IS THE PRESS WAKING UP? - AT 10:33 A.M. ET:  From The Politico:

Robert Gibbs gave White House reporters a "strong A" Friday for their work over the first 100 days of the new administration.

Their report card on him is more mixed.

Although White House reporters praise some aspects of Obama's press shop, there’s grumbling about Gibbs' handling of the daily press briefings, where a handful of television correspondents dominate; griping about press management on the president's European trip; and complaints about Gibbs' tendency not to return e-mail messages.

And for a team that rode to Washington on a lot of talk about "transparency," reporters said in interviews with POLITICO this week that the Obama White House has been awfully opaque.

COMMENT:  A good critique of the White House press operation.  But reporters are only half of journalism.  There are the editors, and, as any journalist will tell you, they're often the problem, sitting in their home office, guarding the paper's ideology, seeing the world through their own prism.

Things will get tougher for Obama once we get beyond this week's First Hundred Days Festival, and back to business.  It's going to be a bumpy ride.

April 26, 2009