Somehow I don't think Chip Reed or Major Garrett (to name just two) very likely voted for Obama. They all knew that if they asked Bush challenging questions they would lose access. They don't fear it from Obama because he has a basic sense of fairness.

I think he will deal with those who just ask "gotcha" questions in his own way. We'll see.

Listening to Diane Rehm this morning, and checking some sites, it seems that the press was just brilliant, and Obama "had a bad night." I wonder if these people even have a clue...well, no I don't wonder.

I think we're seeing a media in the midst of massive, fundamental, terminal (in some cases) changes, and reporters who are very frightened people. They're like the people on the deck of a ship going down in the middle of a hurricane, and there aren't enough life boats.

Right now, few have a Ph.D in economics and are getting pressure to produce twice the stories in half the time on topics they don't really understand much better than their audiences do. At the same time, editorial quality control is crumbling under the onslaught of citizen journalist, hacks and outright liars (cable commentators) who are pissing in the punch bowl every day, making it hard to have an authoritative, reflective voice any more.

The 24/7 news cycle is a beast that is never satisfied, too, and add to that the competition from sites like this one, with readers who contribute content and do fact-checking, with updates that happen at dizzying speed from any direction, and then toss in that there's almost instant, vicious ass-whipping from all sides, almost no matter what you do, and that explains some of the simple-minded, superficial behavior we see.

Ed Henry: I'm talkin' about you.

And finally, in the midst of the turmoil and fear and partisan shit-storm, in comes a new president who is a 180-degree change from his predecessor. He's not only the coolest cat in the room, usually, he's also a whole lot smarter than they're used to. He's also a whole lot smarter than they are. So one second they admire him, and the next they hate his guts, just like they hated the brainiac in high school who made it all look so easy.

I don't have real good crystal ball, but I think I'm safe predicting that the media environment a year from now is going to look a lot different than it does now. We ought to play a game, and save a snapshot of last night's press conference to compare with one from next year this time. I'll bet a lot of the faces will have changed, and there will be fewer people in the room.

Thanks (again!) for naming the names. Worth doing even if it won't accomplish much. Americans are not going to dump their TVs in the recycling bin where they belong. In any ironic way, this is partly the fault of what happened under the Bush administration (both by that admin, and by the toothless Democrat Congressional waffles who provided no meaningful opposition to it): the level of public discourse in government and the news media was dumbed down so far that the public now expects, and thus apathetically accepts, little more than bad soap opera reruns masquerading as public affairs news coverage.

Obama has been President less than a hundred days, the country (by every indicator) is in better shape than when he came in,

Excuse me... what indicators are you referring to? Certainly not the market, or unemployment, or the deficit, or the pledge about lobbyists, or ethical rectitude. Heh.

MJ - Do you mean that the MSM "lay down" for Bush?

We progressives should watch our grammar, since we're always calling conservatives yahoos and troglodytes.

This diary from DKOS did a wonderful job of explaining what excatly happened. I thought this was a great presser.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/3/24/712668/-Professor-Obamas-Classroom-Management-Skills

I think you also have to place some blame on the Benedict Arnold Caucus which has telling the MSM that they're going to torpedo Obama's budget. They give cover to the MSM and right-wing spinmasters enabling them to frame far wing-nut ranting right as "moderate".

"As for the rest, too bad, boys, not since FDR have you been so outmatched."

I don't know about that. JFK seemed to really enjoy the give and take of his press conferences.

Reading all of the comments regarding Obama's press conference. The journalists especially Chip Reid and Ed Henry's questions were out of line. Ed Henry should go back to CNN and apologize for being such a jerk. Chip Reid spent time on C-SPAN the following morning giving his thoughts when he answered the caller's questions. The answers appeared to be pro-GOP. He has no idea as to the recent policies given by Obama and his administration. Maybe he should give up his job and find another line of work. Watching MSNBC you can see that Nora O'Donnel snips about anything that that Obama says or Administration does or says. She is just a water carrier for the GOP and John McCain. Everything that she has stated on air recently has been incorrect. You find this out watching the various congressional and senate hearings. Nora has also been arguing with the Democratic congressmen about what goes on in the senate. They try to tell her that they are congressmen not senators, but she keeps on going with her own dialog. I am glad to see that President Obama stands up to the "snipers" of cable news and the reporters. He call them out on their "snipping".