WOW, the white house press corps USED to be journalists

[newsguyatl]

REAL ones...


watching a special on PBS, showing clips of when iran-contra first broke and man, they were REALLY grilling the gipper. from helen thomas to sam donaldson, they were relentless...


what a pathetic JOKE our press corps today is... (with exceptions to abc's terry moran)


just think how different our world MIGHT be if they'd done just HALF their jobs in the last couple of years.

[Booster]

1. anthrax, small planes, suicides, car wrecks......

In their defense, they have been threatened by people in the WH and their jobs are on the line. you have seen what happened to Helen Thomas - never gets a question in. I agree with what you're saying, but we live in different, dangerous times for all of us, but them more than the rest of us. You life, your job, your reputation. Hard one to decide.

[Cleita]

2. Amazing, isn't it?

How did we fall down on the job? I mean we the people. We need to bring this back. I was thinking about awards. What happened to the awards that journalists and their publications used to covet? We need to appeal to real journalists again, to want to compete for journalistic excellence. Apparently the Pulitzer prize has been sold out too.

[Eloriel]

3. I know. I hold them responsible for EVERYTHING

that's wrong now, esp. the Iraq War.

And you're not going to believe this, but the press really gave Reagan a huge pass throughout his whole 8 years, EVEN THO the journalists were somewhat more responsible at what they did back then. They still fawned over him, marveled at what a "great communicator" he was, etc., etc. It was disgusting. You just can't beleive how far they've fallen even from that. Well, I suppose you can. ;-) But it's so disconcerting for those of us who lived through it.

That was the beginning, tho, IMO. Huge swaths of the entire country went into a sort of delusional sleepwalk, or mass hypnotic state, or something. We've never been the same since.

[maggrwaggr]

13. I agree. As soon as they declared him the "winner" of the debate in 1980

I thought "those people sure didn't see the same debate that I saw".

That's about when it started.

[leftofthedial]

4. they will be remembered by history as virtual traitors

pathetic, disgusting

do not deserve the name "joournalist," or even "reporter."

They are fawning guests at a perpetual cocktail party, more like courtiers than professional anythings.

[pansypoo53219]

5. the fuckin media whores

got us into this fucking mess in the first place. if they had done their bloody JOBS Bush would NOT have been acceptable.

[grasswire]

6. please consider the peoples bill of rights...

.....for white house-media transparency that I have been working to promote. The correspondents claim that they must limit criticism to maintain access to the WH. There's remedy for that: return credentialing of WH correspondents to their peers and remove the power from the WH press office. The power was transferred after WW2, and it has been disastrous in recent years -- the informed electorate necessary to preserve democracy barely exists.

The Peoples' Bill of Rights for White House-Media Transparency

1. The White House Correspondents Association shall be the sole credentialing authority for entry to press events and briefings.

2. The president shall appear before the White House press corps for a regularly scheduled monthly conference of no less than two hours.

3. Questions will be asked of the president in an order to be determined by the White House Correspondents Association.

4. No questions will be submitted in advance to White House employees. No suggestions for questions will be communicated from the White House to reporters.

5. No credentialed members of the press will be denied access to any press event except by the decision of the White House Correspondents Association.

6. Members of the White House press shall not accept faxes, phone calls, e-mails or other communications from the political office of the WH, from political campaigns, from the RNC, the DNC, or lobbyists or other politics-based agents, unless the reporter has initiated the contact. Such entities may provide copy of any background material to a WHCA library where it will be available for reporters.

7. There shall be no contact between political advisors to the White House and reporters for the purpose of punishing members of the press for their coverage. If the White House has a complaint, it shall be made in writing by the press secretary and submitted to the White House Correspondents Association, with any remedy or admonishment to be made by the Association to the correspondent in question.

http://webdems.blogspot.com

[Baltimoreboy]

7. How do you enforce this

Much of this seems like a fantasy to me.

What do you do if the president doesn't do his mandated press conference?

How do you stop the media from having contact with people. Have you ever been to a DC party? Politicians, media, government workers all hang together.

[grasswire]

11. to begin with....

....the people can make anything happen that they want to happen. Other Bills of Rights exist that govern professions and government alike. This is just a preliminary outline for such a Bill of Rights.

Of course no one can force the president to come before the press. But a president who faces an INDEPENDENT press will realize rather quickly that it is in his interest to comply with a Peoples' Bill of Rights, no matter if it is consitutionally required or not.

It is true that today's journalists play a social game as well. The pleasures of Washington society are plums. That's a point worth addressing within the structure of the White House Correspondents Association's code of ethics.

[lanparty]

12. Question time!!!

I think the president should have to go before the Senate every other month (when in session) and answer questions the way the British Prime Minister does. That would get rid of this "actor" presidents who don't know bumpkis about the issues!!!!

Tony Blair may be an asshole. But he's about 10 times brighter than Bush and much more on the ball.

[newsguyatl]

8. i DO sense at least a stir of awakeness

in at least PARTS of the media.

many smell blood (with heightening scandals and lowering polls)... i'm anxious to see how the coming months are covered.

david gregory of nbc and terry moran of abc are both solid.

[PartyPooper]

10. Thanks for posting this thread!

:thumbsup:

[Parrcrow]

9. I remember thinking at the time of Iran-Contra

That they were cutting him way too much slack. Time after time they let him off the hook. They don't even have a hook anymore.

[dusty64]

14. Have no fear, they

will become vicious attack dogs again the SECOND President Kerry takes the oath of office.