Chip Reid, Obama, and 'Freedom of the Press Act'

This was such a joke -- Obama yapping about how valuable a free press is, and then refusing to talk to the press.

White House transcript:

THE PRESIDENT: Well, hello, everybody. I am very proud to be able to sign the Daniel Pearl Freedom of the Press Act, a piece of legislation that sends a strong signal about our core values when it comes to the freedom of the press.

All around the world there are enormously courageous journalists and bloggers who, at great risk to themselves, are trying to shine a light on the critical issues that the people of their country face; who are the frontlines against tyranny and oppression. And obviously the loss of Daniel Pearl was one of those moments that captured the world’s imagination because it reminded us of how valuable a free press is, and it reminded us that there are those who would go to any length in order to silence journalists around the world.

What this act does is it sends a strong message from the United States government and from the State Department that we are paying attention to how other governments are operating when it comes to the press. It has the State Department each year chronicling how press freedom is operating as one component of our human rights assessment, but it also looks at countries that are -- governments that are specifically condoning or facilitating this kind of press repression, singles them out and subjects them to the gaze of world opinion in ways that I think are extraordinarily important.

Oftentimes without this kind of attention, countries and governments feel that they can operate against the press with impunity. And we want to send a message that they can’t.

So this legislation, in a very modest way, I think puts us clearly on the side of journalistic freedom. I want to thank Adam Schiff in the House and Senator Chris Dodd in the Senate for their leadership. And I particularly want to thank the Pearl family, who have been so outspoken and so courageous in sending a clear message that, despite Daniel’s death, his vision of a well-informed citizenry that is able to make choices and hold governments accountable, that that legacy lives on.

So we are very grateful to them. I’m grateful to the legislative leaders who helped to pass this. It is something that I intend to make sure our State Department carries out with vigor. And with that, I’m going to sign the bill.

(The bill is signed.)

There you go. Thank you, everybody. Appreciate it.

Q Speaking of press freedom, could you answer a couple of questions on BP?

THE PRESIDENT: You’re certainly free to ask them, Chip.

Q Will you answer them? How about a question on Iran?

THE PRESIDENT: We won’t be answering -- I’m not doing a press conference today, but we’ll be seeing you guys during the course of this week. Okay?

Video.


This really is priceless.

Freedom of the Press Act.

NO QUESTIONS!

Here's video of Chip Reid talking about his exchange with Obama:



Transcript

TOMMY CHRISTOPHER: I saw from the pool report that you tried to ask a question this morning while they were signing the Freedom of the Press Act.

CHIP REID: I did. I thought the irony was too rich to resist it. But he signed the Freedom of the Press Act, and then as he did on Friday after he gave his statement in the Rose Garden about BP, I suspected he was going to refuse to take questions here, too.

So I asked him a question about BP. He ignored it. And I said, 'Well, Mr. President, in the interest of press freedom might you consider a couple of questions on BP.'

And I did get a little bit of a smile out of him, and he said, 'Well, you can ask the questions, Chip.' And somebody else said, 'Well, will you answer them?' And he said, 'Well, this is not a press conference today. We'll be getting back to you later in the week,' which I assume he was referring to the press conference that's expected when he's in the Rose Garden or wherever he's going to be, East Room, depending on weather, with the president of Mexico. But that of course will be one of those one or two questions a side, not a real press conference.

So, it was just a way of kind of expressing the frustration with the press corps that he does so little in the way of press conferences and answering questions from us. You know, he does plenty of interviews but he does not take a lot of questions in impromptu situations.