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Obama’s lack of accountability

The relationship and accountability of the American presidency to the citizenry has been altered sharply during the Obama Administration. This can be clearly seen in the manner in which it interacts with the media.

In terms of direct contact with the press, the Obama White House has held the fewest average press conferences of any Administration since the dawn of the comprehensive news cycle brought about by cable/satellite television, according to the American Presidency Project . George Bush (41) held an average of 34.25 per year, Clinton, 24.13, Bush (43) 26.25, and Obama, 20.38.

Perhaps more important than the number of press conferences is the quality of them. By now, the rather infamous false statements regarding the Affordable Care Act—“If you like your doctor you can keep your doctor,” for example, have become fodder for comedy shows. The significant misstatements about the attack in Benghazi are currently being investigated by Congress.

President Obama’s relationship with the media has been one of intimidation. Consider: The White House has seized phone records of AP reporters; it has bugged laptops of correspondents; it has monitored reporters’ emails; and it has reduced the number of federal employees designated to respond to press inquiries.

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The Administration has not been subjected to the expected criticism of these acts due to its incestuous relationship with key media figures.  The Washington Post reported in 2013 “The list of prominent news people with close White House relations includes ABC News President Ben Sherwood, who is the brother of Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, a top national-security adviser to President Obama. His counterpart at CBS, news division president David Rhodes, is the brother of Benjamin Rhodes, a key foreign-policy specialist. CNN’s deputy Washington bureau chief, Virginia Moseley, is married to Tom Nides, who until earlier this year was deputy secretary of state under Hillary Rodham Clinton. Further, White House press secretary Jay Carney’s wife is Claire Shipman, a veteran reporter for ABC. And NPR’s White House correspondent, Ari Shapiro, is married to a lawyer, Michael Gottlieb, who joined the White House counsel’s office in April.”

Access to government information other than by press conferences has also been denied to a far greater extent than in prior Administrations as well, PBS reported in March. “The Obama administration set a record again for censoring government files or outright denying access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press…It also acknowledged in nearly 1 in 3 cases that its initial decisions to withhold or censor records were improper under the law — but only when it was challenged. Its backlog of unanswered requests at year’s end grew remarkably by 55 percent to more than 200,000. It also cut by 375, or about 9 percent, the number of full-time employees across government paid to look for records. That was the fewest number of employees working on the issue in five years.”