For a second day, the “pool” of reporters in Florida to cover President Obama’s golfing weekend refused to be dismissed by the White House, stationing in a maintenance shed near the super exclusive course the president is golfing at for his 223rd round of golf since taking office.
The first “pool report” of the day said that the president’s team said he wouldn’t be making news or appearing in public, thus declaring a news “lid” and allowing the media to stay at their hotel 15 miles away.
But as they did Saturday the reporters opted to stay close to Obama in case something happened during his golf outing in Palm City.
Photog Eric and I at church praying the pres will give us an exclusive #tcobama pic.twitter.com/8o0Q3EPFiI
— Cynthia Washam (@CynWasham) March 29, 2015
“Pool again opted to hold in the maintenance shed and/or our bus starting around 9 A.M.,” wrote the Wall Street Journal’s Byron Tau, the print pooler in his morning report. On Saturday, the media also refused to be dismissed and voted to stay in the shed, though nothing happened to Obama — as far as the pool knows.
The press corps traveled with Obama on Air Force One to the exclusive Floridian National Golf Course. It had no expectation of seeing Obama, since the media very rarely is allowed to get near him on golf courses, but they pledged to carry out their pool duties and stay nearby as long as he was in public. Obama also stayed overnight at the course.
The local Treasure Coast Palm news website, TCPalm.com, ran a blog on the trip but no pictures of the president from the golf course. Two reporters joked about praying for an interview.
The last time Obama played at the course, the press was dismissed then later found out that the president had played with Tiger Woods, a big story that angered the media. On Saturday, he played with former Miami Heat star Alonzo Mourning and former NFL player and sportscaster Ahmad Rashad.
For this trip, the White House Correspondents’ Association and the White House worked up a contingency plan if the media decided to stay near Obama, as they have done.
The White House preferred to call an early news lid, but a deal was cut to set up the work shed and bus if the reporters on the scene decided to stay close.
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
