Some find this suprising apparently:
The White House that fancies itself as the most transparent in history is not without its control-freak instincts when it comes to media access.
It seems that Team Obama was none too pleased that veteran Chronicle political reporter Carla Marinucci posted a 40-second video of a group of supporters-turned-protesters serenading the president a cappella – “We paid our dues … where’s our change” – at a recent fundraising breakfast at San Francisco’s St. Regis Hotel. The protesters’ objection: the treatment of Wikileaks source Pfc. Bradley Manning.
The White House threatened that Marinucci would no longer be allowed to serve as a pool reporter during future Obama swings west. Marinucci’s apparent offense was shooting video during an event that was closed to broadcast journalism.
Last we checked, this was the 21st century, and Obama was the politician with the comfortable mastery of social networking – at least when it serves his purposes, as in having a cozy town hall at Facebook or soliciting donations for what is expected to be a $1 billion re-election campaign.
The White House appeared to be backing off from its banishment of Marinucci late Thursday. Still, the fact that television and radio reporters are not allowed into most fund-raising events is unacceptable. We also find ourselves disturbed that some print journalists would go along with the administration’s attempt to pull an audio and video curtain at fund-raising events.
You catch that last sentence? The San Francisco Chronicle is distrubed that some in the media are Obama shills and that they’d go along with filtering the news.
Imagine that.
