White House Sets Ground Rules for Local Interviews
The White House is doing something with its local TV interviews that it could not easily get away with in encounters with the White House press corps, which President Obama has been studiously ignoring: choosing the topic about which President Obama and the reporter will talk.
In interviews with three local TV stations Monday, two from states critical to Obama’s reelection effort, Obama held forth on the possibility of “sequestration” if he and Congress fail to reach a budget deal, allowing him to make his favorite political point that Republicans are willing to cause grievous harm to the economy and jobs in order to protect the rich from tax increases.
Obama Monday threw the White House press corps a bone by suddenly appearing in the briefing room for 22 minutes and taking questions from a total of four reporters. It was his first press conference at the White House – albeit in miniature – since March, and only his second of the year. Obama before Monday had taken exactly one substantive question from White House reporters since June.
But the three other interviews Obama also held Monday pointed to the advantage he gets by focusing on local press, with whom he has been speaking more regularly.
Under sequestration, if a budget deal is not reached by the end of the year, harsh automatic spending cuts will occur. Each of the network reporters were from cities with major military facilities that could be unduly impacted if sequestration occurs.
Two of the reporters were from Norfolk, Virginia and Jacksonville, Florida, both presidential battleground states. The third was from San Diego.
The reporters mostly made no effort to hide the arrangement. “The president invited me to talk about sequestration,” NBC 7 San Diego’s reporter told her audience. In the interview, she set Obama up with a perfectly pitched softball the president couldn’t have been more eager to take a swing at:
more
White House Sets Ground Rules for Local Interviews | The Blog on Obama: White House Dossier
h/t Drudge
and here's a better one:
Read More » ExclusiveSee the Email Explaining How the Albuquerque Radio Station Landed the ‘Red or Green’ Interview With Obama
TheBlaze has obtained an exclusive copy of an email sent to radio stations in key battleground states detailing how a radio station in New Mexico was able to score a now-infamous fluff interview with President Obama last week.
That email, which was sent on Friday afternoon, came from a promotions consultant within the radio community that works with Albuquerque’s KOB-FM — the station that hosted the interview Friday morning — and was billed as a type of how-to guide for others to follow. TheBlaze has chosen to redact the specific names and stations involved in order to protect the source.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/exc...landed-the-red-or-green-interview-with-obama/
The White House is doing something with its local TV interviews that it could not easily get away with in encounters with the White House press corps, which President Obama has been studiously ignoring: choosing the topic about which President Obama and the reporter will talk.
In interviews with three local TV stations Monday, two from states critical to Obama’s reelection effort, Obama held forth on the possibility of “sequestration” if he and Congress fail to reach a budget deal, allowing him to make his favorite political point that Republicans are willing to cause grievous harm to the economy and jobs in order to protect the rich from tax increases.
Obama Monday threw the White House press corps a bone by suddenly appearing in the briefing room for 22 minutes and taking questions from a total of four reporters. It was his first press conference at the White House – albeit in miniature – since March, and only his second of the year. Obama before Monday had taken exactly one substantive question from White House reporters since June.
But the three other interviews Obama also held Monday pointed to the advantage he gets by focusing on local press, with whom he has been speaking more regularly.
Under sequestration, if a budget deal is not reached by the end of the year, harsh automatic spending cuts will occur. Each of the network reporters were from cities with major military facilities that could be unduly impacted if sequestration occurs.
Two of the reporters were from Norfolk, Virginia and Jacksonville, Florida, both presidential battleground states. The third was from San Diego.
The reporters mostly made no effort to hide the arrangement. “The president invited me to talk about sequestration,” NBC 7 San Diego’s reporter told her audience. In the interview, she set Obama up with a perfectly pitched softball the president couldn’t have been more eager to take a swing at:
more
White House Sets Ground Rules for Local Interviews | The Blog on Obama: White House Dossier
h/t Drudge
and here's a better one:
Read More » ExclusiveSee the Email Explaining How the Albuquerque Radio Station Landed the ‘Red or Green’ Interview With Obama
TheBlaze has obtained an exclusive copy of an email sent to radio stations in key battleground states detailing how a radio station in New Mexico was able to score a now-infamous fluff interview with President Obama last week.
