Media Free Pass
I Want Media has two pieces on bias in the media toward the Bush administration, one from the BBC and the other from Jesse Jackson. Both are very good reading.
From the BBC piece: "The White House briefing is a ritualistic and almost daily opportunity for journalists to get the presidential view."
This is because the press has been ritually separated from the president for more than two decades now. I covered the Clinton Administration for ON24, traveling with the president during one of his Digital Divide tours. The press office would cordon us off with the rest of the press behind ropes 100 feet from Clinton and once offered to let us get footage of the Man himself walking by -- only 20 feet away. This was a big favor. It was disgusting how the press went along with it just to get the obligatory image of the day. I told the Associated Press it was a joke and said we'd come back when there was real news to cover, like a thought from the president that wasn't scripted (and Clinton was a president worthy of that kind of coverage). Needless to say, I wasn't invited back.
More reporters should thank the administration for the invitation to the show and go forward finding and reporting real news.
Posted by Mitch Ratcliffe at February 25, 2003 08:25 PM | TrackBack