At Least The British Press Knows Bullshit When They Smell It – With Video
Mar 5, 2009 21 Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Unlike the U.S. Press …
Yesterday: Black President continues to on anglo saxons here.
NRO:
Barack Obama’s UK PR Disaster
by Nile Gardiner
Not content with throwing out a bust of Sir Winston Churchill from the Oval Office, President Obama did his best to keep the British press corps out as well from yesterday’s White House meeting with Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Not only was the British leader humiliatingly denied a joint press conference in the Rose Garden as is customary, but most British Washington correspondents were kept out too. It was widely felt in London that the president was largely disinterested in the whole affair.
[ ... ]
Obama is a very popular figure in Britain, as he is across Europe. But there’s little doubt that yesterday’s White House debacle as well as his clear lack of interest in the Special Relationship will significantly dent his standing in the UK, especially with opinion makers who play a key role in shaping the president’s image across the Atlantic. Not exactly a smart PR move for a new administration that endlessly boasts about “restoring†America’s standing in the world. If this is how the White House treats its closest ally, I hate to think of the kind of reception it is planning for everyone else.
Yeah … sing it, Barry:
President Barack Obama just plain rude to Britain. Don’t call us in future.
By: Iain Martin
Why couldn’t President Obama have put on more of a show for his British guests? He looked like he simply couldn’t be bothered.
Number 10 may be content that they just about got away with the visit to the Oval Office yesterday, as Andrew Porter reports from Washington.
But on this side of the Atlantic the whole business looked pretty demeaning. The morning papers and TV last night featured plenty of comment focused on the White House’s very odd and, frankly, exceptionally rude treatment of a British PM. Squeezing in a meeting, denying him a full press conference with flags etc. The British press corps, left outside for an hour in the cold, can take it and their privations are of limited concern to the public.
But Obama’s merely warmish words (one of our closest allies, said with little sincerity or passion) left a bitter taste with this Atlanticist. Especially after his team had made Number 10 beg for a mini press conference and then not even offered the PM lunch.
We get the point, sunshine: we’re just one of many allies and you want fancy new friends. Well, the next time you need something doing, something which impinges on your national security, then try calling the French, or the Japanese, or best of all the Germans. The French will be able to offer you first rate support from their catering corps but beyond that you’ll be on your own.
When it comes to men, munitions and commitment you’ll soon find out why it pays to at least treat the Brits with some manners.
Barack Obama is running scared of tough questions
By: Tim Shipman
As I predicted at the weekend, Barack Obama read the memo from the Brits and wheeled out the usual boiler plate about the Special Relationship at his all too brief press availability with Gordon Brown.
But there was a lacklustre quality to it all that did little to assuage the fears that he cares not two hoots for the niceties of it all.
I would have more insights on the mood and appearance of the president, but like the other DC based correspondents I was deemed surplus to requirements by the White House, who clearly had no intention of letting British and American journalists question the pair, as is customary, for 40 minutes or more. I’m not even sure the whole of the travelling lobby pack got in.
It is insulting and counter-productive to leave out the very people who cover him day to day. The White House contingent was also a small pool, rather than the full court press you would expect.
The always excellent Alex Massie sums it up thus: “Obama to World: Drop Dead!”
My old boss Benedict Brogan, soon returning to Telegraph towers, aptly describes it all as a “shambles”.
It will doubtless be seen as self-indulgent bleating by the media but there is much about this incident that is revealing about the way President Obama does business.
A Washington Post colleague just called me and said that the White House press corps cannot think of a single previous occasion when a British Prime Minister was treated in this way.
British Embassy staff, irritated themselves, had to twist Robert Gibbs’ arm to get even two questions per side in a quick oval office doorstep. The press availability was initially going to be a ‘pool spray’ with softballs lobbed by the agencies. No10 and the embassy have managed to get this changed. But they were caught spinning that a Rose Garden presser had been cancelled because of the weather. The White House denies a presser was ever planned. In the old days we had cold weather pressers in the Old Executive Office Building, across from the White House.
Why does this matter? Three reasons:
- Major British hack involvement in a full blown press conference has always been regarded as useful by the White House press corps. We ask different questions from them, usually more aggressively and get answers they could not. There were several spiky and revealing moments between President Bush and the BBC political editor Nick Robinson. It is bizarre that Mr Obama is less willing to answer questions than Mr Bush. It reflects very poorly on his tendency towards control freakery, which has been in evidence since his campaign.
- It’s discourteous to Mr Brown, who was desperate for his big moment with the podiums. On his two set piece trips to see Bush there were proper pressers at Camp David and then in the Rose Garden. Why gratify him with the first European trip and then snub his big PR moment? There will be no private relaxation time for Mr Brown with Mr Obama, a given on previous prime ministerial trips. I know he’s busy but it shows that he is not really that interested, as my sources were telling me last week.
- Obama has been running scared of the international media and the British press in particular since the start of his campaign. He didn’t give a single interview to a British outlet even when he was in the UK. This is very unusual, particularly from a man who so desperately wants to be loved on the world stage. We know we’re not special, given Obama’s general contempt for beat reporters (as opposed to his schmoozing with editors), but it is still peculiar.
Mr Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod was the very model of courtesy during the campaign, speaking to correspondents like me at length at campaign events. He seemed to realise the benefit of engaging with the international media. Other insiders like Greg Craig also made themselves available for briefings.
It is a shame that none of this seems to have rubbed off on the president.
