With Foresight of Coming Question on Iran, Obama Welcomes Huffington Post Writer
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}An editor for a Web site that strongly supports President Obama said Tuesday the White House "reached out" to him to ask a question at the president's press conference after reading that Iranians had been asked by the site to submit questions to the president.
Huffington Post National Editor Nico Pitney said he's been blogging about 20 hours a day on Iran since the June 12 disputed election that led to mass protests on the streets of major cities there. He said the White House apparently has been reading some of the entries.
"They reached out and said I hear you're looking for questions from Iranians, and we'd like to take one," Pitney told FOX News, noting that White House officials didn't guarantee that he'd get asked a question and they weren't told ahead of time what the question would be.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In a departure that left many White House reporters scratching their heads, Pitney got first-rate treatment at the press conference, being escorted from the lower press area to the main briefing room by White House Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest.
Pitney was seated near the front of the jam-packed room in a space created for him. Pitney said he arrived late to the press conference and that's why he got help getting seated.
After the president's opening statement, Obama called on Pitney second to The Associated Press reporter and by name.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Click here to see the exchange between President Obama and Huffington Post editor Nico Pitney.
"Since we're on Iran, I know Nico Pitney is here from the Huffington Post," Obama said. "Nico, I know that you and all across the Internet, we've been seeing a lot of reports coming directly out of Iran. I know that there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet. Do you have a question?"
Pitney then said his site had solicited questions directly from Iranians to ask the president.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Yes, I did, but I wanted to use this opportunity to ask you a question directly from an Iranian. We solicited questions tonight from people who are still courageous enough to be communicating online. And one of them wanted to ask you this: Under which conditions would you accept the election of Ahmadinejad? And if you do accept it without any significant changes in the conditions there, isn't that a betrayal of -- of what the demonstrators there are working to achieve?"
Obama responded that it's up to the Iranian people to view the election as legitimate, not the United States.
Pitney told FOX News that Iranians sent e-mails to the site or used social networking sites like Facebook or a Farsi-language site Balatarin.com to submit questions. He said he "feels very comfortable" that he properly verified that the question did come from an Iranian, many of whom are risking their safety by talking online from Iran.