News media relations with Obama hit low ebb over golf weekend

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - Relations between the White House and the correspondents who cover it, always edgy and adversarial, have hit a low ebb in a dispute over whether the press should have access to the President during his downtime.

The news media are still demanding answers for a White House decision over the weekend to bar reporters from seeing any part of President Barack Obama's Florida golf vacation, including his first-ever round with Tiger Woods.

In a formal protest, the White House Correspondents'Association cited history and tradition in arguing that the public interest is ill-served by shielding the president from the press.

"There is a very simple but important principle we will continue to fight for today and in the days ahead: transparency," said Mr Ed Henry, a Fox News correspondent who is president of the White House Correspondents' Association.