Barack Obama's White House is spending more than $80,000 a week to staff its old and new media offices. Add the price of speechwriters and the White House communications tab reaches nearly $100,000 a week, or nearly $5 million a year-and that is for salaries alone. [snip]He's on TV every day. This Sunday he'll be on all the shows but Fox (the cable news network with the highest viewership by key measures).
The White House irritated the press corps earlier this year when it prevented reporters from covering the President's photo op with the national championship women's basketball team from the University of Connecticut. Instead, Obama's own media team produced a professional-style video report and released it several days after the event.
ABC News White House reporter Jake Tapper wondered, "Do Obama White House officials think their media coverage isn't flattering enough?"
They have no rational reason not to trust a press corps that thinks Obama is "sort of God" (according to Evan Thomas), arranges questions with the press team and airs one-sided special reports from the White House. But it's obvious from the way the White House has been controlling reporters at press conferences, producing its own pool reports and orchestrating faux town halls that Obama wants even more unfiltered control over both his message and his public image than past presidents.
He is willing to pay millions of taxpayer dollars to achieve that goal.
Overall, Obama is spending about 12 percent more for his communications operation than Bush-$4.97 million compared with $4.44 million. Along with Jarrett in the public engagement office, the top earners at $172,200 are communications director Anita Dunn, press secretary Robert Gibbs and speechwriting director Jonathan Favreau.
One good side of this--perhaps The One will hasten the decline of the old media monopoly--along with the effectiveness of his message.
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