President Obama

The Society of Professional Journalists and 37 other media organizations sent an open letter to President Obama on Tuesday calling on him to stop stifling the media and provide greater transparency.

On Tuesday, eight weather broadcasters interviewed President Obama and spent the day at the White House. From Al Roker of the Today show to local weathermen and women from Chicago, Miami, Seattle and other cities, the handpicked guests were there, the administration hoped, to spread the word contained in a landmark new report, the National Climate Assessment, that the warming climate is causing sweeping change across the United States.

President Barack Obama doesn’t particularly care for talking to reporters, but get him  in an off-the-record setting with a small group of opinion columnists and he’ll talk for hours. “He likes the intellectual sparring element of it,” according to a source familiar with the president’s thinking.

President Obama will look to intensify pressure on House Republicans to act on immigration reform with four television interviews on Spanish-language networks this week.

In this unprecedented global war, President Obama has been backed by the combined power of Justice Department prosecutors, FBI surveillance agents, State Department diplomats and, perhaps most troubling of all, a cadre of high-profile Benedict Arnolds within the media itself.

President Barack Obama loves to watch sports — and the people who want to catch his eye know it. Companies and trade associations are doing something a little strange: they’re buying up airtime on ESPN. Media strategists offer up the all-sports network as an option to clients who want to get their issues in front of Obama and top White House officials, known as big sports fans and rabid ESPN watchers.

Continuing to hunt for a political advantage in the fight over the looming sequester, President Obama on Wednesday will conduct interviews with eight local television stations in an attempt to intensify pressure on congressional Republicans. The interviews come just a day after Obama warned the $85 billion in automatic cuts would take a “meat cleaver” to the country’s economy and military readiness.

President Obama: “One of the biggest factors [in getting the parties to work together] is going to be how the media shapes debates. If a Republican member of Congress is not punished on Fox News or by Rush Limbaugh for working with a Democrat on a bill of common interest, then you’ll see more of them doing it. The same dynamic happens on the Democratic side. I think the difference is just that the more left-leaning media outlets recognize that compromise is not a dirty word.”

In a letter sent Friday night to Obama campaign manager Jim Messina, NBC told the Obama campaign to cease using network footage in a new 30-second spot, released shortly after Wednesday’s debate, in which Andrea Mitchell is shown on air citing an independent analysis that Mitt Romney’s tax plan would cost $4.8 trillion over 10 years.

Could Mitt Romney really be ceding a big Olympics stage to President Obama? In a deal with NBCUniversal, the Obama campaign has placed a $6 million national Olympics ad buy comprising running a primetime spot 15 straight nights on NBC, beginning Friday during the Opening Ceremony.

President Barack Obama’s approval ratings may not be great, but he can still draw a TV audience. Obama’s appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno lifted the show to its highest Tuesday ratings since March 2, 2010, the night after Leno returned to the show.

There is no scheduling drama over President Barack Obama’s speech Thursday on jobs between the White House and the broadcast networks. The networks will all carry the speech, which, in a rare occasion, is not in primetime as it starts at 7 p.m. ET. NBC was the only network that had to make a significant adjustment as it had the NFL kickoff pre-game scheduled for 7, leading into the 8:30 season-opening game between the Saints and the Packers. The pre-game is being moved to NBC’s sibling cable channels Versus, USA, Syfy and G4 as well as the NFL Network, with NBC joining the program in progress immediately after the president’s address.

American football fans can rest easy: President Barack Obama’s nationally televised jobs speech to Congress will not conflict with the season-opening NFL game between the Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints. Obama agreed late on Wednesday to move his jobs address to a joint session of Congress back by a night from Sept. 7 to Sept. 8 to avoid overlapping with a debate by Republican presidential candidates on the first night. The White House says Obama’s address will be finished before the game begins at 8:30.

President Barack Obama’s speech on Afghanistan will receive wide coverage tonight and rearrange the primetime schedule.The speech starts at 8 p.m. ET. ABC, CBS and NBC have announced they will carry Obama’s speech. Fox will air the president’s speech, then show So You Think You Can Dance in its entirety.

NEW YORK (AP) — A Fox Business host is apologizing for what detractors have called racist insults directed at President Barack Obama. In a brief mea culpa, conservative host Eric Bolling said on his Monday broadcast that he “got a little fast and loose with the language.” He says he’s sorry his remarks were interpreted […]

From a First Amendment perspective, the Equal Time Rule is very much like the repealed Fairness Doctrine. It strips away broadcasters’ editorial discretion, forcing them to take people off the air they would rather not and putting people on the air they otherwise might not. And it’s discriminatory. It applies only to broadcasters. Let’s get rid of it.

Nielsen says Sunday’s audience was larger than President Obama’s recent primetime addresses, including his March 28 speech on Libya. The speech was carried on ABC, CBS, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, CNN, Fox News, HLN and MSNBC.

CHICAGO (AP) — President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama were back in their hometown of Chicago Wednesday to tape an episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” The Obamas arrived in Chicago on Wednesday morning for the taping. Later in the day the president traveled to New York. The first couple is to appear […]

President Obama is again sitting down with local stations for one-on-one interviews, as big-name reporters from Atlanta’s WSB, Cleveland’s WKYC, Detroit’s WXYZ and WTKR in Hampton Roads, Va., are meeting with the president today to discuss issues affecting their local communities.

President Obama and First Lady Michelle return home to Chicago on April 27 to tape an Oprah Winfrey show at her near West Side Harpo Studios. Obama overnights in Chicago on Thursday, in the city to headline three fund-raisers to benefit his 2012 bid for a second term. The airdate for the show is May 2.

As President Obama keeps the White House press corps at a distance, he has sat for more than a dozen interviews with their colleagues from local TV stations — with unpredictable and sometimes illuminating results.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A White House official says President Barack Obama has spoken with CBS reporter Lara Logan in the wake of the network’s announcement that she was brutally attacked in Egypt. The official, who declined to give details on Wednesday’s call, spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose the private conversation. CBS says Logan was attacked and sexually assaulted in Egypt on Friday while covering reaction to the announcement of President Hosni Mubarak’s resignation. She’s recovering in a U.S. hospital. White House spokesman Jay Carney said Wednesday that anyone responsible for acts of violence in Egypt should be brought to justice.

President Obama is to unveil a plan today to bring wireless high-speed Internet access to all Americans, a goal the administration says is key to the country’s ability to compete globally in the years to come.

In his State of the Union address last night, President Barack Obama pledged that “Within the next five years, we will make it possible for business to deploy the next generation of high-speed wireless coverage to 98% of all Americans. This isn’t just about a faster Internet and fewer dropped calls. It’s about connecting every part of America to the digital age.” He christened it the National Wireless Initiative.

President Obama announced today that he is forming a new economic advisory council and hailed the business leader he has appointed to head it, General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt, as an innovator who can advance its core missions of promoting U.S. job creation, exports and global competitiveness.