In today’s press conference with President Obama, ABC Reporter Jake Tapper asked Obama about Hillary Clinton spokesman PJ Crowley’s condemnation of the Department of Defense’s mistreatment of Bradley Manning. Crowley said at a forum last night, “What is happening to Manning is ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid, and I don’t know why the DoD is doing it.”

Obama brushed off the question, saying that he had spoken to the Pentagon and was assured that Manning’s treatment is “meeting our basic standards.”

Last night anonymous military officials admitted to NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski that Quantico Brig Commander James Averhart placed Bradley Manning on suicide watch as a way to punish him for failure to obey an order.

The admission comes after Manning’s friend David House was detained by military police and prevented from visiting him at Quantico last weekend. Jake Tapper of ABC News asked Robert Gibbs about the incident yesterday during a White House press briefing, and if the administration is concerned about the way Manning is being treated. Gibbs referred him to “the authorities that are holding him [Manning].”

ABC’s Jake Tapper has a pompous little post about how the photo editors at GQ were biased when they juxtaposed shots of Cindy and John McCain looking geriatric with images of Michelle and Barack Obama looking youthful and radiant in a photo essay about the 2008 presidential race, Who It Takes.