On The Divine Right To Report From Press Releases
White House Press Corps Exposed: Sitting in armchairs waiting for handouts not the best way to get scoops (Jon Ham, Carolina Journal, via Anne)
Members of the elite White House press corps this week have acted more like animals that have been kept in captivity for so long that they can’t find news unless it is forced down their open gullets at a daily press briefing.
The Cheney hunting accident story embarrassingly revealed this fact, which probably explains the greater-than-normal anger and outrage of White House correspondents over the last few days. “Why weren’t we told?” has been the refrain, not “How did we miss that story?”
Imagine if just one of the reporters assigned to cover the vice president had staked out the entrance to that ranch in Texas instead of waiting in some warm spot to be spoon fed by a flak. At some point they would have seen an ambulance arrive. Don’t you think that would have piqued some reportorial interest? But apparently that’s not the way reporters who cover the president and vice president work.
This reminds me of Ken Hoffman's blurb on KRIV-26's Mark Berman, who tends to break big sports stories in Houston before everyone else:
The best reason to watch Channel 26, though, is sports anchor Marc Berman. How many times do you hear ESPN suck it up and admit, "According to Channel 26 in Houston ... ?"
Berman's secret for breaking so many stories? He works harder than all the other sportscasters in town put together. I once asked a Houston Rockets' official, "How come you give all those scoops to Berman? Don't the other sports anchors get mad?" The official said, "Every single day, Berman pops his head in my office and asks if anything is up. I answer him honestly. If the other anchors dropped by, I'd give them the same story. But I never see them here unless it's a big game." And this was back when the Rockets didn't play that many big games.
Somehow, I don't think David Gregory is quite as persistent and diligent as Mark Berman, but I could be wrong.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/16/06 22:21 | Media Matters | Technorati
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