Maybe it was a sign that someone wanted to put the press corps — or possibly the White House staff — in their place.

Who knows, but at the beginning of the daily White House press briefing on Wednesday, a disembodied voice sounded in the briefing room, saying: “THE PRESIDENT IS POWERFUL.”

Reporters and White House staffers in the room laughed, and White House spokesman Robert Gibbs joked about it, to more laughter. But no one offered an explanation for the pronouncement.

“Was that happening just in my head, or did you all — did you all hear that, too?” Gibbs asked.

“We didn’t hear anything,” someone answered.

“Wow. Wow. That’s — that was interesting, if inexplicable,” Gibbs said.

And then, apologizing “for not having an equally grand introduction by which to call on the first reporter,” he plunged into the usual routine of responding to, if not answering, questions on Afghanistan, healthcare reform and a news report that Democratic donors were being given special access to the White House.

So, did Halloween come early to the White House? Or is it some new get-out-the-message mechanism?

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Photo Credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Gibbs at daily White House press briefing on Sept. 28)

NEW YORK - He called him “Mr. Cronkite” and wished they had been friends.

But more than anything, President Barack Obama, speaking at Walter Cronkite’s memorial service, honored the standards the veteran CBS anchorman used as a journalist — and seemed to long for them again.

“We also remember and celebrate the journalism that Walter practiced - a standard of honesty and integrity and responsibility to which so many of you have committed your careers,” Obama told the audience, which included many of the U.S. media elite.

“It’s a standard that’s a little bit harder to find today.”

Is it? Has journalism changed for the better or the worse since Cronkite’s day?

Obama acknowledged the troubled state many news organizations face. 

“Even as appetites for news and information grow, newsrooms are closing. Despite the big stories of our era, serious journalists find themselves all too often without a beat, ” he said.

“Too often, we fill that void with instant commentary and celebrity gossip and the softer stories that Walter disdained, rather than the hard news and investigative journalism he championed.”

Obama said Cronkite – known as “the most trusted man in America” — would have found a way to navigate the changing media landscape if he were alive.

“Would he have been able to cut through the murky noise of the blogs and the tweets and the soundbites to shine the bright light on substance?” Obama asked. “Somehow, we know that the answer is yes.”

What about today’s crop of journalists? Is substance taking a beating? Let us know what you think.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jim Young (Obama at memorial service for Cronkite)

President Barack Obama made a surprise visit to the White House briefing room on Tuesday to carry a plateful of six cupcakes topped by a birthday candle to Helen Thomas, the veteran journalist with whom he shares an August 4 birthday.

The president, who turned 48, led aides in singing a chorus of “Happy Birthday to You,” to Thomas, who turned 89, and then urged her to make a wish. “You’ve got to blow it out to make it come true,” Obama said. Thomas then blew out the candle.

Thomas, known as a tough questioner of authority while covering 10 U.S. presidents during half a century as a White House correspondent, did not say what she wished for.

Obama jokingly said, “Helen wished for world peace, no prejudice. She and I also had a common birthday wish. She said she hopes for a real healthcare reform bill,” plugging his political agenda. “I will leave it up to you how you want to distribute the cupcakes,” he added.  

The president posed for a smiling picture with Thomas, but left without taking questions.

Thomas spent much of her career as White House correspondent for United Press International and is now a columnist for Hearst.

Photo credit: REUTERS/Jim Young

It’s one thing for fans gathering in Los Angeles to go ga-ga over the late “King of Pop,” but the  extensive media coverage of  Michael Jackson and his death has one Washington insider screaming “ENOUGH ALREADY.”

Well, not exactly in those words. But Rep. Pete King expressed outrage at the coverage and blasted the media in a video posted on YouTube over the Independence Day holiday weekend by the congressman’s campaign staff.

King, a New York Republican, took issue with coverage he says glosses over the controversy in Jackson’s life.  And he filled in the blanks with some commentary of his own, among other things calling  Jackson “a pervert” and “a pedophile.”  On Monday, King explained that he was merely  expressing what he believes a lot of  people really feel.

Here’s the video:

King’s hometown newspaper, New York’s Newsday, asked readers on its web site whether the congressman should apologize. About half of those responding said “No, King has a point about the excessive media coverage of Jackson.” The other half said “Yes,” bad timing. Our favorite response — “Who cares?”
Newsday points out the results are not scientific.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs took heat on Wednesday over the use of what one reporter called a “designated hitter” to ask President Barack Obama about protests in Iran.
 
“What kind of a message do you think that sends to the American people and to the world about the kind of free flow and pure questioning that’s been expected at presidential news conferences?” CBS White House correspondent Peter Maer asked.
 
Iran’s disputed election and the violent crackdown on the huge protests that followed dominated Obama’s fourth news conference on Tuesday.
 
