Tuesday, February 10, 2009
A Presidential Press Conference First
Greg Sargent, of WhoRunsGov.com (a Washington Post site) writes an interesting blog entry about the significance of President Obama taking a question from the Huffington Post's Sam Stein at last night's press conference. It was the first time that a President had taken a question from a web-based reporter at a press conference. How significant do you think this really is?
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11 comments:
After reading, "The Plum Line," I don't see why so much emphasis was put on the blog question. I think everyone knows that electronic media is increasingly popular, and it's a new time and age calling for a new way to answer questions. The blog may represent the common people, and Obama may have chose to answer directly from a blog to show that he's listening to what everyone has to say and considers it when making his descion.It shows that the American people are moving forward, and shedding off old ways to a more efficient and progressive future.
Megan Gottfried
4th Period Govt
I think the blogger makes an interesting point, in that Obama's decision to call on someone from an online newspaper shows our progress. It is possible that one day all news outlets will be online. But in may not be as big of a deal as he's making it, considering all major newspapers and magazines have websites with all or most of their main articles on it. However, with things like the Huffington Post gaining awareness in the media, we may see more of these popping up in the coming months.
-Holly Parker, 3rd period
I think that this is a really significant event. President Obama's whole campaign has been run around the world change because that's what our country needs. President Obama is just executing his idea of change by picking a reporter from an internet blog. Times have changed and most people now a days read the news on the internet instead of on paper. President Obama has realized this and people are making too big of a deal out of it.
I think it's almost a necessary thing that Barack Obama took this question from the internet based newspaper, just because of how much the internet played in him being elected. He was able to make an unprecedented amount of money by doing something no candidate has ever been able to do on such a large scale, harness the power of the world wide web.
Sorry I left this out.
Charlie Vitale
3rd Period Government
It is not a surprise that our president, whose success in the campaign came from his use of the internet and email to get out to voters, called on an internet based newspaper. Huffpo is known for being a 'liberal site,' but the articles published on the website are extremely accurate and inciteful, and should not be thought of as the liberal counterpart to Fox News.
On the other hand, we should pay more of our attention to Obama's dicisions as far as the economic stimulus in days and weeks to come.
Emilia Sens
4th period gov't
I think it was a significant move on Obama's part. His whole campaign and presidential election has been run on the idea of change and moving forward. Obama's use of the internet at last night's press conference further shows his ability to lead our county in the direction it's headed, which is movement towards more internet based media. -Jessica Tarlton
I agree with the blogger in several different points that he made. I do think that Obama calling on someone from Huffpo is progress, but at the same time, Huffpo is legit, so why should he not call on him? Overall though, I would say that Obama being the first president to do this is appropriate, considering how much the internet was used in his campaign (as several people have said.
Nathan Young
3rd Period Government
Journalism has always been, and will always be, about content. It is the quality of the content that matters, not through what medium the content is presented. If the future medium is the internet, so be it.
What worries me about organizations like The Huffington Post is not that they are part of a new medium. Neither is it that they have a clearly partisan agenda. It is that they are treated as a reliable news organization by the Obama administration that is disappointing. President Obama risks losing credibility if he responds to questions by partisan groups, as they might be more likely to ask easier questions.
President Obama must not try to disguise partisanship as just trying to incorporate new media. There are plenty of online news organizations that are less biased that he can pick from if he wants to seem technologically adept.
Samuel Passaglia
Interesting comments, everyone! I think many of your comments reflected a certain generational divide that exists in our nation. Obviously Mr. Sargent (the author of the blog) believed that Obama calling on the HuffPo reporter was a big deal. I think several of your comments could be summarized as "C'mon, get with the times! Everyone's on the internet."
Thanks for the comments! Everyone that posted before I did received extra credit - even though Sam P was 1 minute past the deadline ;)
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