From Richard Benedetto, on Politico, from 3 months ago but, aside from the news stories cited could have been written last week:
"Last week, I asked my journalism and political science students at American University to grade the news media covering the Obama administration for the first 100 days. The consensus fell between a C+ and a B-.
"However, if I asked President Barack Obama’s media strategists to grade the press corps covering their boss, I bet they would mark their cards with an A.
"Why? With few exceptions, the mainstream news media have been dutifully pushing the Obama message, burnishing his carefully crafted image and offering few challenges when he makes questionable or misleading pronouncements, gestures or policy statements. In short, they seem mesmerized by the glamour of this new and different president. He is keeping them so busy with skillfully staged daily travel, speeches, meetings and photo ops that they hardly have time to ask tough questions or add context to their stories. Whatever Obama says, or doesn’t say, is usually good enough for them.
"Obama strategists must be giving each other fist bumps as they chortle, “Boy, have we got them eating out of our hands.” The message they’ve been successfully pushing from Day One is that Obama is not bad old George W. Bush.
"Everything they have Obama do or say, from apologizing for American arrogance in Europe to releasing CIA memos outlining interrogation techniques used against suspected terrorists, carries a not-Bush subtext. And the news media have been only too happy to press that message, even when facts suggest otherwise. The Bush brand is so damaged, and Obama is so cool, they see no need to set the record straight when it’s necessary."
http://www.mlive.com/us-politics/index.ssf/2009/04/watchdogs_are_heeling_for_obam.html
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