Female WH Reporter: Male Colleagues ‘Upset’ Over Obama Presser Shutout

Friday on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews,”  April Ryan, the White House correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, said her male colleagues were “very upset” about President Barack Obama only calling on female reporters at his year end press conference today.

Ryan said, “You know for one thing for sure, in this town, it’s a white, male dominated town. I know for a fact. I just walked out of the White House and the press area. Many of our male colleagues have been going into the press secretary very upset that they were not called on today. But let me say this to you. As a woman, as someone who’s been covering the white house, it’s nice. And someone who sits in the third row, not the first row or the second row, but the third row, it’s nice to see a change of pace. And from some of the white house sources that i talked to tonight, apparently there was a plan not to go — this is not the first time, but not to go to the networks. This is not the first time that this has happened. They said, okay, since we see we’ve got a lot of women in the audience who are really good at what they do, let’s call on the women.”

“Let me tell you something, the cameras on the front row, they’ll keep cool,” she continued. “But behind the scenes, they’re not happy. Phone calls are being made. But they’ll be cool. You’ll always see a cool demeanor, but they are not happy with it. ”

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