they turn the spotlight on themselves, and their weekend hissy fit after President Obama ignored them proves the point. It was the equivalent of a lovers’ quarrel over leaving the cap off the toothpaste tube. It makes for juicy gossip among the neighbors, but ultimately, nobody really cares.

Yet WaWaWa went the wail when the White House press corps traveled to Florida and couldn’t get a staged picture of Obama playing golf with Tiger Woods. The First Duffer wouldn’t even reveal his score. The outrage! The drama! How dare he treat us this way!

The answer is obvious. The media gave Obama the milk without making him buy the cow. It’s a little late to demand respect. 

For more than four years, the fawning mainstream coverage of the president has been a national disgrace. The only standard was a double standard, and Obama accepted the adoration and demanded more. Never lacking in self-reverence, he came to believe that he can arbitrarily set the terms of news coverage, and cleverly uses carrots and sticks to get his way.

He doles out interviews and chances to ask questions at news conferences to organizations whose coverage flatters him and promotes his agenda. Critical coverage is met with punishment in the form of complaints and being frozen out. To judge from the results, a cold shoulder from the president spurs more fawning!

Just yesterday, with Congress in recess, Obama emerged to demand that Congress stop looming budget cuts. Never was it mentioned that the automatic plan, known as sequester, was his idea and he signed it into law. Now he calls it a “meat cleaver” and wants Congress to reverse course — and pass even more tax hikes, of course. 

He was rewarded with front-page stories across the Web that, to the uninformed, made him look like a leader on a key issue. As The New York Times put it, “Obama Turns up the Pressure for a Deal on Budget Cuts.” 

Next time, the paper should just send a stenographer.

In truth, none of this is entirely new, which is why the bully pulpit is called the bully pulpit. But Obama has used smart stagecraft and the power of the Oval Office to take the practice to a new level, and has paid no price. As if to taunt the frustrated wretches, the president repeatedly proclaims that his administration “is the most transparent in history.” 

It’s hubris wrapped in a lie, but it serves to distract from a far more important angle than the dispute over mere access. Too many news organizations are shockingly uncurious about Obama’s second- term agenda. They apparently don’t want to know, and certainly don’t think the public does, either....

Instead of trying to find out where the president was during the Benghazi slaughter — and whether he slept through a terrorist attack — they demand to know his golf score. Instead of digging for more information about defense nominee Chuck Hagel’s bias and potential conflicts, they want a holiday photo op that is more fitting for a celebrity.

It makes them look petty and him a victim of privacy invasion. The spectacle of reporters waiting on a bus or standing around in rumpled clumps, begging for a wave from Dear Leader, says it all. When they aren’t fed a piece of baloney that passes for news, they whine.

They have only themselves to blame. By giving Obama a free pass, the press abdicated a duty to be skeptical and hold him accountable. 

By settling for the scoops he wanted them to have, they signaled that they were more lapdogs than watchdogs. They sold out for unrequited love. 

There was a time not long ago when journalists believed their mission was to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. It was a rough formula, but also formed the basis of a consistent standard that helped build trust with the public and wary respect from politicians of all persuasions.

Those days are gone. Now most journalists are neither trusted by the public nor respected by the pols. Count that as another legacy of the Age of Obama."


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