Obama Makes History, Calling Only on Female Reporters
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Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — Mark this down as a historic day in White House history.
President Obama has just become the first president to field questions from only female reporters at a White House press conference.
Former ABC News correspondent Ann Compton, the first woman to report on the White House full time for a network and who covered the beat for 40 years, said that never before has a president only taken questions from women during a solo press conference.
On Friday, Obama took questions from eight reporters, all women from print or radio outlets. He fielded no questions from male reporters and none from the television networks.
The women-only question session triggered a flood of reactions on social media from members of the White House press corps and around journalism.
With 8th & last question, it’s fact: Obama called only on women at press conf. Women long chafed at dominance of front-row male TV reporters
— Jackie Calmes (@calmesnyt) December 19, 2014
While I hope it’s not a permanent ban on questions from male reporters, hard to complain about what women reporters have endured for decades
— Jonathan Allen (@jonallendc) December 19, 2014
Premise for Mrs. Doubtfire reboot: male tv reporter dresses as woman in order to land interview with POTUS. Briefing room hijinks ensue.
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) December 19, 2014
@karentravers @markknoller Bush43 once called on only men. Ari Fleischer defended saying those news orgzs failed to assign women to WH
— Ann Compton (@AnnCompton) December 19, 2014
Asked about the decision to call only on female reporters, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said “The fact is, there are many women from a variety of news organizations who day-in and day-out do the hard work of covering the President of the United States. As the questioner list started to come together, we realized that we had a unique opportunity to highlight that fact at the President’s closely watched, end of the year news conference.”
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