President Obama 'Limiting Press Access In Ways That Past Administrations Wouldn't Have Dared'

Capitalizing on the possibilities of the digital age, the Obama White House is generating its own content like no president before, and refining its media strategies in the second term in hopes of telling a more compelling story than in the first. At the same time, it is limiting press access in ways that past administrations wouldn't have dared, and the President is answering to the public in more controlled settings than his predecessors.

It's raising new questions about what's lost when the White House tries to make an end run around the media, functioning, in effect, as its own news agency. Mike McCurry, who served as press secretary to President Bill Clinton, sees an inclination by the Obama White House to "self-publish," coupled with tactics "I never would have dreamed of in terms of restricting access" for independent news organizations. "What gets lost are those revealing moments when the president's held accountable by the representatives of the public who are there in the form of the media," says McCurry.