video

On Monday of this week, the White House arranged a video/photo opportunity for the press pool to cover President Obama‘s signing of the Freedom of the Press Act. As it ended, a plucky Chip Reid tried to ask a question, to which the President declined, claiming a press conference would be forth coming. The irony of the situation was first reported by Mediaite (on Monday), and was discussed yesterday by Megyn Kelly and Bernie Goldberg.

Remember when pop icon Michael Jackson died last summer and the media mourned, but also breathed a collective, week-long sigh of relief, because the news cycle was not only decided, but popular? As dark as it sounds, that was sort of like Christmas in June (and into July) for the press, and today, as the FBI releases 333 pages of reports on the late M.J., is like Christmas on December 22nd. Get the salacious details inside before they’re all over the internet!

When President Obama took office, he earned widespread praise for loosening up Bush-era restrictions on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which outlines the process by which citizens can request previously unreleased information from federal agencies. When one Seattle business weekly took the FOIA for a spin in an investigation of the financial crisis, it uncovered … pages and pages of black ink. Is this Obama’s fault, somehow?

speculation

Notoriously secretive former VP Dick Cheney may find his face all over the cable networks all over again, thanks to a recent ruling by federal judge Emmet Sullivan, . Deciding in favor of watchdog group, the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, that records including FBI reports, notes, and interviews with Cheney associated with the investigation of the Valerie Plame leak will have to be made public under the Freedom of Information Act.