That pesky, annoying media

By Jennifer J. Foster

Published: December 18, 2008

CNN’s Campbell Brown has some words for President-elect Barack Obama about the way he’s treating reporters as the Blagojevich scandal unfolds.

Watch Brown’s commentary, which includes a clip of Obama displaying the behavior Brown discusses.

Brown says that as Obama has summarily dismissed reporters’ questions, he’s been “testy,“ “annoyed” and “intolerant” of topics he doesn’t like.

Given the way he’s gone to cutting off journos in mid-sentence, I would add one more adjective to the list:

Condescending.

If a reporter wants to “waste” (to use Obama’s word) his question in a news conference, so what? Those reporters are big boys and girls. It’s not Obama’s job to save them from themselves. If a reporter asks about Blago and Obama chooses not to answer, so what? The reporter asks the question, Obama says he can’t answer it, the reporter is passed over and they move on.

But it seems to bother Obama that the questions are even being asked. And that’s what Brown’s getting at here: He doesn’t get to pick the questions. He can choose, of course, whether to answer them. But determining who asks what is—shall we say, above his pay grade.