WHY IS EVERYTHING “CLOSED PRESS?”
by Sharon Rondeau
(May 9, 2012) — As we reported on May 8, 2012, daily news photos of Obama are sometimes reduced in size, removed from the internet, or very scarce.
Today they are virtually nonexistent. Why?
The only photo of Obama available through Yahoo! news service today is one showing him “on a monitor in the White House briefing room” by Carolyn Kaster. Briefly this evening, the enlarged version was not available, yielding an error message, similar to those of May 8. On the monitor, Obama was giving an interview to ABC News punctuated frequently with “you know” and mistakenly identifying federal legislation as “Defense Against Marriage Act” rather than “Defense of Marriage Act.
A photo from yesterday taken by Kaster shows Obama walking with his head down. An album from May 8 is available in part but can be accessed only by selecting an article about Keith Judd, a Texas prison inmate who won 41% of the Democrat primary votes in West Virginia.
Similar to the 2008 election of Obama, some in West Virginia did not know Judd’s background but were anxious to vote against Obama. In his filing papers, Judd stated that he opposes the health care bill signed by Obama because of its violation of the Tenth Amendment. Judd has reportedly run for office, including that of the president, before. Judd’s other views as stated in his candidate filings are here.
The Weekly Standard is reporting that a website called KeithJudd.com sends the user to Obama’s campaign website.
Where is Obama in this photo? Do some of those in the photograph look upset? Why were there no interviews or news reports following Rasmussen’s meeting with Obama?
All events in which he participated today were “closed press,” other than an evening function when they will host entertainers Burt Bacharach and Hal David. For months, the White House official presidential schedule does not reveal Obama’s future schedule.
A veterans’ group has criticized Obama in a series of new videos for exploiting the bin Laden raid carried out on May 1, 2011 in a campaign commercial narrated by Bill Clinton. An “investigative” newspaper critical of the veterans’ organization and calling its leaders an “astroturfer” equated the videos to “swift-boating” Obama, referring to Dr. Jerome Corsi and John O’Neill’s book, Unfit for Command, released during the 2004 presidential campaign.
Judd might qualify for a delegate at the Democrat National Convention this summer, and there might be a volunteer for the job.
Are Americans again voting for an unknown? How many “unknowns” will it take before we begin to vet candidates seriously and deeply?
What would we have found if that had occurred with Obama before the 2008 election? Would we have found that he was born in Indonesia, among other things? Did someone have a copy of Obama’s birth certificate after all? Are questions about his birthplace and background “mythology?”
What would “Unknown” say about the presidential vetting process?
Will the press be more open this time?
Update, 9:17 EDT: Sine the publication of this article, several more photos of Obama are now showing on Yahoo! news, including one from his evening of entertainment.