COMMENTARY | Members of the Obama administration's press office need to have their mouths washed out with soap. Numerous journalists covering the White House beat reported "nasty gram" emails as well as multiple yelling and cursing phone calls from the press secretary Jay Carney's office, according to the Washington Post.
Life is not a kindergarten classroom and flared tempers are to be expected on occasion, but a modicum of professionalism is also necessary. Perhaps the Obama administration has finally come to realize that not every journalist will get a tingle up their leg while discussing the president's actions.
The media and politicians should never become best friends. Presidential press staff members engaging in heated banter with journalists is not a new scenario, but the Obama administration is employing an edgier and street wise set of rules when dealing with reporters attempting to get answers for the American public. An intelligent individual does not need to resort to cursing and screaming to get a point across. The playground retaliatory behavior not only condoned but engaged in by Carney is beneath the office of the presidency of the United States.
White House Correspondents' Association President Caren Bohan told the Post that multiple reporters had complained about their dealings with Obama administration media officials. It is doubtful that any reporters from MSNBC have been the recipients of Carney's vulgar wrath. Tossing softball questions at the president will keep the MSNBC reporters on the press secretary's good side.
Journalist Julie Mason received a "nasty gram" email from Carney after reading one of her articles which he felt was partisan and tendentious, according to the Post. After watching a television interview which included Mason, National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor sent her an email with an animated image of a crying mime, implicating she was a whiner, according to the Post. Behaving like petulant children is not appropriate for public employees drawing large salaries funded by the American taxpayer.
Carney should have thought about the legacy the Obama administration will leave before sending the "nasty grams" to journalists. The electronic communications are now a part of the officials Obama White House archives. An adversarial relationship with the press is acceptable, but the juvenile emails and shouted swear words just diminish any credibility the Obama administration has left.
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