Doing the Job

This is making the rounds today. Funny, the headline, "White House reporters hector Press Secretary" should be a dog bites man headline. Instead it's the reverse.

Click to view.

Thomas' comment was as follows:

..the point is, the control from here, we have never had that in the White House.

She said "from here", meaning the press office. That produced a few laughs, to which Gibbs immediately seized upon in an effort to wiggle out of his rope but Thomas amended and continued her assault:

I'm amazed at you people, who call for openness and transparency..

Of course she believes the administration is not being liberal enough but she serves a noble purpose--if Helen Thomas is charging them with being more controlling than Bush then they have a problem.

The question is whether the outburst was an aberration of something real. Does it mark a new tone in the press room, one reminiscent of the Bush or Reagan years? Have some in the press room finally awakened to realize their job isn't to sit laughing at Gibbs' goofy humor while scribbling talking points but to actually challenge him?

Whatever the case, with the House locked up and a super-majority in the Senate (and with an opposition party that's a pitiful cartoon of itself) the press corps is the only body standing between Obama and the truth (most bloggers don't count). Let's hope this fire spreads.