Sunshine, Lance Armstrong and voting

[No Elephants]

Last night, I saw part of a broadcast in which Harry Smith interviewed two women who were instrumental in where Lance Armstrong is right now.

Near the end of the interview, an exchange to the following effect(not exact words) took place:

Smith: Why do you think journalists did not pursue this story long ago?

Woman: Because they wanted interviews with Lance Armstrong and he would not give interviews to journalists who asked the hard questions, so they never asked the hard questions.


Smith: Are you looking at me?


Woman: Yes, but you are now redeeming yourself.

Again, the above are not the exact words, but certainly the gist.



I first heard about "access" being restricted as to Tom Cruise, before his divorce from Nicole Kidman; i.e., before he freaked out and was at the height of his box office pull.

And, I heard about "access" to politicians from Woodward.

Why? "Follow the money."

A magazine with the First Family on the cover--whoever that family may be at the time--is going to sell a lot more issues than a magazine with Bernie Sanders family on the cover. And a magazine with Bernie Sanders family on the cover is going to sell a lot more issues than a magazine with someone on the cover who lost an election. And so on.

Ditto for TV and radio and ratings (and therefore sponsors).


The solution is for journalists to be honest. To say over and over, "We tried to get an interview (or a comment) from the {officeholder} but he or she would not give us access. No reason was given, but we assume it may have been because he or she was unhappy about the questions we asked the last time we were granted access."


"This is a practice public officeholders of all political parties have adopted, much like show business and sports celebrities. Whatever it may accomplish with celebrities, we believe the practice is harmful to Americans and unfair to voters when officeholders adopt it and therefore we will do nothing to further the practice. We will certainly not hold back on tough questioning because that is both our job and our solemn responsiblity."

If all journalists with clout did that with politicans of all parties, I might regain some of my respect for media.

I am not holding my breath.