for The New York Times. Earnest, who has the thankless job of trying to defend the president's agenda, lectured journalists for their negative press regarding the White House's lack of transparency. That's not fair, Earnest wrote, arguing that the president practices an open doors policy for reporters.
President Obama, as a matter of policy, invites White House journalists to cover his formal remarks at fund-raisers, even when they are held in a private home. Previous presidents have granted, at best, intermittent access to such events.
Earnest also pointed out the White House's Data.gov website, an online database that offers the press thousands of documents related to the federal government, as proof the administration is transparent.
It’s a short op-ed by the New York Times standard, because Earnest has little evidence to back up his claims.
Reports prove that the Obama White House doors may as well be bolted shut. For instance, it has one of the worst records in terms of FOIA requests, honoring just one out of every three - and judging by the White House's staff changes last year, it seems they had no intention of fixing the problem.
Its backlog of unanswered requests at year’s end grew remarkably by 55 percent to more than 200,000. It also cut by 375, or about 9 percent, the number of full-time employees across government paid to look for records. That was the fewest number of employees working on the issue in five years.
But please, Josh, tell us again how friendly the White House is to its press corps. Actually, what does the press have to say about the Obama administration?
.@ron_fournier: Obama Admin Has Probably Been The Least Transparent In Nation's History https://t.co/EottEkyB4Y https://t.co/y2GhPimeoa
— WhiteHousePressCorps (@whpresscorps) August 31, 2016