Media to Obama: Where’s the openness you promised?

About 40 different news groups have joined forces to demand the White House answer this one question: Where’s all the open government that President Obama promised?

In a letter sent last week, followed by a meeting among White House officials and members of the press, the media groups complained about restrictions that have been placed on photographers whose primary job descriptions are to take pictures of the president, the Los Angeles Times reported. Only thing is: The White House won’t grant them access, preferring instead to send out photos that have been snapped by their own, in-house photographer.

The practice is tantamount to propaganda, the news organizations complained.

Or, in the words of their letter: The restrictions on accessing the president create “a troubling precedent with a direct and adverse impact on the public’s ability to independently monitor and see what its government is doing.”

Among those complaining are the White House Correspondents Association and the Tribune Company, the L.A. Times reported.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said in an email, reported by the L.A. Times, that the administration was “working to address some of the concerns raised by photographers covering the White House. We certainly do not believe that official photos released by the White House are a substitute for the work of independent journalists.”

Via: Washington Times

Continue Reading....