Press Declares War On White House
As Michael Goodwin writes in his Daily News column today, the media has declared war on the White House.
Goodwin
Goodwin accurately captures the spirit of the McClellan news conference yesterday and the state of the MSM:
The intense grilling that White House reporters inflicted on presidential spokesman Scott McClellan Monday over whether political guru Karl Rove leaked the name of a CIA operative was no ordinary give-and-take. It was a hostile hectoring that revealed much of the mainstream press for what it has become: the opposition party.
Indeed, that is exactly what the MSM has become, “the opposition party”. As Goodwin suggests, the press is for the most part made up of liberals with press passes who don’t think the Dems are doing a good job “against” the White House so they have taken up the cause and doing so with much more malice and agenda than the normal slant. Having one of their own in jail probably has a lot to do with that, which Goodwin points out
Forget fairness, or even the pretense of it. With one of its own locked up - Judith Miller of The New York Times - much of the Beltway gang has declared war on the White House.
Reporters apparently have decided Democrats aren't up to the job. Can't blame them. With Dems reduced to Howard Dean's rants and Hillary Clinton's juvenile jab that President Bush looks like Mad magazine's Alfred E. Neuman, somebody has to offer a substantive alternative. The press has volunteered.
That’s the key difference now, that the MSM are no longer even pretending to be fair and balanced. They are wearing their agenda and partisan politics on there sleeve and speaking it openly at press conferences. The MSM has basically become the mouth piece for the DNC.
The reference to Kerry was funny and would be valid with several other Dem leaders:
Indeed, as soon as Monday's bash-by-press session ended, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) called on Rove to resign. If everybody resigned when Kerry demanded it, Washington would be empty.
Goodwin reveals Judith Millers husbands comment on the ordeal here:
Miller - a former colleague of mine - has taken her punishment with grace. Her husband, book editor Jason Epstein, told Editor & Publisher magazine, "She was quite prepared to take the consequences and the judge had no choice, she understood that." Epstein said Miller believed she had to protect her source, even if that meant jail.
"I don't see how it could have been avoided because the law is the law," he said. "She exhausted her appeals and had no place left to go
Indeed, the law is the law, and how much better the MSM would be in serving its customers if they realized they are not above the law and their customers do expect them to adhere to the media standards, particularly no partisan political reporting. Until they get that one figured out, their approval and trust ratings will remain in the toilet and customers will continue to leave the product.
I share Goodwin’s thought in his close: What a refreshing, adult point of view. Here's hoping it spreads. Then the press can get back to reporting on the President instead of fighting him.
That's what the press is suppose to do, report the new straight out, fair and balanced. However that is not what the majority of the MSM does. Put the political agendas aside or continue the slide into irrelevancy I say.
Goodwin
Goodwin accurately captures the spirit of the McClellan news conference yesterday and the state of the MSM:
The intense grilling that White House reporters inflicted on presidential spokesman Scott McClellan Monday over whether political guru Karl Rove leaked the name of a CIA operative was no ordinary give-and-take. It was a hostile hectoring that revealed much of the mainstream press for what it has become: the opposition party.
Indeed, that is exactly what the MSM has become, “the opposition party”. As Goodwin suggests, the press is for the most part made up of liberals with press passes who don’t think the Dems are doing a good job “against” the White House so they have taken up the cause and doing so with much more malice and agenda than the normal slant. Having one of their own in jail probably has a lot to do with that, which Goodwin points out
Forget fairness, or even the pretense of it. With one of its own locked up - Judith Miller of The New York Times - much of the Beltway gang has declared war on the White House.
Reporters apparently have decided Democrats aren't up to the job. Can't blame them. With Dems reduced to Howard Dean's rants and Hillary Clinton's juvenile jab that President Bush looks like Mad magazine's Alfred E. Neuman, somebody has to offer a substantive alternative. The press has volunteered.
That’s the key difference now, that the MSM are no longer even pretending to be fair and balanced. They are wearing their agenda and partisan politics on there sleeve and speaking it openly at press conferences. The MSM has basically become the mouth piece for the DNC.
The reference to Kerry was funny and would be valid with several other Dem leaders:
Indeed, as soon as Monday's bash-by-press session ended, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) called on Rove to resign. If everybody resigned when Kerry demanded it, Washington would be empty.
Goodwin reveals Judith Millers husbands comment on the ordeal here:
Miller - a former colleague of mine - has taken her punishment with grace. Her husband, book editor Jason Epstein, told Editor & Publisher magazine, "She was quite prepared to take the consequences and the judge had no choice, she understood that." Epstein said Miller believed she had to protect her source, even if that meant jail.
"I don't see how it could have been avoided because the law is the law," he said. "She exhausted her appeals and had no place left to go
Indeed, the law is the law, and how much better the MSM would be in serving its customers if they realized they are not above the law and their customers do expect them to adhere to the media standards, particularly no partisan political reporting. Until they get that one figured out, their approval and trust ratings will remain in the toilet and customers will continue to leave the product.
I share Goodwin’s thought in his close: What a refreshing, adult point of view. Here's hoping it spreads. Then the press can get back to reporting on the President instead of fighting him.
That's what the press is suppose to do, report the new straight out, fair and balanced. However that is not what the majority of the MSM does. Put the political agendas aside or continue the slide into irrelevancy I say.
posted by Steve at 1:02 PM
