New rule for WH press corps: stop asking questions when you see the President

Say, didn’t Jay Carney once work in journalism — you know, that profession that Speaks Truth to Power, holds government accountable, afflicts-the-comfortable-while-comforting-the-afflicted?  It seems that either he has forgotten that Speaking Truth to Power requires at the very least Asking Questions to Power first, although Carney didn’t forget to play his Moral Authority Card yesterday when telling the White House press corps that they wouldn’t be allowed into the debt-ceiling meeting.  They had rudely transgressed by “shouting” questions at Barack Obama:

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When asked today why TV crews and print reporters were barred from the pool covering the White House meeting with congressional leaders on the deficit, Carney responded by pointing out that the administration has held two press conferences in the past two weeks and allowed TV cameras into the spray earlier this week.

“People shouted questions at him,” Carney said. He then added, “The purpose of the meeting is not to create a circus, but to negotiate, so today we’re doing stills only.”

The White House Correspondents’ Association has protested exclusion of print and TV from pools — and several reporters in the briefing room took Carney’s comment as an annoyed expression of presidential displeasure with shouted questions. …

“I used to be where you are, and I used to ask questions,” the former journalist reminded his press corps.

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First Obama stomps out on the meeting yesterday because Cantor kept asking Obama questions, and now the entire White House press corps has to go into time out for the same reason. This may be the most thin-skinned President since Richard Nixon.

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