Israel Matzav: The Obama administration chooses its coverage

The Obama administration chooses its coverage

The Obama administration is preventing the Boston Herald, the city's right-leaning major daily, from covering President Obama's Boston fundraiser on Wednesday.

The White House Press Office has refused to give the Boston Herald full access to President Obama’s Boston fund-raiser today, in e-mails objecting to the newspaper’s front page placement of a Mitt Romney op-ed, saying pool reporters are chosen based on whether they cover the news “fairly.”

“I tend to consider the degree to which papers have demonstrated to covering the White House regularly and fairly in determining local pool reporters,” White House spokesman Matt Lehrich wrote in response to a Herald request for full access to the presidential visit.

“My point about the op-ed was not that you ran it but that it was the full front page, which excluded any coverage of the visit of a sitting US President to Boston. I think that raises a fair question about whether the paper is unbiased in its coverage of the President’s visits,” Lehrich wrote.

That incident happened in March.

Glenn Reynolds, a University of Tennessee law professor who has followed White House-press relations at right-leaning Instapundit.com, said a pattern appears to be developing.

“It’s all about control,” Reynolds said. “At some point this will blow back on them. Most presidents behave in a more refined fashion. Experience has shown that acting presidential is good politics and to their advantage.”

I wonder who will be in the press pool to cover Prime Minister Netanyahu's meeting with President Obama on Friday.

Thank God for the internet and bloggers.

Israel Matzav: The Obama administration chooses its coverage