On That Huffington Post Question...

A chunk of the Wednesday briefing with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs centered on President Obama's communications team basically inviting Huffington Post editor Nico Pitney to Obama's Tuesday press conference, anticipating he would ask a question from an Iranian. The controversy in media-centric circles is whether this counts as planting a question.

"There was no guarantee that the questioner would be picked. There was no idea of what the exact question would be," Gibbs said.

Obama called on Pitney second, messing with the traditional pecking order in which questions from mainstream broadcast networks and major print outlets proceed ahead of the rest of the pack. Obama knew that Pitney had with him questions from Iranians. How do I know this? Obama said so when he called on Pitney. Obama also knew that Pitney had been writing about the uprising and violence in Iran, had been in touch with people on the streets via the Internet and had asked his readers what Obama should be asked about Iran.

The White House press staff knew all this: Staff members start meeting at about 7 a.m. each day to go over reports in old and new media, including The Huffington Post. Just before the press conference started, Pitney was escorted into the briefing room from the press office by Josh Earnest, deputy press secretary, and placed in a prime position.

Obama's first question, from an Associated Press reporter, was about Iran. After answering, the president said, "Since we're on Iran, I know Nico Pitney is here from Huffington Post. Nico, I know you, and all across the Internet, have been seeing a lot of reports coming out of Iran. I know there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating from the Internet. Do you have a question?"

Pitney did have a question, a tough one: "Under which conditions would you accept the election of Ahmadinejad? And if you do accept it without any significant changes in the conditions there, isn't that a betrayal of what the demonstrators there are working towards?"

Obama never directly answered Pitney's question about betrayal in the wake of the uprising. Instead, Obama used the question to say there were "significant questions about the legitimacy of the election." He added, "There are sets of international norms and principles about violence, about dealing with peaceful dissent, that spans cultures, spans borders. And what we've been seeing over the Internet and what we've been seeing in news reports violates those norms and violates those principles."

The exchange triggered a debate over whether Pitney's question was planted, while raising related matters, such as how these press conferences work anyway. Here are some of my thoughts:

Old Media vs. New Media: No matter what you may think about telling reporters they may be called on at a presidential press conference, the Obama White House recognizes that new media has a place at the table. Huffington Post is a significant player and deserves to be in the room.

There's a back story here. I talked to Josh Earnest and read Pitney's account at Huffington Post. Here's what Pitney wrote about the run-up to his question:

"I received a call from White House staff saying they had seen what I'd written and thought the President might be interested in receiving a question directly from an Iranian. The White House didn't guarantee that I would be able to ask a question. But I decided that if there was even a chance, I should try to reach out to as many Iranians as possible. With the invaluable help from some readers -- Chas, Chuck, and other Iranian Americans I wish I could name because they deserve the credit -- I was able to post a message in Farsi on Twitter and have my request for questions posted late last night on Balatarin. I ended up choosing the question I did because it was one of the consensus questions that many people had suggested.

"Thanks also to the White House staff. They were up front about not being able to assure that a question would be asked, they never asked what the question would be, and they helped me move through the very packed briefing room when I showed up a bit late (sorry to the many toes I stepped on getting through)."

Pitney's explanation was gracious and candid, despite the obvious problematic optics of him being escorted into the room. But there are many other, less transparent, ways that White House media advisers seek to shape the coverage of the president they serve. On Wednesday, ABC News got the run of the White House for a program focusing on Obama's health care proposals. A spokesman for ABC News told me Thursday morning the network assembled the people asking Obama questions in the East Room. That audience included folks who are highly skeptical of Obama's plans. The point about knowing questions in advance is this: Obama knew going in he would be facing questions on health care. He would not know if the specific questions would be fluff or hardball; nevertheless, ABC gave Obama a stage to discuss his proposals. Some Republicans have pointed out that they have not been given such a forum to air their differing views.

Who gets picked? Obama has tended to observe custom and give most questions to major outlets, with network correspondents almost always picked. If Obama breached some tradition and called on someone not part of the regular gang, all I can say to my friends in the old mainstream media is get used to it. The future is here.

The heads-up: Pitney got a tip the night before the press conference that he might be called on.

Although most reporters don't know if they will be called on, I do not see anything sinister in this practice of alerting someone beforehand.

After all, as my colleague Carl Cannon reminded me this week, none of us want to be in the position of onetime Hearst reporter Robert Thompson, who was called on by President Reagan, reading from a list of reporters' names. Thompson shot to his feet, and said, "Yes, Mr. President..." only to then remember, rather sheepishly, that he had skipped the press conference and was watching on television in his own living room.

How are questioners chosen? At his White House press conferences, Obama walks in with what seems like a list of reporters he wants to call on. Cannon tells me that Reagan often did this, too, as did George W. Bush and even Bill Clinton, on occasion.

It leads to more decorum, as reporters, knowing this, don't shout out questions during the news conference, (though they may at the end, as Mike Allen of Politico did on Tuesday). But it also leads to some confusion. Ordinary viewers, seeing reporters sitting on their hands, may wonder if the questions have been screened as well.

I came up through the reporting ranks in Chicago, where press conferences are boisterous and messy. That's one bit of Chicago that has not been imported to the Obama White House.

My bottom line: Does this episode tell us anything about message management in the Obama White House? Sure it does. Obama wanted to field a question from an Iranian. His aides made sure he got such a query. He used the question to pivot to an answer he wanted to get out. He had a message and he wanted to manage it.