Obama's List: Who Gets To Ask A Question?

(CBS)

As one among a throng of reporters last evening in the East Room, I was struck by the degree to which the White House Press Corps has been tamed, if not mollified, on one aspect of our conduct.

Nowadays, it's standard practice at these sessions to wait quietly for the President to call the name of the next reporter from whom he'll take a question.

It's the journalistic equivalent of The Price Is Right. "Mark Knoller – come on down, you're the next reporter to play "Can You Answer This?"

It's very different from when I first started covering presidential news conferences in 1976 during the Administration of Gerald Ford. Then, reporters would shout and wave their hands at the president in the hope of being recognized for the next question. The practice continued into the Carter, Reagan, Bush/41 and Clinton presidencies.

"Mr. President, Mr. President," would come the bellows from a room full of reporters. The trick was to gauge precisely when the President had spoken the last word of his answer to the previous question and try to be first to speak up in the hope of making eye contact so he'll call you name - or in the case of a young AP Radio reporter whose name he didn't know - getting a nod and an index finger pointed at you to indicate you're at bat.

During the Reagan years, women in the press corps also determined that the President was attracted to red garments and so some would wear bright red dresses to attract Mr. Reagan's attention. CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl, who covered the Reagan Presidency, tried that ruse one night, but it backfired. Reagan called on NBC's Judy Woodruff, but called her "Lesley."

The practice of shouting for the President's attention came to the end at the insistence of the second President Bush. He thought it unseemly to be shouted at and made it clear that those who engaged in the practice had zero chance of being selected.

Top aides would usually provide President Bush with a list of reporters on whom he should call. Sometimes, he would be given a seating chart with circles around the names of reporters he should select, an "X" through the names of those he shouldn't, and no markings on other journalists about whom the White House aides had no opinion.

The shouting quickly died down - though there would be occasional breaches of the decorum.

But last evening, the silence was deafening, as the assemblage of reporters waited for President Obama to consult his list and call out the name of the next lucky contestant.

And yet, being a person of ample volume, I miss the way it was.

---

(CBS)

Mark Knoller is a CBS News White House correspondent. You can read more of his posts in Hotsheet here.

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[jxknowles]

The screaming out loud was a charade back then. Presidents know who they are calling on. FOX Noise still gets their questions answered on a regular basis.

[endurorob]

Why don't you move to the sovereign nation of Texas then. I'm sure you would be much happier their.
Posted by mcthreeteeth at 7:26 AM : May 1, 2009


And you would be much happier in Venezuala.

[dhutch88]

The 45-minute tape shows a man that the Government of Abu Dhabi has acknowledged is Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan ? one of 22 royal brothers of the UAE President and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince ? mercilessly and repeatedly beating a man with a cattle prod and a nailed board, burning his genitals and driving his Mercedes over him several times. He is assisted by a uniformed policeman.


This may be a little worse then waterboarding. This is what they to criminals. Now tell us that waterboarding is torture.

[excoachken]

The real "Press Conference" has died of the same malady that killed real "Debates." Our fourth estate has been bought and controlled by the large corporations and therefore all meaningful questions have been "watered down" into those which can only be tossed with an underhand action, controlled by the "reporters" most recent published political position. Finding the truth takes research to read between the lines of these hour long commercials. i lived through 8 years of Bush controlling all the "questions" that Faux News was "prepped" to ask him, so I guess 8 years of Obama "easy does it" by the likes of CNBC is fair play. But, all of it is a disservice to our democracy and an insult to real journalistic work of the past.

[nolies74621]

oops Transparency.

[nolies74621]

i miss when the press used to ask hard questions and were more like a pros. attorney then the presidents fan club!
Posted by wtcmedic911 at 9:34 PM : Apr 30, 2009

Yeah me too. But look what has happened to our country from 2001 until exactly today. Big Government only becoming Gigantic since January. So much for transparency, Teleprompters can not answer questions for Berry so why not control who asks the questions so he knows whats coming. So much for tranparency.

[orsands]

Frankly, I think it's refreshing to hear him call on reporters from smaller publications that never been given a voice before in a presidential press conference. The White House Press Corps should not be merely a representation of the most powerful newspapers and news outlets, but should be reflective of it's citizens. I, for one, admire President Obama giving those reporters an opportunity.
At least we are SO much better off than the days when Bush was caught planting fake journalists in the White House Press Corps so that he could dodge having to take real questions.
American citizens are so thankful to the White House Press Corps for being there on our behalf to ask the tough questions....even if it requires having to patiently wait to be called upon. You'll have to excuse the millions of American citizens who are all now sighing with relief as we watch Obama temper strength with compassion. It is SO nice to once again see a President acting Presidential again.

[wtcmedic911]

i miss when the press used to ask hard questions and were more like a pros. attorney then the presidents fan club!

[everet3]

I thought he agreed to take questions from the veterans also, I have emailed him on a topic countless times and neither has it been mentioned nor have I heard a word from him. I really think he was just using the veterans in this country to get to the white house. But I'll stand and yell at the top of my voice for the Veterans rights.

[whitemale08]

I hate to say this but it's time to look past President Obama's presidency because the bail-outs of Goldman Sucks and their worthless derivatives and credit-default swaps will bankrupt the United States and plunge America into a New Dark Age.

What we have to worry about now is a post-Obama regime that will happen in very short order because we nor the President has the guts to put these TOO BIG TO FAIL banks, like Goldman Sucks and JP Morgan into RECEIVERSHIP and BANKRUPTCY RE-STRUCTERIING.

I say this and will continue to repeat posts like this as one of the few who predicted that our economy would not just enter a recession/depression but a general breakdown-crisis that end the United States and put in line with how British idiot PM Gordon Brown would like to think of us as just 'continents' of North America.

We have to do what ever is necessary to not stop the Obama/Clinton administration, because it's already doomed but to stop what will replace it, which is an extreme Fascist, possibly Republican but more like an Independent that will impose the austerity required by the very banksters we're bailing-out.

It won't solve anything, although that's how the new regime will sell itself, because the bail-out of the BIG BANKS will by-and-large be complete, leaving the taxpayer bankrupt and Goldman Sucks stronger to officially take over the reigns of Sovereign power.

Folks, the bail-outs are dangerous, not because it's bailing-out the rich, but because the purpose of the bail-outs is to purposely bankrupt the United States so a rich oligarchy can rule over mankind, reducing the population to less then a few hundred million people all serving as slaves and serfs to these greedy evil people.

PUT GOLDMAN SUCKS, JP MORGAN BofA, HSBC AND OTHERS INTO RECEIVERSHIP!