Obama Coddled By Media According to RepublicansRight after the first presidential debate last Wednesday, Republicans claimed that President Barack Obama’s listless performance showed that the press hasn’t held the president accountable for the past four years. Sarah Palin said that media coddled President Obama. Fox News host Sean Hannity blamed media for selling out the American people instead of doing their jobs.

The next day, Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin wrote that President Obama looked lost without the media protecting him. Rush Limbaugh also said that media protected the president since he took oath.

President Obama’s sub-par performance fitted the conservative media’s image of the press that neglects to mention the probes the administration got regarding its signature initiatives such as the stimulus and the health care reform. They claimed that the press ignored inquiries such as the October 2011 Pew report that found President Obama got more negative coverage than the Republican presidential hopefuls.

The national political reporters haven’t challenged President Obama in recent times and this was not because they are protecting him. They just didn’t have the chance to ask the questions to the president. President Obama hasn’t appeared on any Sunday public affairs show since September 2009. He also hasn’t done interviews with top newspapers of the nation since 2009. The last time the president had a sit-down with the New York Times was in September 2010.

President Obama also avoided interviews with MSNBC or Fox News. He had one with CNN for a pre-Democratic convention documentary. The president does broadcast TV interviews but they are for specific reasons such as when the White House selected Robin Roberts for President Obama’s announcement of support for gay marriage.

President Obama hasn’t gone on Meet the Press or Face the Nation and this was the reason for his poor performance on the debate. He had more practice for debates during the 2008 Democratic primary.