What happened to Obama's press conferences?

After a year in office, Mr. Obama has managed to do what every modern president may have wanted to do but never did: effectively shut out the reporters who work just a few feet from the Oval Office. He has not had a full-scale White House news conference in seven months, the longest such stretch by any president in a decade. And he has made a practice of not taking reporters’ questions at day-to-day events, as other presidents did.

None of that means that Mr. Obama has shielded himself from public scrutiny. But he has fundamentally altered the way a president deals with the news media. Instead of open-ended sessions with multiple reporters, he prefers one-on-one interviews, particularly with television anchors. He gives far more interviews than his two most recent predecessors did, reflecting the conclusion that the format is a more effective means for getting his message through…

“I would never have been bold enough to say totally ignore the mainstream media when it comes to pool sprays,” said Ari Fleischer, a White House press secretary for President George W. Bush. “And what’s even more breathtaking is, he’s been able to carve out the mainstream media and he’s getting away with it.”