George Barack Obama pulls a Bush with planted question

This time, at his White House presser on Iran, he asked Nico Pitney from Huffington Post a question co-ordinated in advance.

Allegedly, the White House. Via Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton called Pitney in advance, and “invited” him to ask an Iran question Here’s Burton:

"We did reach out to him prior to press conference to tell him that we had been paying attention to what he had been doing on Iran and there was a chance that he’d be called on. And, he ended up asking the toughest question that the President took on Iran. In the absence of an Iranian press corps in Washington, it was an innovative way to get a question directly from an Iranian.”

Indeed, Obama violated normal WH presser protocol by bumping Pitney all the way up to No. 2 after Helen Thomas on the list of questioners, ahead of Reuters as leader of foreign press.

Update: Matters for America, similar to two commenters here, takes the angle that because the question was tough and not preplanted, this is no big deal.

Wrong.

If Obama was dumb enough to transparently go to Pitney that early, clearly outside of protocol,, after the WH press office had contacted Pitney in advance, AND not have more of a clue as to the question’s detail, it just makes him look dumb, rather than guiltless.

Let’s put this in Media Matters for America terms.

By this “dumb means guiltless” angle, George W. Bush never committed one wrongdoing while in the White House.

Nice Democratic Party try, but it doesn’t work.

(If Media Matters for America were a truly progressive media watchdog, and not a Democratic Party-oriented watchdog, every election cycle it would comment on the lack of Green Party election coverage. So, don’t make me bitch-slap you for arguing with my statement that MMA is a Democratic Party fluffer outfit.)

And, though it’s rare, I simple disagree with the angle of Greenwald’s take in his Update. It’s not about whether Pitney is not a serious journalist or Huff Post isn’t a serious outlet. (Though, with anti-vaccinators and other nutbars getting more and more of The Greek Goddess’s bandwidth, HuffPost as a journalism site DOES leave itself open to questions like that, Glenn.)