President Obama has not held a full White House press conference since July 22, 2009, over nine months ago.  In his first six months of office, Obama held 19 press conferences.  This is the forth highest number for a president among the last 14 presidents, exceeded only by Hoover, Truman, and Clinton.

The White House Press Corps and the MSM are becoming very nervous.  The White House has discovered that they can get their message out to the public without the "filter" of the media to slow them down.  Continuing to operate under the template that it is their job to make Obama a success, the MSM has been completely unwilling to call him out on this.  Alternatively, President Bush was excoriated by the MSM for avoiding the press for any extended period of time throughout his two terms of office.

As a result, Obama is operating freely in his campaign mode, getting his message out through speeches in friendly environments and personal interviews with friendly news correspondents (although this didn't work out so well with Fox News' Bret Baier, who didn't get the memo that it is his job to make Obama look good).  To compound their self-destructive lemming march, the MSM continues to defend the President's avoidance.

For those who report the news, it is all about being a "filter" of information.  Theoretically, this means fact-checking the data and putting in the proper context.  The problem is that the MSM filter has become so warped and broken that its product is indistinguishable from unfiltered White House propaganda.  Reporters have become Obama's stenographers.

Daily Beast blogger Lloyd Grove relays a recent interview with CBS senior White House correspondent Bill Plante conducted by Mark Knoller, a CBS radio reporter: