I have refrained from commenting on the fact our vice president "sprayed" his friend with pellets. However, free press issues are now being discussed, and they are calling my name.
The Bush administration sucks at disclosure and communicating with the press. Perfect example, this Bush quote from last week: "I support the free press, let's just get them out of the room." Scott McClellan, on a spectrum of 10 being a CJ Craig and a zero being a robot, leans more toward 1.5.
The fact Cheney didn't run to the press with the information that he shot a man isn't surprising. He, his staff, ranch owner woman, the local police have no legal obligation to alert the press. It'd be nice and is essential for democracy and a good press, but he doesn't HAVE to. The Bush administration has never embraced the watchdog role of the press in government. Instead, Bush would be prefer to do the spying himself.
In order to have a watchdog role though, the press has to accept the higher standards that are traditionally attached to being a member of the Fourth Estate. That means being being unbiased and behaving like professionals. The man of the hour, Fox News' Brit Hume, does not abide by these standards, not that Fox promotes them. From the Washington Post:
Emily Rooney, a talk show host for Boston's WGBH-TV who worked with Hume at ABC News, praised Hume's intuitive grasp of politics. Hume has "never hidden" his conservative leanings, she said, and Cheney "chose Brit Hume for a reason -- because he's always given a fair hearing to the Republican Party, which not every journalist did along the way."
Hiding your biases and eliminating them from your life as a reporter is admirable and expected. Ol' Brit (who names their kid Brit?) obviously is proud of breaking the journalists' code. In all fairness, it's up to the elected officials to abide by their code and be open and honest with the public.
I say we stop playing the game. Stop the partisan name-calling. Stop hiding things. Stop worrying about corrupt lobbyists' placement in White House photos. Stop pretending like we can continue to play these games and be proud of our democracy.
Both sides- JUST STOP.
It's been a long, long, long, long, long time...
9 years ago
4 comments:
Very well put. I like the fact that you pointed out that Cheney/Staff/Ranch Lady have no more of an obligation to report things to the press than you or I do. Well, maybe just me, since you are a writer-type journalistic person. If the Bush administration decided not to tell the press anything at all -- no more press conferences, etc. -- there really isn't anything they could do about it. They'd just have to go through the Freedom of Information Act to get what they want. That, or just make things up, which seems to be the way that most of the TV media does things now anyway.
In any event, I'm pretty tired of all of the finger-pointing and name-calling going on. Hard to respect people like that. Even harder to accept the fact that idiots everywhere will go right ahead and reelect them in November.
www.whitehatblackhat.blogspot.com
you are all writing about this, so to avoid having to think about what comment I'm going to make, I'm just directing you all to each others' blogs.
whew.
also, www.adbt.blogspot.com
I like it better when you post pictures of your cat.
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