Obama Snubs Black Media: 'We Were Nothing More Than Window Dressing'

Considering Barack Obama allowed an obscure radio host named Ed Schultz and a "reporter" from the far-left website Huffington Post prime access at his primetime ego massage Monday night, it's worth noting how actual credentialed media felt, in this case black members of the media.

After the first black president completed his first prime-time press conference, the black press was red hot.

"We were window dressing," said Hazel Edney, a reporter with the National Newspaper Publishers Association, also known as the Black Press of America. "We were nothing more than window dressing."

As the media filed into the stately White House East Room on Monday night, the reporter was shocked to find herself in the front row. Alongside her were the top news agencies, Associated Press, Reuters; also up front, 86-year-old Helen Thomas, who started covering presidents 50 years ago.

Alongside the most prominent journalists in America was Tiffany Cross from Black Entertainment Television. Like Miss Edney, she didn't know why she was in first-class while all the television networks - every single one - was exiled to the steerage compartment.

"I really don't know why I'm up here," Miss Cross said with a shy smile.

While most on the front row got to pose a question to President Obama, the two reporters from the black press did not. Nor did any other black-press reporter, for that matter.

"This was like Reagan, when he'd put all the blacks up front," said another prominent but visibly peeved black-press reporter who asked to remain anonymous. "He oughta' be ashamed."

Nice cheapshot at Reagan. Can't we move on? They shouldn't feel so bad. Obama is still playing like a child with his treatment of Fox News.

While the two wires were up front, Bloomberg News, which travels in every tight pool alongside AP and Reuters, was stationed in the second row. Of the networks, only CBS made that row. All but one of the others - ABC, CNN and NBC were in the third (while Fox News' Major Garrett was dispatched to the fourth row, far to the right of the presidential podium).

Seated in that prime front row, though, were some newcomers. Along with reporters from NNPA and BET were Sam Stein of the archly liberal Huffington Post and Ed Schultz, star of the "Ed Schultz Radio Show," an unabashedly liberal talk-show host, who boasts 3 million listeners dubbed "Ed Heads."

I'd be stunned if that putz Schultz had 300,000, never mind 3 million. Then again, as the old saying goes, keep your friends close and your boot-lickers closer.