Thread: A reporter heckled Obama today?

Unprecedented reporter heckle interrupts major Obama immigration remarks

1. It is not heckling when a reporter asks a politician, an elected office holder with obligations to the public, a legitimate question. That includes asking the President to answer how he believes his new policy will affect US workers who are currently unemoployed.

2. It is not unprecedented for reporters to shout out questions during a press conference. Happened to GW Bush all the time.

3. This is not disrespect for the President. It is the President showing disrespect to the press corps and to the public in general when he absolutely refuses to answer questions during a press conference. And he does this regularly.

4. If Mr. Obama and his supporters want the public to show more respect for him tell him respect is EARNED, not conferred.

Obama Heckled By Reporter At The White House

"Why do you favour foreigners over American workers?" shouted Neil Munro, a reporter for the conservative website The Daily Caller.

newssky.com
3:00pm UK, Saturday June 16, 2012
Greg Milam, Washington correspondent

video: Link: Obama Heckled By Reporter At The White House - Neil Munro | World News | Sky News

US President Barack Obama has been heckled by a reporter while making a statement on immigration at the White House.

It is almost unheard of for the president to be interrupted by a reporter in such a way.

Mr Obama was announcing a new policy that gives young illegal immigrants the chance to stay in the United States and apply for work permits.

"Why do you favour foreigners over American workers?" shouted Neil Munro, a reporter for the conservative website The Daily Caller.

Mr Obama was clearly irritated by the disruption and stopped reading from his statement, telling Munro: "It is not time for questions."

Munro later interrupted him again, prompting Mr Obama to say: "I didn't ask for an argument. I'm answering your question."
The reporter was roundly condemned by other members of the White House press corps for breaching a long-standing protocol.

Members of the media frequently shout questions to the president after he has finished reading prepared statements but it is very rare for a journalist to interrupt him.

Munro said: "I always go to the White House prepared with questions for our president. I timed the question believing the president was closing his remarks because naturally I have no intention of interrupting the president of the United States."

But Daily Caller editor-in-chief Tucker Carlson defended Munro, saying: "A reporter's job is to ask questions and get answers.


Neil Munro's boss has defended his actions

"Our job is to find out what the federal government is up to. Politicians often don't want to tell us. A good reporter gets the story. We're proud of Neil Munro."

The Daily Caller was founded by Mr Carlson, a conservative commentator, and Neil Patel who was an adviser to former vice president Dick Cheney.

What was lost in the furore was the significance of Mr Obama's announcement. It is a move that is sure to win him support among Hispanic voters in an election year.

It has been a bad few weeks for the president with poor unemployment figures, condemnation for his saying that "the private sector is doing just fine" and allegations his White House has been leaking sensitive information.

Opinion polls have shown Mr Obama running neck-and-neck with Republican challenger Mitt Romney ahead of November's election.

source: Obama Heckled By Reporter At The White House - Neil Munro | World News | Sky News

RELATED ..

Neil Munro explains his exchange with President Obama in Rose Garden [VIDEO]

Associated Press, 1987: 'Why Do Grown Men And Women Shout At President Reagan?'

By Tom Blumer | June 16, 2012

You'd think from the reaction to Daily Caller White House Correspondent Neal Munro's shouted question during President Obama's announcement of de facto amnesty for 30-and-under illegal aliens at the Rose Garden yesterday that it's the first time any reporter has ever shouted a question at a U.S. president out of turn.

Friday afternoon, the Daily Caller, Munro's employer, carried his explanation of the incident, as well as sturdy defenses from Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson and Publisher Neil Patel.


What follows is some historical perspective ("Why Do Grown Men And Women Shout At President Reagan?") coming from (yes, really) Associated Press writer Christopher Connell in October 1987 which is more than necessary in the circumstances (save here in full for fair use and discussion purposes; key items underlined by me).
Here it is:




Comments on the underlined items:

• Not only did they "do it for a living," they did it almost constantly during Reagan's eight years, almost regardless of the circumstances. It appeared to be a strategy designed to make the president appear aloof and stand-offish, when by 1987 (which is probably why Connell decided to cover it) it was clear that the press's image had been severely tarnished by its years-long virtually non-stop childishness.
• It got so bad that by Reagan's second term, the press was almost routinely interrupting equivalent presidential functions like the one Robert Bork was involved in as described above.
• I believe it's fair to say that Obama and his apparatchiks have limited direct presidential access to Dear Leader far more than Reagan and his handlers ever did. Shoot, at one point (and I believe it's still the case), Obama's people were deciding ahead of time who in the press would get the privilege of asking him questions.

Now, all of a sudden, Neil Munro is a "heckler" getting a beat-down from the White House Correspondents Association amid speculation that The Daily Caller might "lose its access to the President and to the White House." What a bunch of flaming, presidential boot-licking hypocrisy.

Read more: Associated Press, 1987: 'Why Do Grown Men And Women Shout At President Reagan?' | NewsBusters.org

He was so pissed he nearly ripped the knob off the door! "How dare you question, your King!"
Funny I always picture him being drug off in a strait jacket screaming "I'm the President! Damn you!"

This man makes me ill. He is a parasitic infection, horribly deceitful in his language and anti-American in his actions. We won't survive another term of this treasonous criminal.