Obama’s Staged Healthcare ‘Town Hall’ Questioned By Press

Posted by ralph on July 2, 2009

Michael D. Shear and Jose Antonio Vargas, Washington Post: In the stage-managed event, questions for Obama came from a live audience selected by the White House and the college, and from Internet questions chosen by the administration’s new-media team. Of the seven questions the president answered, four were selected by his staff from videos submitted to the White House Web site or from those responding to a request for “tweets.”

The president called randomly on three audience members. All turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration: the Service Employees International Union, Health Care for America Now, and Organizing for America, which is a part of the Democratic National Committee. White House officials said that was a coincidence.

Here’s CBS’s Chip Reid and Helen Thomas questioning Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on the “tightly controlled” town hall meeting. Thomas accused the White House of “controlling the press” and said almost all Obama events are “prepackaged.”

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