Report: WH bans reporter from press pool for filming anti-Obama protesters
White House officials have banished one of the best political reporters in the country from the approved pool of journalists covering presidential visits to the Bay Area for using now-standard multimedia tools to gather the news.
The Chronicle’s Carla Marinucci – who, like many contemporary reporters, has a phone with video capabilities on her at all times – pulled out a small video camera last week and shot some protesters interrupting an Obama fundraiser at the St. Regis Hotel…
What’s worse: more than a few journalists familiar with this story are aware of some implied threats from the White House of additional and wider punishment if Carla’s spanking became public. Really? That’s a heavy hand usually reserved for places other than the land of the free.
Blowback
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Nothing to see here. Move along… move along…
MikeknaJ on April 28, 2011 at 11:23 PM
Three thoughts.
1) Transparency!
2) This won’t stop the media and “open government” leftists from worshiping Obama in all his glory.
3) We’ll still hear about how he’s made great strides for transparency.
amerpundit on April 28, 2011 at 11:23 PM
Thugocracy.
pseudoforce on April 28, 2011 at 11:24 PM
As transparent as a windshield washed by a wino with a week-old New York Times.
miConsevative on April 28, 2011 at 11:27 PM
Mugabe would be proud.
Norwegian on April 28, 2011 at 11:27 PM
Taking cues from Chavez…..
katy on April 28, 2011 at 11:27 PM
Hugo Chavez is in black face. RACIST!!!
andy85719 on April 28, 2011 at 11:27 PM
Serves her right. Committing such a flagrant act of journalism in the presence of the Chosen One. What was she thinking?
Bruce MacMahon on April 28, 2011 at 11:30 PM
I have to assume that most of the comments are from people outside of the SF area. Tough crowd.
Cindy Munford on April 28, 2011 at 11:32 PM
Drop by drop the foundations of the Republic are being worn away.
sharrukin on April 28, 2011 at 11:32 PM
And still they s**k c**k…….
Fortunata on April 28, 2011 at 11:32 PM
All Obama needs is an $11 billion slush fund and he’ll be like Chavez. Oh, right, we’re the slush fund. Never mind.
andy85719 on April 28, 2011 at 11:33 PM
Wait a minute? So the reporter, Carla, was “spanked” by the “heavy hand” of the White House — meaning Obama? What??!! Whose masturbatory fantasy is this? Oh. Phil Bronstein in the SF Gate. Gotcha. Even when they’re trying to criticize him, there’s a creepily adulatory element to it.
cynccook on April 28, 2011 at 11:34 PM
They just can’t leave him…
d1carter on April 28, 2011 at 11:36 PM
The article is correct in pointing out the inherent contradiction between two different portions of “The Rules.” Before the New Information Age, no one imagined that a few stills or a video clip taken by one journalist would offer content that differed greatly from that available from the others. Hence, keeping such data private (unavailable to the rest of the pool) would not contradict the dictum that pool reporters not hoard information. Marinucci’s video proves that the Age has changed, and so The Rules out to be brought up to date… without punishing the reporter that pointed out the deficiency in The Rules. She should be reinstated immediately.
Myno on April 28, 2011 at 11:42 PM
Not surprising. What is surprising is that the rest of the credentialed, not educated media pool don’t just up and quit covering him. Oh wait, that’s not surprising either.
BTW, somebody tell Bronstein Carla was banished, not vanquished. Sheesh!
Dusty on April 28, 2011 at 11:43 PM
I for one hope she hasn’t learned her lesson, at least the lesson the White House is trying to teach her.
Left Coast Right Mind on April 28, 2011 at 11:47 PM
Did she have to go into the closet like that other guy?
BDavis on April 28, 2011 at 11:48 PM
They’ll never put the genie back into the bottle. Truly accessable mass media and the decentralized internet means that they cannot have pure message control. Go ahead, browbeat reporters who don’t follow the White House Rules — it won’t effect the third parties who take the video themselves and distribute the stories themselves.
I’m not sure what “Rules” could be created to insulate politicians like they were before. Reporters asking nothing but softball questions will just continue to debase the coinage of mass media. Access is worth nothing if no-one gives it any value.
Revenant on April 28, 2011 at 11:51 PM
They have only themselves to blame.
txmomof6 on April 28, 2011 at 11:55 PM
Most open administration ever.
Hey, what ever happened to C-SPAN broadcasting the health care debate. Oh, yeah … that never happened in this most open and transparent administration ever.
hepcat on April 28, 2011 at 11:55 PM
I wonder what Chronicle writer, Chris Matthews, has to say about his colleague being
vanquishedbanished?…Gohawgs on April 29, 2011 at 12:00 AM
The media’s response? “Please, sir, may I have another?”
