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| 2005-02-15 |
| Hat Tip to DU Leaders of the White House Correspondents' Association plan to meet with President Bush's press secretary tomorrow to discuss tightening the White House press-credentialing process. The meeting follows the recent uproar over James Guckert, a former White House reporter for the GOP-linked Talon News, who had used the name Jeff Gannon and drawn criticism for asking partisan questions. Unlike the true mainstream America vitriol that currently flows from the press corp. Among the potential changes to the credentialing system: tighter restrictions on who can receive daily press passes, such as those Guckert had obtained; and a more active role by the WHCA in approving requests or credentials, which are now handed out solely by the White House Press Office. Let me see, they want this White House to allow this LLL MSM group to be the gatekeeper of press credentials. Anyone want to guess how that's going to play? "The consensus is that we should go in there [with McClellan] and get all the information we can on this and see if we can't take what we've learned and develop a unified position on the board of what to do about this," Hutcheson told E&P. "Scott appears to be very open to discussing this. It is a very hard thing to do, to determine who is a journalist and who isn't." How about we allow question based on Neilson ratings and readership? Right now, reporters who want a White House "hard pass," which allows them to enter and leave on an ongoing basis, are required to first obtain a congressional press pass. But those who seek a daily press pass to the White House do not need a congressional pass. Guckert had been denied a congressional pass last year after the standing committee determined that Talon News was not a legitimate news organization. Like CBS is a "legitimate news organization." Hey Dan want to buy some guard documents? I got them from Lucy Ramirez. Hutcheson said he was hesitant to start barring reporters from the White House unfairly. "My overarching view is that we should be advocates for getting people in the briefing room, not keep them out," he said. "But [the briefings] are an opportunity to get information, not make political statements." Who is this guy kidding? The Politburo over at DU has been circling James Guckert's journalistic carcass like they have bagged some really big game with conspiracy on the side. The guy was just as much a journalist as any one at CBS, CNN, NBC, etc, but the problem is that he was OPENLY right-wing and not pretending to be mainstream. The MSM is concerned that they won't be allowed stupid and unanswerable and wholly partisan questions from the left wing media. I loved it when a DU commentator said he was going to apply for creds and then backed out. I guess his voice sounds better in the fever swamp than in the White house press room. |
| Posted by:Cyber Sarge |
| #1 Guckert had been denied a congressional pass last year after the standing committee determined that Talon News was not a legitimate news organization. If you want my opinion, this is the real scandal. There's a Congressional Star Chamber deciding who are "real journalists" and who aren't. Now, who thinks anyone could get credentials by citing an arrangement with Rantburg? Any of us? Almost certainly not, right? I know that the "A" section of the Cincinnati Enquirer, excepting the front page and the editorial page, is almost entirely made up of wire service stories. Same with Rantburg -- wire service stories, occasionally an original report. Lots of editorial content. This whole story has NOTHING to do with "journalistic standards" and EVERYTHING to do with restricting competition. |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-02-15 1:16:44 PM |