March 14, 2003
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Proof That the Washington Post and the White House Press Corps Wear Knee Pads: Breathe Deeply and Swallow
BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
Poynter.Org is well known among journalists as a place to keep themselves updated about the latest best practices and inside information about the media. It is a site with a lot of integrity. In quality, it's many cuts above most of the journalism it covers.
Which brings us to an astounding admission by a Washington Post writer who revealed the truth to Poynter.Org columnist Jim Romenesko: White House reporters have to have quotes that they publish, after "background" interviews, approved by the Stalinist censors in the Rove/Fleischer office of White House Communications. Not only do the so-called reporters have to get approval before including the quotes in an article, the White House can alter the quotations and demand that they be printed as though they were the original quotations.
As a strategy, Rove and Fleischer have White House Staff provide many interviews on "background" so that then they can force the reporters to submit to the White House censors any quotations that they want to actually print.
This admission by the Post Reporter (printed below from http://www.poynter.org/forum/?id=letters#whitehouse) further confirms that we have, in essence, a government controlled media operation mistakenly labeled as the White House Press Corps.
If the Washington Post, New York Times, television network news and other major media had even an ounce of integrity -- just an ounce -- they would pull their reporters out of the White House at once. They are providing the Bush Administration with a cloak of legitimacy, when the reporting is really only censored pablum. This is something out of the Stalinist Soviet Union, not America.
The Washington Post, in particular, has taken an editorial turn into the dark side in the last few years. If the Post truly believed in a free press, it would shutter its White House operations right now, until such time as the Rove/Fleischer Pravda operation accepted the ground rules for a free press.
But we won't hold our breath. Just as Rove and Fleischer need the Stepford/collusionist White House Press Corps, the Post and other "news" outlets need to give their readers and viewers the appearance that they are covering the White House. Of course, they aren't really "covering" anything. So-called "journalists" are paid six figure salaries to be stenographers for Ari and Karl.
We just wonder who passes out the knee pads as the White House Press Corps files into the briefing room.
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From http://www.poynter.org/forum/?id=letters:
13/2003 2:41:44 PM
From JONATHAN WEISMAN, Economics Writer, Washington Post:
In the wake of Seymour Hersh's open statements about the way the White House treats the press, I feel compelled to relate a personal story that illustrates how both the White House and the press have allowed manipulation of the printed word in Washington to get out of hand. This is a bit of a confession as well as an appeal to the White House and my fellow reporters to rethink the way journalism is practiced these days.
Recently, I was working on a profile of the now-departed chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, R. Glenn Hubbard. I dutifully went through the White House press office to talk to an administration economist about Hubbard's tenure, and a press office aide helpfully got me in touch with just the person I wanted. The catch was this: The interview would be off the record. Any quotes I wanted to put into the newspaper would have to be e-mailed to the press office. If approved, the quotation could be attributed to a White House official. (This has become fairly standard practice.)
Since the profile focused on Hubbard's efforts to translate relatively arcane macroeconomic theory into public policy, the quote I wanted referenced the president's effort to end the double taxation of dividends: "This is probably the most academic proposal ever to come out of an administration." The press office said it was fine, but the official wanted a little change. Instead, the quote was to read, "This is probably the purest, most far reaching economic proposal ever to come out of an administration." I protested that the point of the quote was the word "academic," so the quote was again amended to state, "This is probably the purest, most academic, most far reaching economic proposal ever to come out of an administration."
What appeared in the Washington Post was, "This is probably the purest, most academic ... economic proposal ever to come out of an administration." What followed was an angry denunciation by the White House press official, telling me I had broken my word and violated journalistic ethics.
I had, of course, violated journalistic ethics, by placing into quotation marks a phrase that was never uttered by the source, ellipses or no ellipses. I had also played ball with the White House using rules that neither I nor any other reporter should be assenting to. I think it is time for all of us to reconsider the way we cover the White House. If administration officials want to speak off the record, they are off the record. If they are on background as an administration official, I suppose that's the best we can expect. But the notion that reporters are routinely submitting quotations for approval, and allowing those quotes to be manipulated to get that approval, strikes me as a step beyond business as usual.
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Reportedly, for the infamous March 6th Bush "Xanax" news conference, "reporters" were not allowed to enter the room on their own. They were "escorted in" two at a time by White House staff. This is just further evidence of how the White House both totally controls the press corps and has disdainful contempt for them. The press corps members should be paid as actors, not journalists. After all, they are really just "extras" serving as props for each day's Ari briefing. They could just as well watch Ari do his daily obfuscation and lying on C-Span.
If there is any respect for a free press left among the media covering the White House, they should simply pull out their "correspondents" from the "Propaganda on the Potomac" Rove/Fleischer manufactured "news" operation.
BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
