Letters to the Editor
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Friendly is easy
Quiet Type,
Don't be surprised that the WHPC is chuckling and buddy-buddy with Bush at these ridiculous excuses for press conferences. I'm a journalist and I can tell you being pals with your sources is a hell of a lot easier than being confrontational. The press is so thoroughly corrupted and co-opted that to be a hardass political reporter means doing the following:
1. Asking rough, nasty questions and getting stomped on by a president and press secretary who won't answer them.
2. Getting raked over the goals personally on right-wing nutjob blogs and talk shows.
3. Possibly being de-invited from press events by the most secretive, anti-media administration in history.
4. Being chewed out by editors and advertising execs for possibly costing your paper ad dollars from conservative advertisers.
5. Losing source access and having to work 18-hour days finding new sources to write the hard-hitting investigative stories you should be writing, leaving you no time to write your book.
None of these is an excuse. There is NO excuse for some of these reporters not ripping Bush to shreds with their unanswered questions, thereby getting more Americans to start asking them, and getting them asked in editorials. But it is much easier to be buddy-buddy with the Resident, chuckle at his witty Texas bon mots, then go back and write a story that parrots the administration's talking points.
So the question really is, why aren't we turning out more journalists, editors and publishers who have a street fighter mentality, who take deadly seriously the single most important duty of the free press: to hold those in power accountable for their actions.
Answer: Money, of course.