NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham appeared Tuesday night on “Cavuto” on the Fox Business Channel to discuss former ABC reporter Ann Compton’s revelation that President Obama unleashed angry, even “profanity-laced” tirades at the press in off-the-record briefings.
"My guess in this case, it's safe to uncork a profanity laced tirade when you’re off the record,” Graham said. “I would argue that it was probably designed to get them to stop saying anything about so-called Obama scandals on the air or in their newspapers. It’s winning through intimidation.”
GRAHAM: If you look at the interview itself, as we did on NewsBusters, she talks very favorably about how George H.W. Bush sort of snipped at her one day and then wrote her a nice letter of apology, and she said I got nothing of the sort from Obama. Obama doesn't apologize.
The contrast is quite obvious and we all know it instinctively, and that is that Republican presidents know that they're going to be pressed very hard on their scandals or on whatever their policies are. Democratic presidents expect to be pampered. They get very angry when they feel the news media is “distracting the public” with scandals or with news stories they don't want to be news stories.
Cavuto asked if the press is getting “a little restless” at this point in the Obama presidency, or will they continue to “give the administration some slack.” Graham said bet on the slack.
