Commentary: Obama administration takes page from Bush playbook

[unhappycamper]

Commentary: Obama administration takes page from Bush playbook
By Edward Wasserman | The Miami Herald
Posted on Friday, July 23, 2010

In at least one area of political life the spirit of bipartisanship is strong, and the Obama administration has picked up pretty much where the Bush team left off.

That's in the realm of information control: treating the news media like a pestilence, using secrecy rules to stem inconvenient disclosures, ducking informed scrutiny in favor of staged encounters, punishing unauthorized leaks vigorously and generally regarding publicly significant information as something officials are entitled to handle as a political resource of their very own.

The media have been slow to face up to this side of the administration. That's partly, I think, because Obama himself is such a lucid and engaging voice and partly because his campaign was so thoroughly media-enabled that it seemed saturated with the religion of accessibility and transparency. Plus, it's because after the arrogant jawboning of Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, their extravagant secrecy claims and their boss' own inarticulateness, the Bush era seemed an easy act to follow.

But? The Obama record is unsettling on a number of counts.

First, high-level press relations. "Is Obama's White House tighter than Bush's?" So asks the current Columbia Journalism Review, which catalogues the vanishing press conferences -- none between July 2009 and May 2010 -- stricter rules on background briefings, reliance on new media where officials fully control their message, even elbowing press photographers aside so that the media must run handouts.

[pruple]

1. while I agree with some of this

the media certainly is a pestilence

[SunsetDreams]

2. "pretty much where the Bush team left off."

More Obama=Bush trype from the article.

You know you really don't have to read further after the part I quoted, because anyone can see that it will be clearly biased.
To say that Obama has "picked up pretty much where the bush team left off" is highly disingenuous.

[moksha]

3. It says in this one area.

Are you suggesting that Obama has not continued ANY bush policies?

[izquierdista]

4. There's other areas as well

Afghanistan. Keeping the money flowing to Goldman Sachs. Guantanamo. When they said "change you can believe in", the word 'believe' was meant in its religious, non-factual meaning.

[Cha]

5. It's lazyass journalism meant to

throw red meat out to those who would suck it up.

[Spazito]

6. Well said and right on point!

:thumbsup:

[Karmadillo]

7. Just a page?

nt

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

8. But..but.."transparancy" made a real nice campaing slogan. K&R