WH Reporters Stand For Obama, But Not For Bush?

Weekly Example of Media Bias   —   Posted on May 6, 2009

Consider these two different reactions from the White House press corps during presidential drop-ins at the White House’s Briefing Room…

UPDATE: A commenter points out that, on occasion, White House reporters did stand for Bush (example from his last press briefing before leaving office here), raising an interesting question: Why the inconsistency in protocol?

MRC’s Tim Graham reports on the video: “On February 28, 2008, President Bush made a morning appearance in the White House briefing room and is greeted unsurprisingly with reporters remaining seated. But on May 1, 2009, when President Obama walks in the room,… the reporters all stand until he asks them to be seated. This could be a rather mild outbreak of old-fashioned politeness to the chief. But in my two years in the White House press corps [during the Bush presidency], I never saw reporters in the informal all-business setting of the briefing room stand up to greet the president (unless we were already standing, of course.)

OpinionJournal.com’s James Taranto reports: CBS’s Mark Knoller tries to explain. He says reporters remained in their seats in the earlier clip so as “not to block the shot of TV cameramen and still photographers in the back of the room who were trying to make a picture of the president’s walk-in. No disrespect was intended for President Bush and to the best of my knowledge none was taken.” Fair enough, but why did they stand for Obama?  Knoller’s explanation could be true, but then again, does it dissuade you from thinking that reporters are more favorably disposed toward Obama than they were toward Bush?