It came up during his Sunday show rounds this week. It came up during his interview with Brian Williams. It came up in a press conference in August. Twice.
President Obama has had no problem voicing his displeasure with cable news this summer. The White House even rescinded a guest appearance with a senior adviser this week after one of the networks did something they didn’t like. Politico’s Jonathan Martin posted an article today delving into the president’s contentious relationship with the cablers:
[“Cable chatter”] has become a frequent shorthand used by Obama to complain about coverage he finds simplistic, process-obsessed and generally geared more toward creating heat than light. Not surprisingly, he employs the term most often when he’s frustrated that attention is being devoted to what he considers distractions to his agenda: The Henry Gates police incident, rowdy town halls, South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson’s outburst — all made-for-cable moments that Obama has come to dismiss as unworthy diversions.Advertisement
WH Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told Politico that he thinks the attitude stems from the campaign season, “You had primarily donors but others, too, who would get fixated by cable and get freaked out and start calling.”
Related: This Sunday on CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” Howard Kurtz will be joined by CNN’s Ed Henry, Bloomberg’s Margaret Carlson, WaPo’s Kathleen Parker, and USA Today’s Lauren Ashburn to discuss whether the conflict between the president and cable news drives coverage.