WHO NEEDS THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS CORPS?
Apr. 21st, 2009 12:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogITEM: Wonkette founder Ana Marie Cox has written a killer piece on the utter uselessness of the modern-day White House Press Corps.
It’s an excellent point – so much so that I marvel that no one’s said this sooner. Prominently, I mean. And without lapsing into conspiracy theories or a knee-jerk “Who the hell does Helen Thomas think she is?” rant.
I’ve been wondering something similar for the last eight years – or at least ever since we found out even Jeff Gannon could get a WHPC pass. It’s considered one of the most prestigious posts in American journalism, but the work involves basically reporting whatever the President and/or his press secretary says, and asking follow-up questions that get dodged, spun or ignored – which may be why hardly anyone in the WHPC bothers to play hardball. What’s the point?
Yr average junior reporter could do that job. Which is Cox’s point – having a WHPC is ggenerally good, but why waste it on the best and most seasoned journalists in the field? If they’d been in the trenches where they belong instead of in the cushy WHPC, maybe we would have found out about the WMD hoax soon enough to make a difference.
Back on the street,
This is dF
Name a major political story broken by a White House correspondent. A thorough debunking of the Bush case for Iraqi WMD? McClatchy Newspapers' State Department and national security correspondents. Bush's abuse of signing statements? The Boston Globe's legal affairs correspondent. Even Watergate came off The Washington Post's Metro desk.
Here are some stories that reporters working the White House beat have produced in the past few months: Pocket squares are back! The president is popular in Europe. Vegetable garden! Joe Biden occasionally says things he probably regrets. Puppy!
Here are some stories that reporters working the White House beat have produced in the past few months: Pocket squares are back! The president is popular in Europe. Vegetable garden! Joe Biden occasionally says things he probably regrets. Puppy!
It’s an excellent point – so much so that I marvel that no one’s said this sooner. Prominently, I mean. And without lapsing into conspiracy theories or a knee-jerk “Who the hell does Helen Thomas think she is?” rant.
I’ve been wondering something similar for the last eight years – or at least ever since we found out even Jeff Gannon could get a WHPC pass. It’s considered one of the most prestigious posts in American journalism, but the work involves basically reporting whatever the President and/or his press secretary says, and asking follow-up questions that get dodged, spun or ignored – which may be why hardly anyone in the WHPC bothers to play hardball. What’s the point?
Yr average junior reporter could do that job. Which is Cox’s point – having a WHPC is ggenerally good, but why waste it on the best and most seasoned journalists in the field? If they’d been in the trenches where they belong instead of in the cushy WHPC, maybe we would have found out about the WMD hoax soon enough to make a difference.
Back on the street,
This is dF
