The Obama Interview

Before he went on vacation, President Obama traveled quite the circuit talking to reporters/news outfits about the Iran nuclear deal. Included were interviews with:

Jon Sopel at BBC

Ten reporters at the White House including Max Fisher from Vox, James Fallows from The Atlantic, and Fred Kaplan from Slate

Jake Horowitz at Mic.com (which included questions from Israeli and Iranian youth)

Tom Friedman at the New York Times

Steve Inskeep at NPR

Fareed Zakaria at CNN

Now...that's what you call a "full court press." It's clear that the President is determined to do anything and everything to get his message out there.

But - other than Zakaria - does anyone else notice who is missing from that list? I suspect that there are lots of backroom conversations going on about this in the major network and cable news rooms. None of their White House correspondents got "the Obama interview."

But the list also says that President Obama knows how we're all getting our news these days and that he had a particular audience he wanted to tap for this message. It's also clear that the President wanted reporters who would bypass the superficial "gotcha" games and have a serious discussion on the issues involved. What is encouraging is that he found that many news outlets/reporters who would do that.