You know the White House press corps has laid down and died when you need liberal Sam to point out their sloppy work. From the roundtable discussion at ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos:
STEPHANOPOULOS: You know, George, I’ve always been struck by how — and it’s not too strong a word, how obsessed the President and White House are, with Fox News.
GEORGE WILL: Well, it’s the discordant note in an otherwise harmonious chorus. That’s why. Look, three love affairs in history, are Abelard and Eloise, Romeo and Juliet and the American media and this President at the moment. But this doesn’t matter over time. Reality will impinge. If his programs work, he’s fine. If it doesn’t work, all of the adulation of journalists in the world won’t matter.
STEPHANOPOLOS: Some studies have found the President has gotten an abnormal amount of coverage had coverage his personal life, personal style, celebrity coverage.
BILL KELLER, NEW YORK TIMES: Well. First of all, he’s a fascinating life story. So, the personal side gets covered. Of course, it’s the first obviously African-American family in the White House. But, you know, don’t confuse attention with love. I mean, here is a new President who has promulgated one, huge, ambitious program after another. So, of course, he gets a lot of big, page-one headlines. But I don’t think, at least up until now, it’s been unskeptical or uncritical. Read our business columnists on his approach to the deficit, his quasi-nationalization of the auto industry. He’s getting examined pretty microscopically.
STEPHANOPOULOS: How is the White House press room doing?
SAM DONALDSON: I think it’s doing okay. I mean, they’re going to come to life as the public gets more skeptical-
[loud laughter, led by Stephanopoulos, from the other panelists]
