Reporters Discover the White House Attack Machine

UPDATE: Administration officials called young female reporter the c word!

Woodward's revelation unleashed the floodgates. We are now learning of even more examples of abusive and threatening behavior towards journalists by Obama Administration officials. Maureen Callahan in the NY Post has the story. The worst of these was the abuse directed at one young female reporter. The Obama Administration launched it's War on Women claim when Rush Limbaugh called contraception activist Sandra Fluke a prostitute but the abuse directed at this woman is far worse and it's being done by a powerful government official, not a talk show personality! Obama waged a national campaign to rebuke Rush Limbaugh but no action was taken to punish this offense.

Just further proof that when Obama talks about civility, or treating women with respect, it's nothing but empty words!

It isn't just Bob Woodward who spoke truth to power and got abusive or threatening treatment!

On occasion Obama likes to strut around and tell people he's a lot like Reagan. But after four years of Obama thuggery, he's more like Nixon. And not the competent Nixon who reached out to China and ended the Vietnam War. More like the paranoid Nixon who kept an enemies list and actively sought to punish his foes. Pat Caddell, Jimmy Carter's former pollster says  "Obama is the closest thing to Nixon we've seen in 40 years."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/02/28/obama-is-closest-thing-to-nixon-weve-seen-in-40-years/#ixzz2MJM8yCTV

The man who probably knows more about these parallels than most is veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward. In his book The Price of Politics Woodward lays out Obama's unwillingness to be an honest negotiator with Congress. He also describes how the Sequester, which is just the latest in a loooonnnggg line of manufactured financial crises was Obama's idea. Not only did Woodward write that in his book but he has repeated it in interviews and subsequent news columns.

The White House jumped all over him with one high official abusing him with language that could not be printed. In a later email in which he toned down the language the White House official still managed to make what some view as a threat when he said "you will regret staking out that claim."

If this was one White House official behaving in this way we might overlook it. But apparently, it's standard practice to abuse and threaten reporters who stray from the pack of journalists who generally do not question what the White House tells them. Perhaps it explains why many reporters show little curiosity regarding Benghazi, or Fast and Furious or Solyndra.

More examples follow below:

Speaking of Fast and Furious, the Obama Administration gun running scandal in which Brian Terry, an American Border Agent was killed, Sharyl Attkisson, reporting for CBS News, got an angry earful from not one but TWO Obama Administration officials when she dared to ask questions about the scandal. Yelling and screaming profanity at Attkisson as she asked serious questions answers a question in my book.

David Jackson, who covers the White House for USA Today writes "We know more than a few reporters have received similar e-mails from White House officials. Yelling has also been known to happen." Marc Ambinder reports "I have been regularly threatened by the White House....The White House threatens reporters. A lot. "

Ron Fournier of National Journal describes how common this conduct is:

As editor-in-chief of National Journal, I received several e-mails and telephone calls from this White House official filled with vulgarity, abusive language, and virtually the same phrase that Woodward called a veiled threat. “You will regret staking out that claim,” The Washington Post reporter was told…

Lanny Davis, former Special Counsel to President Bill Clinton describes how a White House official threatened to cut off White House access for the newspaper's regular White House reporters if they ran another critical column by Davis.

No wonder younger reporters only offer glowing reports from the White House. Many who don't have the stature of a Woodward or Fournier might find their careers at an end if the White House effectively cut their access to information or to the White House itself.

The practice of bullying and threats is so pervasive at the Obama White House that it's hard to imagine that the impetus for this conduct doesn't come from the President himself. And who would be surprised to find a Chicago politician behaving in this way? What a shame more reporters are so afraid to speak truth to power they won't speak out and expose the real Obama!