It seems the White House press corps got a little teed off with the golfer-in-chief because reporters couldn’t tag along on President Obama’s weekend golf outing with Tiger Woods.
The only journalist allowed on the links for the ‘historic’ day of golf was Golf Digest writer Tim Rosaforte, whose thumbs are probably sore from tweeting the whole time.
Ed Henry, the Fox News reporter who is president of the WHCA, issued a stern statement protesting the exclusion (via Huffington Post):
“Speaking on behalf of the White House Correspondents Association, I can say a broad cross section of our members from print, radio, online and TV have today expressed extreme frustration to me about having absolutely no access to the President of the United States this entire weekend. There is a very simple but important principle we will continue to fight for today and in the days ahead: transparency.”
Leaving aside the entire ‘transparency’ and ‘Obama administration’ duplicity for a moment, the White House press corps should reconsider their self-aggrandizement in terms of what they should be entitled to cover, and determine if a Tiger Woods-golf-outing hill is worth dying on.
It’s not like the president was golfing with, say, Kim Jong-un of North Korea, or Pope Benedict XVI (who will, incidentally, have time for golf when he retires in a few weeks).
There is also a be careful what you wish for element to this. Tagging along for 18 holes with a host of equipment-jostling, pushy journalists isn’t a whole lot of fun. I did this as a sports intern for a Toledo television station when then-megahoopstar Charles Barkley played a round as part of the Jamie Farr Toledo Classic.
I think I still have marks on my shoulder from carrying a camera tripod around 18 holes of the Highland Meadows Golf Club.
Rather than gripe about their lack of access for a relatively non-presidential news weekend, the White House reporters may want to spend their idle time brushing up on the important stuff like, say, Benghazi. Or Iran. Or drones. That way, when the press corps regains access, they can make the most of it.
That’s what this real news-starved nation needs anyway. Leave the golf reporting to the likes of Mr. Rosaforte.
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