Media vs. Political Figures

After I read Orville Schell’s article, I was interested but somewhat surprised to hear about the media being timid and standoffish in the presence of President Bush. I have often wondered how political figures are able to come up with such detailed and descriptive answers on the spot, but many times, reporters’ questions aren’t even given direct answers. I think it’s somewhat funny, but in a pathetic way, that White House officials would force journalists to submit their questions beforehand. What’s the point of asking these questions if the President has had time to craft particular answers that may or may not be completely honest and true? As the audience, we don’t know if we’re getting real answers, and this is concerning. I found a few articles related to the media and their interactions with Presidents.

Here are the links of articles related to the media being controlled by political figures:
http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=4175

http://americaswatchtower.com/2009/01/13/obama-hand-picks-which-journalists-are-allowed-to-ask-him-questions/

Article discussing just the opposite-what happens when reporters don’t go easy:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17831.html