Inside the Beltway: Obamacizing the media

Question for White House spokesman Jay Carney during the Monday press briefing: “How often does the president go skeet shooting?”

Mr. Carney: “I don’t know how often. He does go to Camp David with some regularity, but I’m not sure how often he’s done that.”

Question 2: “Is there a photograph of him doing it?

Mr. Carney: “There may be, but I haven’t seen it.”

Question 3: “Why haven’t we heard about it before?

Mr. Carney: “Because when he goes to Camp David, he goes to spend time with his family and friends and relax, not to produce photographs.”

ARGO-NAUT

Where did film producer David Klawans get the idea for “Argo,” the meticulously made, award-winning movie that has earned more than $180 million at the box office and showcases actor-director Ben Affleck? The answer: Mr. Klawans is a content gleaner, and he likes government documents.

“Nearly every day, for upward of 10-hour stretches, the independent film producer speed-reads police blogs, articles from RSS feeds and niche-interest journals in dogged pursuit of an elusive prize: a story on which to base his next movie,” says Los Angeles Times film writer Chris Lee, who reveals that “Argo” emerged from a declassified story in the quarterly CIA journal “Studies in Intelligence,” which self-described news junkie Mr. Klawans came upon in 1998.

“It’s like going on the beach with a metal detector,” he notes.

POLL DU JOUR

• 54 percent of small-business owners say health care costs are hurting their operating environment “a lot.”

• 19 percent say health care costs hurt their operations “a little”; 23 percent say they have no effect.

• 53 percent of the owners say taxes on small businesses are hurting their operating environment “a lot.”

• 27 percent say taxes hurt their operations “a little”; 17 percent say they have no effect.

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