Since Tuesday night, my talks with many political press and operatives have made two things clear:

1) President Obama’s decision to pass over national print media was a serious mistake. As much as conservatives attack the news coverage of the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal, those reporters work for news organizations that are bleeding money, yet pouring resources into their White House coverage. Obama’s intentional omissions at Tuesday’s press-conference was not just insulting to the reporters whom show up at every Robert Gibbs’ briefing, but also to the editors whom fight tooth-and-nail to justify their correspondents’ travel on every Presidential trip.

2) The Administration’s bailouts do not extend to regional media. More newspapers than banks have gone out-of-business since Obama took office, but he has yet to call on a single regional reporter at either of his primetime press conferences. Even his hometown newspapers in Chicago — the Tribune and Sun-Times (themselves gasping for survival) — have yet to be highlighted in front of a national audience that would undoubtedly help some sales. Instead, the President has made a point to call on still-profitable specialty- and online-media, including Huffington Post. (Ironically, the very audiences the President can reach without calling for primetime network air.) The White House press office’s obtuseness is bizarre: Just imagine the fawning press if the President called on correspondents from the Miami Herald, Minneapolis Star Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, or any other regional newspaper that may not be publishing by the next primetime press conference.

I’m told President Obama’s two primetime-news conferences put him on a pace to hold nearly 50 over 8 years. (Contrast that to Presidents Clinton and Bush 43, who each held four over two terms.) For the sake of my hard-working friends trying to cover the White House, let’s hope his next 48 pressers are more media-savvy.

Tags: media, obama, press conference