NRL News
202.626.8824
dadandrusk@aol.com

NBC: ‘Escalating Battle’ Between White House and Press Corps Over Obama’s ‘Pure Propaganda’

Dec 18, 2013

 

By Kyle Drennen

Lester Holt

Lester Holt

Getting a glimpse of the kind of real reporting that can occur on NBC Nightly News when Brian Williams isn’t in the anchor chair, on Sunday’s edition of the program, weekend anchor Lester Holt informed viewers that “official photo releases” from the Obama administration were “at the center of an escalating battle between the White House and the news media over access and image control.” [Listen to the audio here.]

In the report that followed, White House correspondent Kristen Welker cited National Journal’s Ron Fournier calling “images like these pure propaganda, arguing the Obama White House consistently blocks journalists from events they routinely covered in previous administrations.” A sound bite followed of Fournier warning: “The White House is getting most of the control. That’s not healthy for democracy.”

Welker explained: “Thirty-eight media organizations, including NBC News, recently joined in a letter to the White House charging, ‘The administration is blocking the public from having an independent view of the Executive Branch of government.'”

Despite objecting to the practice, NBC and the rest of the media have consistently been willing accomplices in promoting official White House photos throughout the Obama presidency.

Near the end of the report, Welker declared: “It’s not only the press cameras being shuttered. The President often ducking impromptu questions, denying the media unscripted answers that might be newsworthy.” A clip played of Towson University Professor Martha Joynt Kumar lamenting: “His [Obama’s] promises – consistent promise of a transparent administration led people to believe that the access would be different, it would be greater

Editor’s note. The full exchange can be read at newsbusters.org where this first appeared.

Categories: Obama