But Maer and other reporters objected to Obama taking an arranged question from the Huffington Post website.
 
“What led to your decision to plant a designated hitter right here to ask the president a question,” Maer asked.
 
White House aides had arranged for Nico Pitney from the Huffington Post to attend the press conference and Obama called on him second, after answering an earlier question on Iran.
 
“I know that there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet. Do you have a question?” Obama asked.
 
Pitney then relayed a question from an Iranian who wanted to know under what conditions Obama would accept the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the disputed poll.
 
Obama dodged that but said “a sizable percentage of the Iranian people themselves, spanning Iranian society, consider this election illegitimate. It’s not an isolated instance, a little grumbling here or there. There is significant questions about the legitimacy of the election.”
 
Gibbs defended the White House’s decision to invite Pitney to the press conference to ask a question. He insisted the White House had no idea “what the exact question would be.”
 
He called the exchange a “very powerful message” of press freedoms Iranians do not currently enjoy in their own county, rather than an example of contrived newsmaking.
 
The Huffington Post and other liberal outlets often accused former President George W. Bush of planting questioners in news conferences to ask softball questions.
 
Gibbs left open the possibility that Obama could use the same tactic again, saying the president thought it was important to try to take a question indirectly from someone in Iran.
 
“I won’t make any apologies for that,” Gibbs said.
 
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Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Obama, Gibbs (left) at June 23 news conference)

President Barack Obama poked fun at his close relationship with the press on Friday and teased radio and TV correspondents their industry “was more relevant than ever,” despite more and more Americans turning elsewhere for news.

Obama said he had trouble coming up with fresh jokes after delivering a similar routine just five weeks ago at the annual White House correspondents dinner, a glitzy affair attracting big Hollywood stars.

“The jokes may not be as good, but neither is the guest list,” Obama said at the Radio and Television Correspondents  Associations Dinner. “For me, there’s no contest. Why bother hanging out with celebrities, when I can spend time with the people who made me one?”

“A few nights ago, I was up tossing and turning trying to figure exactly what to say. Finally, when I couldn’t get back to sleep, I rolled over and asked (NBC News anchor) Brian Williams what he thought,” Obama said.

Williams recently hosted a gushing two-night special that took viewers “Inside the Obama White House,” and featured such hard-hitting spots as the president firing up his motorcade to pick up hamburgers for his staff. “The truth is, Brian Williams is actually a terrible house guest. He put an empty milk carton back in the fridge. He leaves his wet towels all over the Roosevelt room. We’re pretty sure he clogged the toilet and didn’t tell anybody,” Obama said to roars from the crowd.

Obama joked was he spending much of his time rescuing failed banks and auto companies, but “you probably wouldn’t understand the concept of troubled industries working as you do in radio and television.”

When that joke got a tepid response, Obama sensed he had hit a sore spot and added: “Ho ho. We don’t joke about that. That’s not funny.”

“Despite the flood of new media, I think your programing is more relevant than ever before at least that’s the impression I get when I read the blogs every day,” Obama said.

(Additional reporting by Wendell Marsh)

Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s 12-day vacation in Hawaii exposed tensions with the media that presage a possible combative relationship between a Democratic Obama White House and mainstream U.S. news organizations, which were often accused by Republicans of being too soft on him during the election campaign.

In short, the media organizations are pushing for greater access. They were annoyed that he appeared in public places on several occasions during the holiday without his traveling media pool, which by long-standing agreement between successive White Houses and the major news organizations always shadows presidents and presidents-elect.

The Obama camp, in turn, appeared irritated by criticism by some media outlets that the president-elect had deliberately ditched the pool the day after Christmas, when he took his daughters, Malia, 10, and Sasha, 7, to see a dolphin show. Aides said it was an honest mistake and blamed a breakdown in communication.

Some observers interpreted the trip as a sign he was chafing at the media scrutiny of his every move and was trying to enjoy some last semblance of normality with his daughters before entering the White House on Jan. 20.

Earlier in the week, paparazzi photographers snapped a shirtless Obama and his wife and daughters in their bathing suits outside their vacation home, and later Obama scattering the ashes of his beloved grandmother into the sea in what was meant to be a private moment.

The criticism over the waterpark visit clearly stung. The same day, the media pool was made to wait for hours into the night outside Obama’s compound in the midst of a 12-hour power cut that blacked out the Hawaiian island of Oahu. For the first time, aides declined to call a “lid,” jargon for signaling
he is staying in for the night.

Several media organizations have since argued that when Obama played on a public golf course, visited the waterpark and later took his daughters to the zoo, the traveling media pool should have been allowed to accompany him, instead of being kept out of sight of him while members of the public had free access to take pictures.

Obama aides counter he is not yet president and was on vacation with his young family. The president-elect made a point on the return flight home from Hawaii to Chicago on Thursday to wish the journalists traveling with him a happy New Year and say he hoped they had found some time to enjoy themselves.

