White House Broadcasts Send Wrong Signal

The media are obsessed, if not enamored, with President Barack Obama. That’s not exactly a news flash, but in the 2008 presidential campaign and through the first 100 days of his presidency, Obama didn’t have the networks’ seal of approval.

Recent moves by ABC and NBC threaten that.

A few weeks ago, NBC aired a positive, though thoroughly interesting, special on Obama. Such moves are nothing new, even if this seemed especially laudatory; networks have frequently devoted time to “A Tour of the White House,” or a similar program.

This time, however, NBC did something different. The network decided to air its flagship news program, “NBC Nightly News,” live from the East Room of the White House. The move was seen by many as creating an appearance of favorability for Obama.

ABC has taken things a step further. Later this month, the network will air an Obama town hall meeting on healthcare from the White House. It has also decided to ban advertising critical of Obama administration healthcare proposals. In turning down a proposed 60-second ad from a group called Conservatives for Patients Rights, the network essentially said, “Your money (and dissent) is no good here.”

Republicans complain nonstop about media bias. It’s in our DNA and, I’ve always believed, a little self-defeating. Yes, the press leans Democratic and the overwhelming majority of reporters and editors vote Democratic. And, yes, editorial pages can savage Republicans without the writers having to attach their name. But too often, Republicans have complained about media bias almost as an excuse for their own failures or shortcomings. And when a campaign prints bumper stickers saying, “Annoy the media,” as the Bush/Quayle ’92 campaign did, you know the campaign has not found a winning message.

Broadcasting newscasts and holding news events from the White House merit criticism, however. These actions send the signal of that coverage will be pro-Obama. By not allowing a commercial critical of Obama policy, ABC is essentially saying only certain opinions are welcome.

Add to this the announcement that NBC’s Tom Brokaw, one of the most trusted names in news — who interviewed Obama earlier this month — has accepted an appointment to the President’s Commission of White House Fellowships, and the signal that there is an all too cozy relationship between the media and the Obama administration is loud and clear.

The double standard inherent is not only clear to Republicans angry about the broadcasts. As The Washington Post‘s Paul Kane noted:

If ABC goes in there and does a highly critical set of pieces on Obama, I’ll be stunned. Was there a quid-pro-quo, Starling, involved here? No, definitely not.

But the act of actually broadcasting from the seat of the government, to me, just appears to be so deep into the pocket of the Obama administration, that it’s just not right …

Imagine the scenario of, say, back in May 2003, after he rode shotgun onto the flight deck of the aircraft carrier and declared “Mission Accomplished,” imagine if W came home to the White House and had Fox News do a 24-hour broadcast from the West Wing. Sorry, that would have been pummeled, mocked, humiliated, etc. I don’t think ABC should be getting away with what they’re doing now.

As Kane demonstrates, it’s not just Republicans and Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele who have a problem with this — though Steele is 100 percent correct in his objections — reporters have a genuine problem with the appearance this creates.

Since Obama announced his candidacy, his campaign and administration have become a refuge for reporters fleeing the uncertain world that is journalism today, leading many in the GOP to point and say “A-ha!” The recent decisions by ABC and NBC actually solidify Republican gripes about the media and send a signal that the media are a monolithic, pro-Obama establishment. Which they are not.

ABC and NBC have in effect made the GOP’s case, while unfairly calling into question coverage by their own reporters.