The agitation appears to be increasing among the media as President Obama continues to avoid taking questions from White House reporters. On Friday, Obama's deputy press secretary parried a series of volleys from the White House press corps, all of whom wanted to know when the president would break his over-two-month streak of not formally answering their questions.
The issue has edged its way into the media spotlight in recent days, especially after Obama spoke about the campaign on "Entertainment Tonight" and talked about his music tastes with a New Mexico radio station. That led to acid replies from ABC's Jake Tapper and the "Morning Joe" team. NBC's Andrea Mitchell also had a sharp exchange with Ben LaBolt, the Obama campaign's press secretary, about Obama's AWOL approach. On Friday, she repeated the line of attack with DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
On Friday, multiple reporters asked deputy press secretary Josh Earnest when Obama would appear next before them.
"I don't have any scheduling announcements," Earnest said. He contended that the press has actually "heard quite a bit" from Obama, who he said has been "talking to a number of reporters." He also said that Obama had answered a question shouted at him at a bill signing from a White House reporter, and that the press had been able to air the president's comments to
NBC's Kristen Welker noted that Obama has been talking about things like his views on the song "Call Me Maybe."
"I have no doubt that the president will continue to take questions from the august body of journalists who are in the room," Earnest responded.
Reporters also vented their frustrations to Politico. NBC's Chuck Todd told the site that relations have reached "a new low."
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