At 1:15 ET, President Obama is scheduled to answer questions about health care reform at a live, online town-hall-style meeting.
In a press briefing preceding the forum, reporters Helen Thomas and Chip Reid questioned White House spokesman Robert Gibbs about how the questions would be solicited and why the event is being so “tightly controlled.”
Gibbs said “a group over at new media is sorting through the questions” and that he thinks “the questions will be a representative sample of the issues in this debate.”
Thomas and Reid objected to the control the administration has exerted over this event, with Thomas noting that it doesn’t match its earlier claims of transparency. (UPDATE: RealClearPolitics.com has video of the exhange.)
The questions for this “town hall meeting” are being submitted through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Twitter users can use the hashtag #WHHCQ.
