Why We Should Get Rid of the White House Press Corps

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: dewayne () warpspeed com (Dewayne Hendricks)
Date: April 21, 2009 3:17:57 AM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Why We Should Get Rid of the White House Press  
Corps

Why We Should Get Rid of the White House Press Corps
By Ana Marie Cox
Sunday, April 19, 2009

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/17/AR2009041701900_pf.html 
>

Intense interest in the Obama administration has swelled the ranks of  
the White House press corps. Outlets such as Politico have thrown a  
basketball team's worth of bodies at the project, and outlets that  
didn't even exist until recently -- Fivethirtyeight.com, the  
Huffington Post -- have created their own White House correspondent  
positions.
Yet too often, the White House briefing room is where news goes to die.

Name a major political story broken by a White House correspondent. A  
thorough debunking of the Bush case for Iraqi WMD? McClatchy  
Newspapers' State Department and national security correspondents.  
Bush's abuse of signing statements? The Boston Globe's legal affairs  
correspondent. Even Watergate came off The Washington Post's Metro desk.

Here are some stories that reporters working the White House beat have  
produced in the past few months: Pocket squares are back! The  
president is popular in Europe. Vegetable garden! Joe Biden  
occasionally says things he probably regrets. Puppy!

It's not that the reporters covering the president are bad at their  
jobs. Most are experienced journalists at the top of their game -- and  
they're wasted at the White House, where scoops are doled out, not  
uncovered. The day of a typical White House correspondent consists,  
literally, of waiting to be told things. Legitimate security concerns  
and a tightly scripted political world keep the presidential press  
corps physically corralled and informationally hostage.

[snip]
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