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NYT, please define "muzzle"

April 02, 2009 10:37 am ET by Eric Boehlert

From the Times' Helene Cooper, traveling with Obama in London:

Is President Obama trying to muzzle his press corps?

A rather loaded/provocative charge, no? Cooper's basis for making the claim? We'll let Politico's Michael Calderone explain:

So what did the president do? Well, during today's joint presser, Gordon Brown took four questions but Barack Obama only took three! Yes, that's it.

Oy. We tend to agree with the conclusion posted by Times reader Greg, who wrote:

Please, stop your whining Ms. Cooper. “They” got one more question than we did? And it was a softball at that? I love the Times and respect its coverage but this posting is juvenile.

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    • Author by seeryer (April 02, 2009 12:20 pm ET)
         
      And the print media wonders why they are on the outs.  The biggest problem they have is this inflated sense of self importance.  How about the Drudge Headline claiming Obama's media team screwed up because his events were at 5:15AM TUE instead of "during the morning shows like Bush always did".  So it is Obama's fault the press wasn't prepared to fill air time?  That makes sense.  Now Obama is shorting the American Press when the American Press has already gotten two primetime press conferences and unprecedented public events and interviews.
      Report Abuse
      • Author by tman418 (April 02, 2009 12:46 pm ET)
           
        After seeing Tuesday night's Daily Show, I laughed hard. The press appears to do more speculation when they don't know what's going on, by never going to commercial break and putting helicopters and field reporters on the scene, who don't know.
        Report Abuse
    • Author by pros2pros2940 (April 02, 2009 3:20 pm ET)
         

      As I've stated, headlines/stories that begin with a question are not news

      If you have some news that's been verified, print it.

      Report Abuse

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