There are many signs that the American Press is in some trouble these days. Sure, changing technologies and new ways to get information are part of the story, but the real problem is laziness, group think and a default to embrace the silly and sensational over the important. Yes, there are exceptions. There has been …
Shed a tear for the WH Press CorpsPost + Comments (60)
I’ve been watching the WH Press Briefings for most of the last year. It is like a sitcom. It is a crazy collection of goofballs, primadonnas, posers and a few actual journalists. The day in and day out of this bunch is ridiculous. The only time that news seems to be made is when Robert Gibbs shares information before he takes questions and/or has guests from the Administration share information. 80 percent of the questions are poorly framed and pretty stupid.
And yet, inside the beltway, these are suppose to be the toughest reporters in town. Maybe that was true back in the 1960s or maybe even in the 1970s, but since Reagan the WH Press Corps has been a tamed and timid bunch, especially when a Republican is in the White House. They’re a little “tougher” on Democrats, but that’s just because Democratic Presidents tend to like the idea of a free press, read, treat the press with some respect and expect some effort to hold them accountable. Republicans OTOH, treat the press with contempt and most in the press respond with fear and meekness. Who remembers anybody in the WH Press Corps (with the heroic exception of Helen Thomas) taking on Bush over anything? It just didn’t happen.
Six months ago the WH Press Corps was complaining that President Obama was holding too many press conferences and that he was over exposed. Now, they’re complaining that it has been six months since President Obama held a formal WH Press Conference. And worse of all–in the view of the WH Press Corps–the President is talking to other people and finding other ways to communicate that completely bypass this gaggle of gas bags.
On February 3, Peter Baker wrote about this trend in the NYTs and on Monday Howard Kurtz whined about it in the Washington Post. Both argued that it is so very important for the President to take questions from the WH Press Corps in formal settings, but neither ever explained why. Zero evidence of an important story that broke because of a question from a member of the WH Press Corps was ever offered. It was all process about a President who was not catering to the process demands of a group of primadonnas.
There was one story that Kurtz pointed to in his story:
During a news conference devoted almost entirely to health-care reform, Obama answered a final question about the arrest of his friend Henry Louis Gates — he said the Cambridge police acted “stupidly” — and the resulting flap dominated the news for a week.
See according to Howie, we need these press conferences so we can have the chance of a new silly and trivial story to hype and push important issues off the table. It is pretty sad that the only highlight they could mention about the work of the WH Press Corps was an overhyped sideshow that meant nothing then and still means nothing now.
On Tuesday, President Obama surprised the dilettantes of the WH Press Corps by opening Daily Briefing with a Press Conference. This is, IMHO, the best way that President Obama can deal with these folks. An announce conference gives them too much time to think about meaningless things to ask to fuel the sideshow. Showing up unannounced at the Press Briefing yields a better set of questions than the formal kabuki dance of a scheduled press conference.
Of course Kurtz quickly took credit for President Obama’s appearance, but alas it was not the case. I just loved the Gibbs smackdown of Kurtz in this reply to a question from Greg Sargent (emphasis added):
A coincidence indeed, Gibbs says. “We had planned for the President to go into the briefing room to make this statement probably a week ago,” Gibbs told me. “I mentioned then that if we went into the briefing room, we should take questions.”
“At that point neither Peter nor Howard had written their articles,” Gibbs said. “I read Peter’s piece over weekend. But I never read Howard’s piece.”
Soon we will be treated to the annual WH Correspondents Dinner where in years past members of the gang joined Karl Rove on stage to help him rap. The image of David Gregory swaying to Rove’s mad rhymes tells one all you need to know about the WH Press Corps.
Treating these folks with a bit of contempt is something they have earned.
There should be journalists in these seats at the WH. There are a few, but mostly they are goofballs, primadonnas, posers and WATBs.
Shed a tear for the little darlings.
Cheers
dengre