President Obama made a big deal when taking office of letting the public be involved in the government process. This includes asking questions and giving feedback. Reporters were angered when the Obama administration decided that a town hall meeting on health insurance reform was not really an open forum at all. Questions were chosen by White House staff by those submitted and a few questions were taken from attendees at the meeting who, according to the Washington Post, “all turned out to be members of groups with close ties to his administration: the Service Employees International Union, Health Care for America Now, and Organizing for America, which is a part of the Democratic National Committee.”

There are plenty of concerns over health care reform (government involvement instead of insurance lead generation, cost to the taxpayers, cost to businesses) and all of these questions probably can not be answered in one town hall meeting. But, a staged meeting is not a town forum and I doubt the hard questions were asked.

Reporters brought up the issue before the meeting, Chip Reid (CBS) and veteran reporter Helen Thomas, took White House press secretary Robert Gibb to task about the questions and about how reporters are called the night before press conferences to tell them if they will be called upon for questions.