Reply #130: Thanks for that find and the link!

[troubleinwinter]

Here is another very interesting article by Jay Rosen (mentioned in the LA Times article).


To Liberate From the White House the White House Press

"Why do we need the administration to be nice to us, or to somehow validate our existence? Journalists need to do their jobs regardless of the roadblocks and land mines placed by the White House. And the real reporting doesn't take place in the briefing room, regardless of who's accredited, or in the televised news conferences, which have become theater. It takes place behind the scenes, where journalists cultivate sources not just in the administration but on the Hill and among interest groups, to break news the White House doesn't want broken. (Watergate, you may recall, was not broken by White House beat reporters.) And it takes place when reporters have the courage to say that what the president said yesterday is at odds with reality or with his own record."

Amen. I think he's right about all of that. Kurtz to PressThink: "I don't think we disagree on very much." For example:

"By and large, the Bush administration has taken not just an adversarial but often hostile approach toward the media." Agreed: There is hostile intent that goes beyond the normal tensions and struggles as reporters try to make news from what officials say.

"Not since the Nixon administration, with its wiretapping and enemies lists, has a president tried to marginalize the press in such aggressive fashion." Agreed about the effort to marginalize.

http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/