OH MY GOD! OBAMA'S SNUBBING US! EXCEPT WHEN HE ISN'T!

Let's see ... there are two possible ways to interpret the Obama administration's contacts with media figures who aren't part of the Washington press corps: a somewhat sinister one and a not-so-sinister one. Hmmmm ... which will Politico choose for the lede of its top story right now?

Obama seeks filter-free news

At a time when his Washington honeymoon is turning into a hazing, President Barack Obama and his team are launched on a strategy to sail above the traditional White House press corps by reaching out to liberal commentators, local reporters and ethnic media.

The highest-profile moments in the new approach have been well-noted, such as the president giving an interview to progressive radio host Ed Schultz and Obama calling on a reporter from the liberal-leaning Huffington Post at his first news conference....

Oh my God! We, the Beltway press corps, are America's guardians of liberty, the people who keep Washington's politicians honest -- and Obama wants to evade our filter! He wants to sail above us! The fiend!

Excerpt that, er, he doesn't. We're told this a few paragraphs later:

... however, Obama and his aides tend not to boast about their media strategy or publicly exalt in how they are confronting or marginalizing the traditional news media.

To the contrary, Obama has continued to engage aggressively with the establishment outlets. The New York Times recently had an interview, and CBS News' "60 Minutes" has conducted two long interviews with Obama since Election Day.

These sessions reflect Obama's belief, according to aides, that in a fragmented media universe, presidents must communicate nearly constantly across an array of platforms, both traditional and new.

... [A] top aide used a sports analogy for the comprehensive strategy: "Flood the zone."

Oh.

So he's not "sailing above" -- at times he's venturing above, but then he's coming right back down to talk to the same damn people he was allegedly trying to evade. (And, um, I think that should be "exult," not "exalt.")

But ... but saying it that way won't get us a Drudge link! So we had to make it sound as if he's being sneaky and evil!

(Alas for you guys, you didn't get a Drudge link anyway.)