Ex-ABC correspondent Ann Compton told C-SPAN she’s seen Barack Obama “really angry” at the press multiple times in the past year, with the president cursing out White House reporters for what he viewed as unfair treatment.
Compton details how in two separate, off-the-record incidents, Obama launched into furious attacks — one “profanity-laced” — against the assembled journalists. “He though the press was making too much of scandals that he didn’t think were scandals,” she said about the first outburst, while the other was driven by what he saw as reporters “not understanding the limits he has with foreign policy, and the way he’s dealing with the Middle East and Iraq and Afghanistan.”
“I don’t find him apologetic,” she continued. “But I find him willing to stand up to the press and look them in the eye — even though it was off-the-record — and just give us hell.”
Compton had little sympathy for the president’s concerns. “We cover what we are allowed to cover,” she said. “And when policy decisions and presidents are inaccessible, and don’t take questions from the press on a regular basis, I think they reap what they sow.”
Via Mediaite.