Another stake in the heart of the First Amendment

[No Elephants]

Let's see.

We had the White House suggest to MSNBC that certain of its show hosts were too critical of Obama. Later, said show hosts lost their shows rather than knuckle under.

We had an AP reporter's phone and email spied on in hopes of finding out who his source was.

We have the D of J, the Administration and DiFi claiming that the First Amendment protects only "real" journalists and "real" publishers. Apparently, this also means that the First Amendment also empowers government to decide was a "real" journalist and a "real" publisher is.

And now this;

Obama holds off-record meeting with MSNBC hosts, liberal pundits

By DYLAN BYERS |
11/21/13 5:27 PM EST

President Obama held an off-the-record meeting with MSNBC hosts and liberal pundits on Thursday, POLITICO has learned.

Present at the meeting: MSNBC's Ed Schultz and Lawrence O'Donnell, Washington Post economics blogger Ezra Klein, Mother Jones Washington bureau chief David Corn, Talking Points Memo editor and publisher Josh Marshall, ThinkProgress editor-in-chief Judd Legum, Atlantic senior editor Garance Franke-Ruta, Salon political writer Brian Beutler and Fox News contributor Juan Williams.

The participants agreed to an off-the-record classification for the meeting, though sources familiar with President Obama's remarks said that Williams later appeared on Fox News and cited some of the president's remarks, which he attributed to administration officials.

<snip>

As I reported earlier this month, Obama has held several meetings with thought leaders from across the political spectrum during his presidency. The liberal confabs are seen by the White House as an opportunity to shape talking points and shore up support from the base -- something that has grown all the more important for the administration as Obama's approval ratings hit record lows.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2013/11/obama-holds-offrecord-meeting-with-msnbc-hosts-liberal-178078.html

And you thought I was kidding when I called the msm the propaganda arm of government.

At least with Pravda, there was no secrecy about the source of the talking points were coming from.

[Enthusiast]

1. Holy shit!

Wonder if he told Schultz to shut up about the wonderful TPP and its sister Atlantic trade agreement.

Including Juan Williams must mean you consider Fox "News" to be a credible news network. Kind of like submitting to an interview with a Fox "News" pundit that has constantly engaged in lies and insults. Unfuckingbelievable.

[No Elephants]

2. I wish I had tuned in to the night time hosts last week to see if they addressed this and, if so,

how they addressed it.

It's sad that we have almost no mass media that actually sees its job as being objective. The NYT and the networks and others who purport to be objective take covert pot shots at one side or the other--and that is more insidious and therefore, IMO, more dangerous, than a Fox or an MSNBC. At least when you tune into Fox and MSNBC, you know why you are tuning in.