Whatever the merits of both arguments, it is clear that the first 100 days of Obama’s administration will be a time for both sides to test boundaries and try to establish a working relationship.

It may also be it has all been a storm in a teacup during a slow news period, because after he takes office on Jan. 20, Obama is likely to be straitjacketed into a tight schedule that will leave little time for surprise visits to waterparks or zoos.

Reuters/Hugh Gentry (Barack Obama and wife, Michelle, board plane)

President-elect Barack Obama gave a wide-ranging interview to the Chicago Tribune , offering his hometown daily a scoop that forced other journalists to choose which angle to highlight in their reports on it. Reuters chose to lead  with his comment that the most pressing problem right now was to "stabilize the patient" and save the U.S. economy from losing millions of jobs. I agree this is the key message he sent in this interview and deserved to take top billing. So I was surprised to see how many news organisations went with a different angle.

(Photo: Obama in Chicago, 9 Dec 2008/Jeff Haynes)

"Obama to take the oath of office using his middle name" ... "At inauguration, it will be Barack Hussein Obama: interview" ... "I, Barack Hussein Obama" -- several news organisations led off with the fact that Obama would be sworn in under his full name. What did they expect? That he would kowtow to his campaign critics who pointedly called him Barack Hussein Obama but didn't have the courage to say what they were hinting at, i.e. that this self-confessed Christian was a "covert Muslim" or "Muslim apostate" and therefore unreliable?

Given the context of the campaign, the fact that Obama has not been cowed is interesting. We mentioned it in the third paragraph, the Chicago Tribune in the second. But let's ask if making this the lead, putting it at the top of the whole story, gives the whispering campaign against him much more importance than it is due?

It would have been more of a story if Obama had decided he could not be sworn in under the full name he got from his father and without the middle name from his grandfather. Americans love to talk about their roots, so seeing him run away from his own heritage would have been something to write about. Should we be surprised that he has not done that and wants to be taken as he is?

There was a genuine Muslim angle in the interview -- that Obama plans to reach out to the Islamic world with a speech in a capital of a Muslim country. His aides had already indicated this was on the cards, but he confirmed it first to the Trib so they led with that. Our veteran Washington correspondent Steve Holland made that the second paragraph in his story, quoting him as saying he wanted to "reboot America's image around the world and also in the Muslim world in particular." In both cases, they reported this angle before mentioning Obama's middle name.

(Photo: Obama image in Jakarta, 25 Oct 2008/Dadang Tri)

What do you think? Were the "Obama is a Muslim" rumours just a campaign tactic, or will we keep hearing this even after he is in the White House?

CHICAGO- Call it the e-fireside chat.

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama plans to continue his close links with the Internet by making the weekly radio address into a YouTube video that he will post on his Web site www.change.gov, aides said on Friday.

Obama, who takes office on Jan. 20, will record this Saturday’s Democratic weekly radio address as his first video and audio address. He will continue the tradition during his presidency.

“No president-elect or president has ever turned the radio address into a multimedia opportunity before,” said transition spokesman Nick Shapiro.

“This is just one of the many ways that President-elect Obama will communicate directly with the American people and make the White House and the political process more transparent.”

Obama, the first president-elect with a MySpace and Facebook profile, used the Internet to his advantage during the long two-year presidential campaign, breaking all records in part by his highly successful effort to raise money online.

Shapiro said in addition to regularly videotaping the radio address, the Obama White House will also conduct regular question and answer chats online as well as video interviews.

Transition office officials said the goal was to put a face on the new administration and its members.

One of the first videos that will be put up on the Webster is of Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s close advisers and a co-chair of the transition effort.

REUTERS/Jason Reed (Obama speaks with campaign worker in Reno, Nevada)

CHICAGO - Anybody seen President-elect Barack Obama lately?

The press pool covering him sure hasn’t.

As he delves deeply into planning his transition to the White House, Obama has been keeping a low-profile in Chicago, after his high-profile visit to the White House on Monday.

He was seen publicly on Tuesday when he laid a Veteran’s Day wreath with disabled Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth.

But that’s been about it. On Thursday morning, Obama dropped his two daughters off at their school in the morning. They hopped out of the vehicle, but Obama did not.

He went to his fitness center for a workout. Photographers sprinted to try to get his picture as he walked into the place, to little avail. 

What about his arrival at his transition office? Nope, the motorcade took him to an underground garage.

It has been like that all week. On Tuesday, to avoid attracting a crowd at his barber shop, the barber was brought to him and he got his hair cut at a friend’s apartment.

What to make of this? Nothing really, except that photographers are getting a workout running to get in place for a brief glimpse of him, and having nothing to show for it.

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Photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque (Obama sign hands outside his transition office in Chicago)