The Nation‘s Ari Melber has, according to his headline, “The Solution to Obama’s BP Press Problem.” Writes Melber:
Obama is rightly annoyed by the made-for-TV quality of oil spill criticism — the main character needs to show more anger in this scene — but instead of complaining on TV about TV, he should try changing the channel. He could hold more press conferences, and invite not only White House reporters, but also environmental experts for a deeper exchange on the crisis… To engage people in the Gulf region, he could dust off some of the technology from the old days and convene an unfiltered, online town hall for the most popular questions from regular people and citizen media on the ground.
In other words, the solution to the White House’s press woes is pretty obvious: Stop complaining about the media you have, and start engaging the media you want.
“The media [the White House] wants” are… which, exactly?
Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.