Howard Kurtz tells media to give Obama 'a break

President of the White House Correspondents' Association Ed Henry (also a reporter for Fox News) said last night that he and other White House correspondents were dissatisfied with the lack of access granted to President Obama on his Florida vacation this weekend.

Media critic Howard Kurtz writes in The Daily Beast that the press should give it a rest:

[W]hile the press corps merely wants to be able to do its job, I have to say:

The president’s on vacation.

He’s entitled to a few days off.

He’s not making any news.

It’s not him, it’s you.

Give the guy a break. You’ll see more of him soon enough.

David Grant, a congressional reporter for the Christian Science Monitor told TheBlaze... virtually the same thing.

"The whole thing is pretty silly," he said. "First there's the press corps getting upset about being refused access to the president playing golf with Tiger Woods, surely a matter of dramatic national import. Then there's the White House blocking even a simple photo op of something as innocuous as the president playing golf with Tiger Woods. Count me among the uninterested."

Grant did, however, make reference to a Washington Post study from last year that showed the Obama administration has "struggle[d] to live up to its transparency promise."

Julie Mason, Sirius/XM Radio show host and former White House correspondent for Politico, said the same. She said it's not unusual for White House pool reporters to have limited or no access to the president when he's on vacation. "It tends to be very prophylactic," she said, "not much access or even visual sightings at all. We never get to see him play golf, even here in D.C. This is pretty presidential-standard. Reporters go with him on vacation in case of news, and there is a built-in expectation you aren't going to see much of him."