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Pretoria - One element of President Barack Obama's Africa policy is to encourage a free press, although he offered repeated reminders for U.S. reporters traveling with him on the continent to be on their best behavior.
“Americans, behave yourselves,” he needled Saturday as a contingent of U.S. and South African media was pulled from a quick photo op with President Jacob Zuma.
As huge protests against the Muslim Brotherhood-backed government in Egypt have gone on for several days, the crowds have now swelled to an estimated 17,000,000. That's 'Seventeen Million', for those of you in Rio Linda.
If true, these reports would mean what is going on in Egypt right now is the LARGEST DEMOCRATIC PROTEST IN HISTORY.
He kept up the theme of a long-winded U.S. press at the start of his meeting with African Union Commission Chairwoman Dlamini-Zuma.
“I might take some questions, except earlier in the press conference you guys asked 4-in-1 questions,” a grinning Obama teased.
At his earlier stop in Senegal, Obama apologized to host President Macky Sall on behalf the American media.
“Sometimes my press - I notice yours just ask one question,” Obama said. “We try to fit in three or four or five questions in there.”
Demonstrators said they were angry about the lack of public security, the desperate state of the Egyptian economy and an increase in sectarian tensions. But the common denominator across the country was the conviction that Mr. Morsi had failed to transcend his roots in the Brotherhood, an insular Islamist group officially outlawed under Mr. Mubarak that is now considered Egypt’s most formidable political force.
According to Global Muslim Brotherhood investigator Steve Merley, an associate of my firm Kronos who catalogs portions of his research on The Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Watch, at some point during the past month senior administration officials and representatives of other government agencies quietly held a meeting in the White House with Abdallah bin Bayyah. Given his close ties with Brotherhood thought leaders like Yusuf al-Qaradawi (who is banned from entering the U.S.), not to mention bin Bayyah’s own influential role in the Brotherhood, it’s obvious this meeting was held to discuss U.S. support for the Brotherhood at a time when its popularity in Egypt is plummeting.
The irony of the U.S. supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, whose adherents have helped create some of the world’s most lethal terrorist organizations, is not lost on Egyptians. As The Wall Street Journal reported on June 28, during the past month criticism of the U.S. in Egypt has grown loudest not among the elements one might expect, but rather among secularist Egyptians. Meanwhile, the Obama administration’s volatile and ever-expanding policy experiments with the Brotherhood continue to receive little attention in the U.S. Still, history is begging for our concern.
Read more: dailycaller.com...
Originally posted by intrepid
I fail to see a problem here:
He kept up the theme of a long-winded U.S. press at the start of his meeting with African Union Commission Chairwoman Dlamini-Zuma.
“I might take some questions, except earlier in the press conference you guys asked 4-in-1 questions,” a grinning Obama teased.
At his earlier stop in Senegal, Obama apologized to host President Macky Sall on behalf the American media.
“Sometimes my press - I notice yours just ask one question,” Obama said. “We try to fit in three or four or five questions in there.”
He was merely pointing out to our media to keep it simple.
Originally posted by Stormdancer777
OK?
Although the problem lies deeper than words spoken at this time and place, we all know this is par for the course in the Obama administration the press has given him a pass,
The press has betrayed us all.
Remain quiet don't ask question.edit on 103131p://bMonday2013 by Stormdancer777 because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by intrepid
Originally posted by Stormdancer777
OK?
Although the problem lies deeper than words spoken at this time and place, we all know this is par for the course in the Obama administration the press has given him a pass,
The press has betrayed us all.
Remain quiet don't ask question.edit on 103131p://bMonday2013 by Stormdancer777 because: (no reason given)
That's not what he said. He told them to ask one question at a time. He's cool with more but other leaders are not. What that has to do with Egypt is beyond me.
Rio Linda
Originally posted by Stormdancer777
You take his words at face value I do not.
Originally posted by intrepid
Originally posted by Stormdancer777
You take his words at face value I do not.
WHAT? He's now writing script for the media? That's what THEY reported.
The Associated Press noted that "both U.S. and South African reporters asked multi-part questions," though seconded Obama's description of U.S. journalists as "his press corps.")
Press freedom is being challenged in South Africa, where the ruling African National Congress (ANC) chafes at criticism of its difficulties and resents exposure of its numerous corruption scandals. Television networks are dominated by the government-owned South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), which favors a pro-ANC line, and Internet media growth has been stunted by the state telecommunications monopoly, Telkom.
Yet Zuma, though frequently at loggerheads with local media, would hardly dare tell them to "behave."
Obama's admonition of American journalists is not the first time he has rebuked them in the presence of a foreign leader, on foreign soil.
In March, during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he scolded NBC reporter Chuck Todd for asking several questions, saying an Israeli reporter who asked only one question had "behaved" better.
the ability of the press to serve as a watchdog on official corruption has come under pressure. Investigative units at major newspapers face preemptive surveillance and low-level harassment. The press’s oversight role has been further threatened by the proposed Protection of Information (POI) Bill. The controversial measure has faced concerted opposition from both journalists and civil society groups such as the Right2Know campaign. The legislation places national security and state secrecy above the right to information, a value that is protected by the South African constitution and the Promotion of Access to Information Act. Critics argue that the bill, even in a revised form, would allow officials wide discretion to grant classified status to information in the name of the “national interest”—broadly defined—and would allow stiff penalties of up to 25 years in prison for those who disclose official or classified information,
Originally posted by alienreality
I like how he referred to the media as his own, and not ours, as in the USA's media.. Most will dismiss it, but I see it as the way he is on most everything, very possessive and hypocritical in practically everything, without the self awareness of how he is even saying things.. It's his natural way of doing things, completely oblivious to his own non virtuous ways..
I don't hate the guy, just see him as someone with virtually no qualities whatsoever that you would expect a leader of our nation to have..
In a statement posted Monday on its official Facebook page, Tamarod (the "rebel" campaign") demanded that if President Mohamed Morsy doesn't leave office by Tuesday, the group will begin a civil disobedience movement, call for nationwide protests and march on the presidential palace, where Morsy's administration is running affairs.
"I'm not going to tell you," (939 times), "I'm not sure," (549 times), "No comment" (429), and "The President won't tell me," (117 times) were also among the oft-used Carney-isms.
Reporters in The White House Press Corps are wired to live at odds with the President's spokesman.
The current crew of White House reporters has specifically complained about the administration's lack of transparency with the press, saying in February that Obama has consistently failed to make himself available for interviews.
Originally posted by sheepslayer247
Not trying to be negative or anything, but is this thread about the media or Egypt....or the Egyptian media.....or Obama transparency....or Obama's transparency with the Egyptian media....or.....?