-By Warner Todd Huston
The Old Media is still acting shocked, SHOCKED I tell you, that the Obama administration treats them like a redheaded stepchild. Newsweek’s The Daily Beast, for instance, is incredulous at the “reprehensible” actions of the Obama White House for having the temerity to call NBC to scold the cabler over Mark Halperin’s “dick” comment.
You’ll all certainly recall the incident in question. Back on June 30, MSNBC news analyst Mark Halperin unleashed the “d” word on President Obama in an appearance on the cable station’s Morning Joe talk show. Halperin was asked how he thought Obama did in his June 29 press conference and in reply Halperin joked that Obama had been “a dick.”
From there Halperin’s world went topsy turvy to the point where everyone was apologizing on the set of the TV show and only hours later MSNBC was suspending its analyst “indefinitely.”
But one other little part of this story is what brought the ire of Newsweek’s Douglas Schoen and Judith Miller and for good reason, too. The White House called NBC to complain about Halperin’s language. How is it possible, Newsweek wondered, that the White House was so bold as to attempt to intimidate NBC? Worse, why did NBC buckle under that pressure?
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Newsweek: White House Intimidation of NBC ‘Reprehensible’”