Margaret Talev

On Friday's Bill Press radio show, several "objective" journalists agreed with Press that Hurricane Sandy is a big boost for Obama's election hopes. " Looking at Bloomberg’s endorsement and other factors would you have to say that if there were a political winner out of Sandy, it’s President Obama. " This was early Friday morning, before the negative press coverage really began to kick in.

Joining Press in his sanguine assessment were his guests Margaret Talev of Reuters and Susan Page of USA Today. He told Talev:

File the news in this report filed late yesterday afternoon by Michael Calderone and John Cook at Yahoo's Upshot Blog under "D" for Double Standards:

White House reporters mum on Obama lunch, even as papers back transparency

White House reporters are keeping quiet about an off-the-record lunch today with President Obama — even those at news organizations who've advocated in the past for the White House to release the names of visitors.

But the identities of the lunch's attendees won't remain secret forever: Their names will eventually appear on the White House's periodically updated public database of visitor logs.

... The Obama White House began posting the logs in order to settle a lawsuit, begun under the Bush administration, from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), which sought the Secret Service's White House visitor logs under the Freedom of Information Act.

... And guess who filed briefs supporting that argument? Virtually every newspaper that covers the White House.