Oh NOoooooo...Obama's TV ratings slide: press conference down 29%

from The Live Feed

Obama's ratings slide: press conference down 29%

Audience interest in Barack Obama’s news conferences seems to be falling, with Wednesday’s press event drawing the president’s smallest primetime audience since his inauguration.

The telecast to mark Obama’s 100th day in office was viewed by 28.8 million people, according to Nielsen. That's a 29% drop from the president's last press conference, on March 24, and a 42% fall since his first, on Feb. 9.

Ten networks carried the telecast, which is one less than last time since Fox elected to run its detective drama Lie to Me (7.8 million, 2.3 national adults 18-49 rating) instead. Airing its regular entertainment programming saved Fox ad dollars but didn’t help the show much. Lie pulled the same rating it did last week. Yet, like last week, it won the 8 p.m. hour.

Here's the president's last three primetime news events:

Feb: 9: 49.5 million
March 24: 40.4 million
April 29: 28.8 million
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Who Played The Part of Being STUPID?

This is great. Further proof that no one in the Obama Administration, from the President on down, is ever responsible for anything that goes wrong. It's either someone else's fault, or it's petty finger pointing from the outside. Yeah right!

The White House gave out a dial-in number for a Conference call with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton which actually turned out to be a toll-free number for a Sex Line.

But listen to what the White House had to say when questioned about it:

Asked for comment about this mishap, Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton responded: "A corrected phone number on a press release is probably one of the stupider things FOX News has covered lately."

Yes, he really said that.
Rees

White House Corrects Conference Call Number After Directing Reporters to Sex Line

In a press release, the White House accidentally listed a phone sex number for journalists seeking an "on-the-record briefing call with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security Advisor Jim Jones to discuss the NATO summit."

from FOXNews.com
Thursday, April 02, 2009

Journalists seeking to talk a little foreign policy with high-profile Obama administration officials live from the G20 meetings in London this week were solicited for phone sex instead after ringing up the toll-free number given by the White House.

In a press release, the White House accidentally listed a sex line number for journalists seeking an "on-the-record briefing call with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and National Security Advisor Jim Jones to discuss the NATO summit."

But after dialing, a soft-voiced female recording that was clearly not Clinton asked for a credit card number if you "feel like getting nasty."

After several efforts to make sure that the phone number was correctly dialed, a call to the White House resulted in a corrected press release. "If you are having trouble dialing into the call, please try this number as an alternative," and listed the international line included for reporters abroad to dial.

By this time, the conference call was already under way.

Asked for comment about this mishap, Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton responded: "A corrected phone number on a press release is probably one of the stupider things FOX News has covered lately."

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Billy Mays was at Obama Press Conference

Billy Mays at Obama Press Conference
This probably went better than it would have if the ShamWow guy showed up too.

from THE POWERS THAT BE
March 31,2009

When the L.A. Times criticises Obama, you know the awakening has begun

I don't think that's the White House fence we're looking at. I think those are Jail bars, and we're on the wrong side of them.
Rees
Obama White House bars press from press award ceremony

from The Los Angelos Times
March 21, 2009

We are not making this up:

Barack Obama was elected commander in chief promising to run the most transparent presidential administration in American history.

This achievement and the overall promise of his historic administration caused the National Newspaper Publishers Assn. to name him "Newsmaker of the Year."

The president is to receive the award from the federation of black community newspapers in a White House ceremony this afternoon.

The Obama White House has closed the press award ceremony to the press.

From the president's official schedule:

"Later in the afternoon, the President and the First Lady will attend a reception with the National Newspaper Publisher Association in the State Dining Room, where they will be presented the Newsmaker of the Year award. This event is closed press."

Maybe they'll let the newspaper people pass the award through the fence.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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