Obama Joked About A Pile Of ‘Unpaid Bills’ On His Desk – White House Deletes From Transcript


It seems the White House likes to keep certain things under wrap — this time, it is President Obama’s unpaid bills.

While in Illinois at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at the home of his long time donor, Barbara Goodman Manilow, Obama made a joke about some “unpaid bills” being left at his Chicago home.

Obama’s joke, which was reported by the White House Press Correspondence pool reporter, was curiously missing from the official transcripts sent out later that night.

Press pool report:

“One of the nice things about being home is actually that it’s a little bit like a time capsule. Because Michelle and I and the kids, we left so quickly that there’s still junk on my desk, including some unpaid bills (laughter) — I think eventually they got paid — but they’re sort of stacked up. And messages, newspapers and all kinds of stuff.”

Original transcript showing Obama’s joke omission:

“When we think back to when I first took office, one of the nice things about being home is actually that it’s a little bit like a time capsule because Michelle and I and the kids, we left so quickly that there’s still junk on my desk, including some — newspapers and all kinds of stuff.”

The “corrected” version was then issued by the White House following online commentators voicing their blatant disapproval of the censorship. The above line was, however, not fixed per se — just adjusted with “inaudible” conveniently added.

“When we think back to when I first took office, one of the nice things about being home is actually that it’s a little bit like a time capsule because Michelle and I and the kids, we left so quickly that there’s still junk on my desk, including some — *(inaudible) — newspapers and all kinds of stuff.”

Press pool reports are supposed to be the news media’s eyes and ears on President Obama. These reports, which are basically written by reporters for other reporters, are given to journalists to incorporate into news articles about Obama.

According to the WashingtonPost, “Journalists who cover the White House say Obama’s press aides have demanded, and received, changes in press-pool reports before the reports have been disseminated to other journalists. They say the White House has used its unusual role as the distributor of the reports as leverage to steer coverage in a more favorable direction.”

Based on an analysis done by the Associated Press, there has been a rising number of censorships under the Obama administration — stating that the “Obama administration more often than ever censored government files or outright denied access to them last year under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.”

What do you think about President Obama’s omitted joke from the White House transcripts? No big deal, or a small issue to a bigger problem?

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