Barack Obama's White House is spending more than $80,000 a week to staff its old and new media offices. Add the price of speechwriters and the White House communications tab reaches nearly $100,000 a week, or nearly $5 million a year-and that is for salaries alone.
The Obama team seems to think that's money well spent. But is it?
The thing is, working to get the press to be positive in its coverage and obedient in its actions is like Brad Pitt hiring a specialist to get him girls. Its like paying a redneck to like NASCAR and hunting.
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Is this money well spent? That's questionable, given the sums at stake and the target. Chris "thrill up my leg" Matthews doesn't need any encouraging to be a worshipful subject. CNN doesn't need a million dollar effort to help shape the narrative in a positive light for the Obama administration. They're doing it for free and they'd keep doing it for free.
The press has a rather large investment in President Obama's success, not to mention their personal dignity at stake. If you praise someone so completely and overwhelmingly as much as they have this president, for as long as they have, after a while you can't back down just because of momentum and public appearance. Even if that weren't true, the legacy media has always been very reluctant to be critical of any minority, and beyond that, he's a Democrat. The legacy media almost monolithically despises Republicans and are members of the Democratic Party, so they will tend to support and like their guys and not want the other guys to gain power.
The White House press office simply makes it easier for the worshipful press to put out its Obama spin with a minimum of effort. Dinner with a hooker may even be a pleasure because you're sure how the evening's going to turn out.
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