Ward Cleaver on April 29, 2011 at 12:04 AM
What would they say if Bush had…
Scratch that.
What would they say if any other human being on the planet had pulled this crap? Nixon wasn’t this friggin’ arogant. All he did was making frickin’ lists.
Rocks on April 29, 2011 at 12:06 AM
The beatings shall continue until the
moralereporting of the press pools improve.@Carney
ted c on April 29, 2011 at 12:11 AM
Heh, nuclear waste got better press than Nixon. All he wanted to do was SOP for Democrats. Too bad we can’t run a supercomputer simulation of history with Nixon-(D). Would there have been C-SPAN-like coverage of Watergate on the ABCNBCCBS? Doubtful.
Feedie on April 29, 2011 at 12:19 AM
Pravda has more freedom…the irony, the irony of this.
Deserves an Obamateurism thread.
Schadenfreude on April 29, 2011 at 12:19 AM
They’re all Obama buttcrawlers.
Schadenfreude on April 29, 2011 at 12:20 AM
I wonder if Obama said “God, they’re doing the work of the Republican National Committee.” when he saw the video. What is it with these Dems that they just expect every single reporter to roll over and play dead for them?
Rocks on April 29, 2011 at 12:23 AM
Fascist is as fascist does.
John the Libertarian on April 29, 2011 at 12:40 AM
This nation needs a better class of president.
mizflame98 on April 29, 2011 at 1:16 AM
“.. expect every single reporter to
roll over and play deadspread their azzcheeks for them?”FTFY
CaveatEmpty on April 29, 2011 at 1:20 AM
“But really, he said he’d respect me in the morning.”
BuckeyeSam on April 29, 2011 at 1:25 AM
The moral of the story:
If you’re going to act like a lady of negotiable affection, don’t be surprised when you’re treated like one.
Left Coast Right Mind on April 29, 2011 at 1:38 AM
If she had instead been filming a cutesy vignette with Sasha and Malia in it would she have been canned?
profitsbeard on April 29, 2011 at 2:24 AM
If you elect a boy-king for president, you’ve got to expect the occasional tantrum; unfortunately the inordinate power of the POTUS makes his tantrums exercises in tyranny.
This bunch has got to go.
hillbillyjim on April 29, 2011 at 2:30 AM
The comment streams at sfgate.com were the definition of an echo chamber in 2008 until someone (aw shucks) started inviting the readers of sites like Hot Air and Gateway Pundit, among others, to go over there and sign up.
What can I tell you, I take some credit. It’s worked better than I could ever have imagined.
warbaby on April 29, 2011 at 2:34 AM
Perhaps there will be a silver lining to this cloud.
Nothing like having one of your buddies get the boot for you to sit up and realize that perhaps things are not as they seem.
Maybe, just maybe, some of their eyes will begin to open as to what a tyrant this petty little man-child is – because as we all know, you don’t pick a fight with people that buy their ink by the barrel.
Give what this man has wrought, it is not enough for him to be defeated in an election in 2012 – he needs to be
repudiatedrefudiated, humiliated, damned and vanquished (did I forget any?).Let the damned Indonesian Navy build a ship and name it after him.
The I.N.S. Barack Obama will be a leaky rowboat armed with a pop gun and powered by UFT* Green Power.
*Unicorn Fart Technology
turfmann on April 29, 2011 at 4:31 AM
Ahhh, San Francisco…Rice a Roni, the bitter clingers quip and now an actual reporter doing her job…I still don’t wanna visit…
Gohawgs on April 29, 2011 at 5:45 AM
Will the real Obama please stand up!
kregg on April 29, 2011 at 6:20 AM
That’s from a Politico story linked on hotair yesterday. And David, I’m disaggregating today’s story to everyone I know.
Ha.
rogerb on April 29, 2011 at 6:20 AM
Oh, how many times must the slaves on the Democratic plantation be punished before they learn their massa’s rules?
Kafir on April 29, 2011 at 7:01 AM
First I read cesspool.
the_nile on April 29, 2011 at 7:44 AM
Very interesting comments for a San Francisco newspaper. Maybe the scales are starting to fall from their eyes.
ctmom on April 29, 2011 at 7:47 AM
It would be so much easier to be President of China, wouldn’t it Barry? Then you could have the disobedient reporter “disappeared”, rather than just banned.
AZCoyote on April 29, 2011 at 7:59 AM
It’s no surprise they like each other. They both achieved success by lying, cheating, and backstabbing.
AZCoyote on April 29, 2011 at 8:06 AM
Do the math, San Fran Chronicle.
NoLeftTurn on April 29, 2011 at 9:33 AM
Good job!!
Cindy Munford on April 29, 2011 at 10:01 AM