ED HENRY: "Dozens of media organizations wrote to you about this. ... What's being done to actually improve that access?” (Via The White House)
As perhaps no one knows better than White House Press Secretary Jay Carney, the press does not like to be denied.
HENRY: "We're not allowed on that same platform. That was just a couple days ago." (Via The White House)
The whole thing started Wednesday with an op-ed in The New York Times by Associated Press Directory of Photography Santiago Lyon — quite strongly titled, "Obama's Orwellian Image Control."
He called official White House photos like these "propaganda" and noted the White House press corps had only been allowed to photograph the president alone in the Oval Office twice.
In November, the White House Correspondents' Association sent a letter to the White House protesting its practice of releasing official photos in lieu of allowing actual press access to certain events.
Events like the president's July 10 meeting with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
And his October meeting with Pakistani human rights activist Malala Yousafzai.
Cut to Thursday: A full 17 minutes of the press briefing were spent on the issue of photographer access. There was some yelling:
"Guys! Our problem is the access!"
And a lot of interrupting.
"Hold on, John. And so have we. Do you think that — hey, hey, guys." (Via C-SPAN)
While Carney said the White House was working to address the concerns over access, he didn't get specific, so Thursday likely won't be the last he hears of the issue.
