FC: Other views of the White House press corps and dot com reporters

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

********

Brock's article:
  http://www.msnbc.com/news/397199.asp

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From: "Alberto M. Giordano" <narconews () hotmail com>
To: declan () wired com
Subject: re your story on White House press corps
Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 08:32:00 CDT

Señor Declan,

I just read your story on the White House press corps and the dispute among 
cyber-journalists over seats on the plane.

I remember from my years as a political reporter for the Boston Phoenix and 
other papers when the press secretaries shuffled me and other colleagues 
around like sheep for carefully controlled press coverage of politicians 
and officials. Now I scratch my head when I see that internet journalists 
are upset at being excluded from what is essentially the right to be more 
carefully controlled.

A case in point: In February of 1999 I covered the Clinton-Zedillo 
^Óanti-drug^Ô summit in Mérida on Mexico^Òs Yucatán peninsula (I have lived in 
Latin America since 1997). I covered that event, said hi to some of my old 
pals, made brief inspections of the official news sites, but went about my 
work apart from the pack. That ^Óoutsidership^Ô made all the difference in 
the world and allowed me to break an interesting story in the Boston 
Phoenix that went unreported by the White House press corps  ­ the 
President of the United States held his anti-drug summit on the property of 
a powerful white-collar drug trafficker:

http://www.bostonphoenix.com/archive/features/99/05/13/NARCO.html

That story was later expanded upon quite well by Village Voice ^ÓPress 
Clips^Ô columnist Cynthia Cotts, who reported that the NY Times Mexico 
bureau chief had intentionally covered-up the story:

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0008/cotts.shtml

A positive consequence: Latin American journalists and many sources 
responded so well to the publication of this story that they have opened 
many information spigots to this gringo. It was precisely the fact that I 
went it alone ­ and not shepherded on Air Force One with the pack ­ that 
has now made possible, 14 months later, the publication of a new internet 
newspaper, The Narco News Bulletin:

http://www.narconews.com

So this is to say that it^Òs not such a bad thing to be outside of the 
official White House press stable. Nor is it so great to be ^Óincluded^Ô in 
that group, as I reported in my Boston Phoenix story on how their every 
movement was controlled by the White House, thus keeping them from the big 
story. If we value our independence ­ one hopes that this spirit still 
exists among many internet journalists ­ we ought to forget about being 
invited to the party and relearn the thrill of crashing it.

Hope you like The Narco News Bulletin. If you do, please spread the word.

Sincerely,

Al Giordano
Publisher
narconews () hotmail com



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