The president of the United States was not happy. Obama had been corrected (he lost Texas by 12 points, not “a few,” in 2008), he was accused of punishing the state for political reasons (he denied that the White House had any part in the decision not to award a space shuttle to Houston), and he was challenged with the most basic of political questions: Why are you so unpopular in Texas? And all that in a setting the White House anticipated would be largely free of tricky questions...Obama unclipped his microphone with no smile in sight, and tersely warned, “Let me finish my answers next time we do an interview, all right?”
Mr. Obama has always had awestruck treatment from the mainstream media, but when he's given even the most mild of adversarial questions, he can't handle it.
The problem: The reporter’s questions weren’t particularly difficult, but they were clearly not what Obama was expecting. The result was a viral video that depicted Obama as angry when faced with tough questioning. And it unveiled some of the degree to which the White House would like to control its message.
In retaliation, the White House will not permit that reporter to ever interview Mr. Obama again.
Pfeiffer was asked by Time reporter Michael Scherer, “So will WFAA's Brad Watson get another interview one day?” Instead of quickly taking the high road, Pfeiffer suggested that Watson may truly be out in the cold after irritating the president. And he did it by revealing yet another trick of Washington communications: playing one news outlet against its rival.HT Drudge.
Here's another look, via Legal Insurrection:
UPDATE: Per the comment below, Dallas is the homebase of the above reporter.
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