When Americans see a picture of President Obama in his office, on the phone or in some other function, the natural conclusion is that it was taken by a member of the press, that it captured the president’s real day-to-day duties. Neither is true very often, according to The Daily Caller.

As if Obama’s “imperial presidency” needed any more substantiation, The Associated Press’ photography director, Santiago Lyon, outed the Obama regime for refusing press photographers access to the White House and instead routinely handing over images taken privately by his own photographers. Lyon called the material “propaganda” at the AP Media Editors national convention on Oct. 30, The Daily Caller reported, adding:

“The AP has only been permitted to photograph the president alone in the Oval Office on two occasions–both in his first term –and has never been allowed to photograph the president with his staff in the office.”

AP Executive Editor Kathleen Carroll said the practice is commonplace because, quite simply, the media is accepting it and using the photos. Carroll advised members of the media attending the conference to “stop using the White House’s preferred photos in their own stories,” The Daily Caller reported.

Propaganda photos come in lock-step with another practice coming to light recently — Obama’s closed meetings with hand-picked journalists whose names are not disclosed. “We don’t provide lists of participants,” White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz said, according to Politico.

Americans are left to wonder if Washington is the scene of some movie, staged and scripted from the desk of a Hollywood progressive, where real journalism is excluded in favor of a carefully crafted propaganda machine.

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