President-elect Barack Obama has now held several press conferences to announce cabinet positions and high level advisory positions within his new administration and there is a pattern developing that smacks of media control.

Each of the conferences begin with an opening by Obama talking about forward-looking programs while reflecting backward on previous administration failures,  in particular the Bush administration.  He has trouble remembering the campaign is over.  He reminds us, whether it’s energy or health care, that he has ‘shovel-ready’ projects that are going to create 2.5 million jobs across this country because he is going to spend our money and perhaps take more of it than any previous administration.  He wants energy independence and doesn’t want to depend upon Arab oil — a kind of protectionism policy.  That’s what got us into World War II.

With respect to off-shore drilling, he says he would consider it, but it must be part of a bigger picture.

Following the appointments and some brief comments by the appointees, he looks at a slip of paper and calls upon four pre-selected members of the press to ask questions.  I don’t know if the questions are planted, but I wouldn’t be surprised.

Three out of the four questions today were puff balls surrounding the appointees;  dealing with energy — something that’s hardly a hot topic of news these days.  The fourth question allowed had some semblance of news because it dealt with the Blagojevich scandal.

Obama again said he had no contact with the governor nor anyone within the governor’s office.  He said that his staff had no ‘inappropriate’ contact with the governor’s office.  He went on to say that prosecutors asked him to withhold details until next week and that he did not want to interfere with the ongoing investigation.

The key operative word here is no ‘inappropriate’ contact with the governor’s office.

The true question here is not whether it’s a legal issue as far as he is concerned — from a public perspective the question is whether Obama is handling his first crisis in a way that is politically pallative?

He says he wants to be transparent, but he seems to be controlling the media these days by being more opaque.