That email, which was sent on Friday afternoon, came from a promotions consultant within the radio community that works with Albuquerque’s KOB-FM — the station that hosted the interview Friday morning — and was billed as a type of how-to guide for others to follow. TheBlaze has chosen to redact the specific names and stations involved in order to protect the source.
From: [Redacted]
Date: August 19, 2012 3:04:49 PM EDT
To: [Redacted]
Subject: [Redacted]
The President has been doing morning show interviews in “battleground” states and/or states that are leaning Dem. And you are both on that map. The request comes, at least in New Mexico, from the state campaign office. In KOB-FM’s case it was between them and “another station”. The campaign did some kind of street-level poll and KOB came back as the one they felt was most appropriate.
They won’t give you specific questions to ask and all they want in return were some examples of the kinds of questions. They specifically did NOT want anything political and the goal I think is to present him as just a normal dude. They used “basketball and music” as a couple of thought-starters.
So, first, reach out to the state office and use the fact that [redacted] and KOB-FM in Albuquerque have done some great interviews and you’d love to have him on.
Then, work up some questions. The NM station’s were perfect because they were hyper local and showed that he knew New Mexico. Which was the whole point of him doing the interview:
1. Red or Green chili? (you can’t get more local than that)
2. Favorite New Mexico food? (he loves him some mole’)
3. They make a TON of movies in Albuquerque. There are usually three being shot at any given time, and since “The Avengers” was the most recent smash filmed there, as the leader of the free world, are there any super powers he wished he had? (that he could speak every language in the world)
4. Favorite music to work out to? (Beyonce)
5. Everyone is sending their kids back to school; what was the best advice he ever got as a kid? (Not to be limited to just one thing, like athletics or theater or scholastics)
If they’d done anything traditional or political, they wouldn’t have gotten the interview, no one would have cared and it wouldn’t literally be linked on 10,000 websites and STILL trending on CNN. Hit them up. Who knows? You might sneak through the radar and snag the Prez.
complete article:Date: August 19, 2012 3:04:49 PM EDT
To: [Redacted]
Subject: [Redacted]
The President has been doing morning show interviews in “battleground” states and/or states that are leaning Dem. And you are both on that map. The request comes, at least in New Mexico, from the state campaign office. In KOB-FM’s case it was between them and “another station”. The campaign did some kind of street-level poll and KOB came back as the one they felt was most appropriate.
They won’t give you specific questions to ask and all they want in return were some examples of the kinds of questions. They specifically did NOT want anything political and the goal I think is to present him as just a normal dude. They used “basketball and music” as a couple of thought-starters.
So, first, reach out to the state office and use the fact that [redacted] and KOB-FM in Albuquerque have done some great interviews and you’d love to have him on.
Then, work up some questions. The NM station’s were perfect because they were hyper local and showed that he knew New Mexico. Which was the whole point of him doing the interview:
1. Red or Green chili? (you can’t get more local than that)
2. Favorite New Mexico food? (he loves him some mole’)
3. They make a TON of movies in Albuquerque. There are usually three being shot at any given time, and since “The Avengers” was the most recent smash filmed there, as the leader of the free world, are there any super powers he wished he had? (that he could speak every language in the world)
4. Favorite music to work out to? (Beyonce)
5. Everyone is sending their kids back to school; what was the best advice he ever got as a kid? (Not to be limited to just one thing, like athletics or theater or scholastics)
If they’d done anything traditional or political, they wouldn’t have gotten the interview, no one would have cared and it wouldn’t literally be linked on 10,000 websites and STILL trending on CNN. Hit them up. Who knows? You might sneak through the radar and snag the Prez.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/exc...landed-the-red-or-green-interview-with-obama/
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