Bloggers Differ on Merits of HuffPo Question

Michael Calderone of Politico suggests that the Huffington Post and the White House got a little too cozy today before President Obama's press conference. "In what appeared to be a coordinated exchange," Obama called on HuffPo reporter Nico Pitney for a question on Iran, and he seemed to have a pretty good idea what it would be, writes Calderone on his blog. HuffPo has been soliciting comments from Iranians, and the White House acknowledged that it invited Pitney to ask a question on their behalf.

Michael Tomasky of the Guardian thinks Calderone is being "kind of snippy and huffy-puffy." He says the question by Pitney, who's been dong a "fantastic job" aggregating info from Iran, was by far the best of the press conference and may in fact signal changing times. "Where's this going? One of these years, the 'press conference' may give way to the 'news conference' (that is, no press involved), in which a president takes questions via social media from the people. All the people everywhere. It's a new world. Again." (More President Obama stories.)