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CNBC Anchor: Studio Cheers after Obama Makes 'Openness' Announcement

By Jeff Poor | January 21, 2009 | 17:04

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After nearly two years of favorable treatment from seemingly every corner of the media since he announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2006, Obama is still finding ways to delight his biggest fans.

On his first day on the job, Obama announced "a new standard of openness" at a swearing in ceremony for senior members of his administration. According to CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, that was greeted with cheers from the CNBC studio.

"Not to belabor the whole point of the Freedom of Information Act, but politically brilliant in a way to immediately co-opt the press," Caruso-Cabrera said on CNBC's Jan. 21 "Power Lunch." "I mean a big cheer went up here - journalists of the world rejoice and automatically you have pleased a big part of the folks that are going to be covering you."

One of Caruso-Cabrera's "Power Lunch" co-hosts, Dennis Kneale, was a bit more skeptical about Obama's FOIA revelation and question

"Look, the guy's new on the job and there might be a little bit of naivety - and I'm going to be fascinated to watch two things," Kneale said. "First, very soon there will come something that he doesn't want to go public and he wants to withhold it because he feels like it's important on the FOIA and I can't wait to see first example, because man, the press is going to kill him with what he just said."

The financial press often criticized the Bush administration not being transparent about the use of bailout funds. CNBC's rival network, Fox Business Network, filed a lawsuit late last year against the Treasury Department for failure to comply with FOIA about bailout funds.

There have been other reported instances of cheering for Obama in the media. On Jan. 15, prior to his swearing in, Obama visited The Washington Post and Michael Calderone of Politico cited a report of cheering and bobbing of coffee cups upon Obama's arrival. But, also according to the report, a spokesperson told Calderone "there's no reason to think there were any reporters cheering."