http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/200903 ... tico/20395

Jonathan Martin – Tue Mar 24

At a time when his Washington honeymoon is turning into a hazing, President Barack Obama and his team are launched on a strategy to sail above the traditional White House press corps by reaching out to liberal commentators, local reporters and ethnic media.

The highest-profile moments in the new approach have been well-noted, such as the president giving an interview to progressive radio host Ed Schultz and Obama calling on a reporter from the liberal-leaning Huffington Post at his first news conference.

But those moves are only part of a much larger strategy aimed at communicating directly with audiences the White House believes are more sympathetic to the president’s agenda — and one in which much of the work is being done by Obama’s top advisers.

[snip]

Obama has continued to engage aggressively with the establishment outlets. The New York Times recently had an interview, and CBS News’ “60 Minutes” has conducted two long interviews with Obama since Election Day.

These sessions reflect Obama’s belief, according to aides, that in a fragmented media universe, presidents must communicate nearly constantly across an array of platforms, both traditional and new.

[snip]

We are waiting in anticipation of the One's first public temper tantrum.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/michaelca ... ml?showall

Obama skips major papers: No NYT, WaPo, WSJ, USA Today

Michael Calderone
March 24, 2009

During President Obama's second East Room news conference, he took questions from 13 reporters over about an hour -- that's the same as during his first presser on Feb. 9.

But in quite a departure from the first presser -- and White House protocol -- Obama skipped over the nation's top newspapers. Indeed, there were no questions from the NY Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal or USA Today. That might not sit well with the already insecure newspaper industry.

In exchange, Obama opened things up to a wider variety of outlets, including Spanish-language television, a military news outlet, and black-oriented media. It's another example of the White House going over the typical Washington press corps "filter."

[snip]

So the only newspapers that got a question were the Washington Times, Stars and Stripes, and POLITICO -- although the latter is known by many, especially outside DC, as primarily a website.

[snip]


From Drudge:

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id ... _article=1

Analysis: Teleprompter telegraphs Obama caution

Mar 24 09:07 PM US/Eastern
By RON FOURNIER
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - What kind of politician brings a teleprompter to a news conference?

A careful one.

[snip]

It was a carefully modulated statement, and Obama—relying on a familiar crutch—read it off a flat-screen monitor perched at the back of the East Room.

The teleprompter was no help during the question-and-answer session (reporters don't signal their intentions), but Obama was no less careful during that give and take.

[snip]

http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/03/obam-pre ... tings.html

Obama's viewership declines

Most TV shows start strong in the ratings, then decline as their novelty wears off.

Apparently that trend also holds true for the president's primetime telecasts.

According to the national Nielsen ratings, Barack Obama's Tuesday-night press conference lost viewers compared with his two most recent heavily covered evening events.

The news special drew 40.4 million viewers -- down 18% from from his Feb. 9 press conference, and down 23% from his Feb. 24 address to Congress. The numbers are the combined viewership from 11 cable and broadcast networks that carried the event.

[snip]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... id=topnews

What's the Message?

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 26, 2009; 10:13 AM

No president should hold a news conference without deciding what he wants the next day's headline to be.

In Barack Obama's case, it would be something like "President Pleads for Patience."

I don't see where that gets him much.

Even a good one-liner or a sharp rejoinder might have helped his cause. But instead, he was the constitutional law professor explaining the fine points of some controlling legal precedent.

Of course, Obama was well-informed and well-spoken during the East Room session (and spare me the teleprompter jibes; he didn't use those for the answers). But he really didn't make much news. And by his standards, he was flat.

An hour of prime time is a precious resource. George W. Bush and Bill Clinton each got four, largely because the broadcast networks wouldn't blow out their lucrative entertainment programming. The media may be fascinated by Obama, but I don't know how many more of these hours he's going to get, without a new story line, before he's deemed old news.

[snip]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20090327/ ... news_pl277

Has Obamamania reached its limit?

It's obvious the camera loves President Barack Obama. But are American audiences growing tired of his seemingly ubiquitous TV appearances?

This week alone, the president has been on "60 Minutes," held a press conference during primetime (networks reluctantly bumped "American Idol" and "Biggest Loser" to make room for it) and answered viewer questions at his first-ever online town hall meeting. And all this is in addition to ESPN’s sporadic updates on how his NCAA bracket is doing.

New York Times columnist Gail Collins put it this way:

"…there appear to be only two constants in our ever-changing world. One is that Barack Obama is going to be on television every day forever. No venue is too strange. Soon, he’ll be on 'Dancing With the Stars' ('And now, doing the Health Care, Energy and Education tango ...’) or delivering the weather report. ('Here we see a wave of systemic change, moving across the nation ...’)"

[snip]

But despite all the online chatter surrounding the Obama media blitz, what does the general population think? According to a disputed Zogby poll, the president’s approval rating has dropped this week to 50%, with his disapproval numbers rising to the same level. However, Rasmussen's daily tracking poll shows the president enjoying a 56% approval rating, and Gallup and CBS show a 65% and 64% approval ratings respectively.

[snip]