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Journalists Route Around White House Press Office
Tailhook writes Pool reports written by White House correspondents are distributed to news organizations via the White House Press Office. Reporters have alleged that the Obama White House exploits its role as distributor to "demand changes in pool reports" and has used this power to "steer coverage in a more favorable direction." Now a group of 90 print journalists has begun privately distributing their work through Google Groups, independent of the Press Office. Their intent is to "create an independent pool-reporting system for print and online recipients."
The Internet perceives censorship as damage and routes around it. The tighter the control the more systems will slip through their fingers.
Ooh how many more memes can this article produce?
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
So you would run on a platform of "change" and "transparency"?
You are not fooling anyone Obama.
Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
Before everyone gets all uptight... actually check this story out. It's a bunch of hype.
Full Disclosure: I don't like Obama, didn't vote for him, etc... Though I'm not a republican either.
Reporters have alleged that the Obama White House exploits its role as distributor to "demand changes in pool reports" and has used this power to "steer coverage in a more favorable direction."
Of course they did. Wouldn't you if you were president?
On top of that, this is only for print journalists. All of the other Journalists (Cable/TV/Internet) already have external distribution systems to send this stuff out. This isn't an example of Whitehouse overreach. It's yet another example of Print Journalism being 30 years out of date.
Next they'll accuse the whitehouse of withholding their typewriter ribbon supplies to delay stories.
The problem is..the news agencies have been so complacent in all this all along too.
The problem is the corporate media who has their own agenda to push.
If we had a more independent, and aggressive, investigative news agencies out there, Obama and other politicians (both parties) would not get away with half the shit they do.
You forgot informed, though that might come with aggressive and investigative, but I feel it's important to point out. Right now, it's like having an attorney who doesn't even call for an objection when the prosecutor engages in some outright illegal activity.
I think the news agencies should, in general, always view the administration at the time as somewhat adversarial, and should always be on the look for errors, law breaking and any hint of wrong doing. That should be their jobs, to constantly being on the heels of those in power, and keep them on their toes.
And then they run into the nitpicking problem. That can be a bit tough too. You have to have serious grievances, not continuous petty chatter from talking heads that means nothing.
Coffee-gate for example. Or Salute-gate. That was a bit of nonsense to shake your head over.
When you lose true news investigation and reporting, you lose democracy....the free press is needed to keep the administration honest, and just parroting news feeds from whatever administration is in office does the country absolutely NO service, and can in fact, allow very bad things to happen to the country as a whole as well as to erode and harm citizens on a more personal level.
You're right about the free press part, but as I remarked about above, the problem isn't just from the administration.
Well, apparently under this President it's gotten to the point where they've have to have a formal work-around. Perhaps partisans will jump in and say that under Bush a report was delayed for an hour because of an emergency, or some other lame precedent that will allow them to claim that "everybody does it," when no, everybody doesn't do it.
Yeah, unless the military or "intelligence" are involved. Then they'll gladly self-censor. They're all info whores to someone.
That is all.
Lack of access to the First Lady's workout schedule is not what the people complaining about lack of transparency are upset about.
You neck bearded basement dwellers have NO IDEA how the real world works.
There is a *very* simple way to take care of that. Go full Donald Trump on them. Your fired and not allowed back.
When your people do bad things that make you look bad you get rid of them.
An old boss of mine put it perfectly. If you come to me *we* have a problem. If I find out otherwise *you* have a problem.
Your fired for breaking the law gets you no benefits.
For example Nixon could have handled his situation much better by just firing people and coming clean. I think his reaction was "what asshole authorized this" and then circle the wagons. Sound familiar? It should, the current admin is doing the same thing.
It would send a clear message to people "I do not put up with this I expect you to do the right thing".
They are too busy blowing each other to notice there is an easy solution to their problems. They hire people because of their connections not because they will do the right thing. They are so desperate to hold onto that hellish job they will do and say anything.
Sadly our current news media is ratings driven drivel. When your news outfits become purely profit driven, your quality doesn't have to be appealing, only your entertainment value. That is probably the largest marker of the decline of the United States. Often we hear about how the bread and circuses had to be maintained to keep the populace of Rome happy. As it turns out, our news media reflects a circus, and we have McDonald's and other fast food venues for our bread. While I support the legalization of marijuana, I feel that cheap thrills obtained by weed will most likely perpetuate this culture of bread and circuses.
Place something witty here
Everyone should see the movie Network. It is absolutely brilliant. The dearth of investigative journalism has a lot to do with news departments being expected to turn a profit and get ratings. Once that requirement is in place, everything will be subordinated to the bottom line. Journalism stops and profit seeking begins.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
Bush did it first! Bush did it first! Bush did it first!....seriously how fucking long can you parrot this shit?
I think they should stop allowing the President or other officials from "choosing" whom to get questions from in the pool...make it a random drawing who gets question 1, 2, 3....
But has gotten progressively worse...and that means the current admin is about bottom of the barrel with respect to this...until the next admin....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Bush did it first! Bush did it first! Bush did it first!....seriously how fucking long can you parrot this shit?
For as long as people think that it will all be fixed by a Republican president.