Letters to the Editor
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Big Brother Doesn't Give a F*ck About You
"War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength."
This is all that needs to be said about this administration and its "communication" strategery.
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Why should the White House care?
Nobody talks to the press because they WANT to, they do so because they HAVE to. Why let the press filter your message when you can take it direct? If the press can't prove that they either (a) support Bush, or (b) can hurt him, they're irrelevant, and are going to be treated as such.
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Press room
Here's the thing, as long as "reporters" keep showing up for this daily charade, they look like chumps. If they really wanted to make a statement about how badly they are treated, they would stop going over there and allowing this administration to humiliate them, day in and day out. At least for now, the white house press room has become the propaganda organ of the party in power, and any self-respecting newsgathering organization should leave it to the Jeff Guckert-Gannons of the world.
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the Failue of the Press
Bush can do what he wants.
He's been twice-elected.
He's the President.
He's the Decider.
Although he's a colossal failure as President, it's the failures of Congress (both houses; both parties) and the Press that bear the larger responsibility.
There are no checks and balances without checkers and balancers.
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Very astute
You are very astute in your assesment of the situation. I would like to know your assesment of the press and why they are in the position of not being able to adjust. Is the idea of white house press meetings a relic that should be disposed of?
I would also like to comment on this theory that Karl Rove is a genious that is always behind the overall strategies of the white house. The very fact he hitched his wagon to the current president seems, for me, to be an obvious failing of his overall intelligence. He might be very sucessful in cheating and manipulating a situation to the advantage to the administration, but that can hardly be called a political mastermind. If we should hang the failure of the current administration's policies around their neck, then we should in turn hang the failure of the current administration around Karl's neck. If it was his strategy to disenfranchise the press, it does not seem to be working. The worm is turning and every day the press is biting back with more and more agressiveness. They are just beginning to regrow their teeth. Your article is exhibit A.
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I agree, however,
Can we start naming reporters who have tried to do their jobs? Maybe if we start doing that others will want to enter the fray and start doing their jobs. Here's one: David Gregory. Short of jumping up and grabbing Scott around his doughy neck, he's tried to get answers. (I watch a lot of CSPAN.) Anybody else want to single out a reporter for praise?
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When the going gets tough
Scott McClellan left when the press corps had started to fight back. If Jeff Gannon and Helen Thomas are the two extremes, the White House reporters have started to become more confident, more Thomas-like. They smell blood. They're asking embarrassing questions now, and all McClellan could do was repeat the same inane talking points. The next press secretary will have to be a positive genius at spin.
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mcclellan as piggy?
It's wrong to let mcclellan off the hook so easily, or to insinuate that he wasn't thrilled to be in that job. He was. He's already on record as saying he didn't want to leave, so let's stop all this 'shoot the messenger' talk and stick to the real issue, otherwise stated in the article: that mcclellan and his tactics are an integral and (almost) indisposable part of the Bush admin's regular way of operating.
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No kidding??
While McClellan has absolutely disgusted me since the day he took the job, what disgusts me more is how the press basically rolled over. I guess this started with 9/11 where no one "dared" question the president. Only in the last few months did we finally see some in the press start going after Scott in the press conferences. Yet, his song and dance moves never made it into the news. They just repeated what he said.
But, I don't see this stopping. Every day I watch CNN and they repeatedly feature talking heads who pound us with spin and talking points. It's too rare to have Wolf Blitzer or some other journalist force an interviewee to stick to answering the question. Tehse guys just sit there and take the packaged answers and move on to the next day where we're bombarded with the same garbage.
The GOP has made a lot of headway claiming a "liberal bias" in the news. And the media isn't doing itself any favors by playing lap dog to a presidency and party that has mastered modern day propoganda.
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Nullifying itself
A presidency that is less questioned in the eyes of the world? Am I misunderstanding? Has there never been an administration more questioned than the current administration? To set the record straight, the press doesn't have any role in the White House or running the country. Those are elected positions. The press does have an obligation to be objective. When it isn't, and readers find themselves having to factor in the bias, there's where you'll find the nullification of the press. Interestingly, the press winds up nullifying itself.
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A press pass enables you a role in "running the White House and governing the country"?
"First, McClellan was a necessary figure in what I have called "rollback" -- the attempt to downgrade the press as a player within the executive branch, to make it less important in running the White House and governing the country."
Let me get this straight, Jay: You think you that as a reporter you "play" a role in "running the White House and governing the country"? Dude, you have a pencil and a laptop. That doesn't make you a contributor in leading the U.S. federal government. You're there to report what you witness, not to govern.
Every time I read stuff like this, I get closer to believing there should be a licensing system for practicing journalists, as is the case for lawyers, accountants, etc.