Calling 'Em Out: The White House Takes on the Press

Why the Obama team is starting to play hardball with an erstwhile ally: the press

Callie Shell / Aurora for Time

Obama aides say they can't rely on reporters to referee public debates.

There was never a single moment when White House staff decided the major media outlets were falling down on the job. There were instead several such moments.

For press secretary Robert Gibbs , the realization came in early September, when the New York Times ran a front-page story about the bubbling parental outrage over President Obama's plan to address schoolchildren — even though the benign contents of the speech were not yet public. "You had to be like, 'Wait a minute,'" says Gibbs. "This thing has become a three-ring circus."

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