You don't have to be a rabid Republican to see that the media has been inordinately good to President Obama so far. Look at this report from the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism. Obama got far better press during his first 100 days than either Bill Clinton or George W. Bush.

That appears to be ending. In recent days, reporters discovered that Obama planted someone from the liberal Huffington Post in a prominent position at a press conference so that he could ask a question about Iran. (Read about it here.)

Then came this exchange over how the audience at a town hall meeting was hand-picked by the Obama administration, and their questions vetted ahead of time. Here is a video of it. Note how White House press corps veteran Helen Thomas jumps in at the end. (I've met her many times. She began doing those press conferences when Kennedy was president.)

My take? Presidents always want to control the message, but this sort of thing flies in the face of Obama's promise of openness and transparency.

As for the press — I can already anticipate the posts by people who think Obama already controls us. But nothing gets reporters more riled than the perception they are being manipulated. Call it the first sign the honeymoon is at least straining.