The new administration’s relationship with the press soured almost instantly as reporters Thursday objected to issues of access and secrecy at the new White House.
After President Obama campaigned on openness and transparency, the administration’s first briefing, on the Guantanamo Bay detention center and the handling of terror suspects, was on background only, by officials who insisted they remain unnamed.
Asked later to justify the enforced secrecy, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said he hoped reporters found it helpful in understanding the issues, but sidestepped why the information had to remain unattributed.
In his first White House briefing, Gibbs was peppered with complaints about access — notably, why Obama’s oath of office do-over on Wednesday night was closed to still and television cameras.
In its first two days, the Obama administration has fallen back on a Clinton administration tactic of closing some of the president’s routine events to press and releasing their own photo. Several news organizations are refusing to publish or air the photos, on the grounds they amount to a visual press release.
“How is it transparent when you control the only image of the swearing-in?” veteran CBS News correspondent Bill Plante asked Gibbs.
Plante also asked about the propriety of Obama giving his only inauguration night interview to rival network ABC News, which paid an estimated $2 million to Obama’s inaugural committee for exclusive rights to broadcast the Neighborhood Ball, the first event Obama and first lady Michelle Obama attended Tuesday night.
“You know, we’ve done interviews throughout the transition process,” Gibbs said. “And no interview is decided on by me or anybody else who works for the president based on who might sponsor an activity.”
