In bed together...

New York Times Editors, Columnists Met With Obama During Syria Push

NEW YORK -- In his new book, The Message, MSNBC.com editor Richard Wolffe describes how the Obama White House grew frustrated in 2011 with The New York Times after some negative editorials ran in the paper. President Barack Obama ended up calling Andy Rosenthal, the paper’s editorial page editor, and a couple weeks later Rosenthal and the Times editorial board went to the White House for an off-the-record meeting with the president.

But that wasn’t the last time Obama met with Times editorial board members. On Aug. 29, the president again sat down for an off-the-record discussion with Rosenthal and some members of the editorial board, according to sources familiar with the meeting. Times opinion columnists David Brooks, Gail Collins and Ross Douthat also attended, but editors for the paper's news pages did not.

The meeting came amid the White House’s push for military intervention in Syria, one of the topics discussed that day. The Times editorial board hadn't explicitly come out for or against a strike on Syrian President Bashar Assad before the meeting, and soon after the paper still expressed concerns about the administration taking action without congressional approval and broad international support.

On Aug. 26, The Times editorial board had stressed that the White House should try exhausting diplomatic efforts before striking Syria. The paper noted that while “Assad’s use of chemical weapons surely requires a response of some kind, the arguments against deep American involvement remain as compelling as ever.”
Two days later, The Times editorial board wrote that more answers were needed from the administration on Syria. "Obama has yet to spell out how that response would effectively deter further use of chemical weapons," the paper said.

On the afternoon of Aug. 30, Secretary of State John Kerry made the case that Syria had used chemical weapons, signaling that U.S. retaliation for crossing a "red line" drawn by Obama could be imminent. But the Times still seemed unconvinced that immediate action was the best course.

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Anyone surprised?  obama is in bed with the media.  Color me shocked!