[antimedia] antimedia: Journalists just don't get it....

[Email subscription to blog articles]

Posted by antimedia:
Journalists just don't get it....
http://www.antimedia.us/posts/1154816232.shtml


   ....if [1]this column is any indication.

     It's hard not to be somewhat skeptical of the Bush Administration's
     move to revamp the White House Press Room. Yes, the old one was
     clearly decrepit and out-of-date, but one can't help but suspect
     that Karl Rove is already in a super-secret bunker in Bethesda
     scheming with GOP architects -- and interior designers -- about
     ways to use the new room's design to further neuter the Washington
     reporters the administration has so successfully managed, spun, and
     blamed for the past five-and-a-half years.

   Apparently the press suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. They think,
   because the White House doesn't let them control the agenda that they
   are somehow "neutered".
   They [2]constantly whine about unfair treatment and they pass
   resolutions begging the White House for mercy.

     Policies that members of the leading group of journalism academics
     (with 3,500 members) asked the White House to abandon included
     tight restrictions on the flow of information, "staged town
     meetings," refusal to allow photos of coffins returning from Iraq,
     "massive reclassification of documents," attempts to consolidate
     media, use of "bribes" to columnists and distribution of uncredited
     video news releases, and "using the courts to pressure journalists
     to give up their sources and to punish them for obtaining leaked
     information."

   The answer to their problem is quite simple. Tell the truth. Quit
   lying and publishing anti-American agendas. Do that, and no
   administration will cut off your access. Continue on the present
   course and expect to be marginalized even more.
   Oh, and quit your whining. It's unbecoming of adults.

References

   1. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/columns/newspaper_2point0_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002950216
   2. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002950975