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Land of the... free?
Jan. 30th, 2005 11:50 amI wish I could be singing the delights of the latest SG-1. Instead, I need to shout a horror buried in The Washington Post today.
Paul Farhi discusses the constraints on covering the Administration - both limiting reporters and anyone who might speak to them. Use Bug Me Not to get past the registration. Notable paragraphs below:
The modern presidential toolbox includes carefully rationed press conferences, say-nothing spokesmen, dead-of-night releases of unfavorable news, and phony "town hall" meetings composed solely of sycophantic supporters. More recently, government agencies have issued fake-news videos and secretly contracted with two pundits to promote the administration's policies on education and marriage. [blogger's note - it's up to three pundits and counting.]
But now the art of press handling has evolved into actual manhandling. The Bush team has expanded the use of "minders," employees or volunteers who escort journalists from interview to interview within a venue or at a newsworthy event.
[snip]
As I was dictating from my notes, something flashed across my face and neatly snatched my cell phone from of my hand. I looked up to confront a middle-aged woman, her face afire with rage. "You ignored the rules, and I'm throwing you out!" she barked, snapping my phone shut. "You told that girl you didn't need an escort. That's a lie! You're out of here!"
[snip]
By about 10:15 p.m... a supervisor waved off the escorts and told them to go home... I immediately walked across the room to confront my cell phone snatcher. I told her what I thought of her media management skills -- at which point she ordered me thrown out again.
[snip]
The escorts weren't there to provide security; all of us had already been through two checkpoints and one metal detector... They were there to let the guests, my sources on inaugural night, know that any complaint, any unguarded statement, any off-the-reservation political observation, might be noted.
---
You'd expect to read something like this about Stalinist Russia, not modern America.
Paul Farhi discusses the constraints on covering the Administration - both limiting reporters and anyone who might speak to them. Use Bug Me Not to get past the registration. Notable paragraphs below:
The modern presidential toolbox includes carefully rationed press conferences, say-nothing spokesmen, dead-of-night releases of unfavorable news, and phony "town hall" meetings composed solely of sycophantic supporters. More recently, government agencies have issued fake-news videos and secretly contracted with two pundits to promote the administration's policies on education and marriage. [blogger's note - it's up to three pundits and counting.]
But now the art of press handling has evolved into actual manhandling. The Bush team has expanded the use of "minders," employees or volunteers who escort journalists from interview to interview within a venue or at a newsworthy event.
[snip]
As I was dictating from my notes, something flashed across my face and neatly snatched my cell phone from of my hand. I looked up to confront a middle-aged woman, her face afire with rage. "You ignored the rules, and I'm throwing you out!" she barked, snapping my phone shut. "You told that girl you didn't need an escort. That's a lie! You're out of here!"
[snip]
By about 10:15 p.m... a supervisor waved off the escorts and told them to go home... I immediately walked across the room to confront my cell phone snatcher. I told her what I thought of her media management skills -- at which point she ordered me thrown out again.
[snip]
The escorts weren't there to provide security; all of us had already been through two checkpoints and one metal detector... They were there to let the guests, my sources on inaugural night, know that any complaint, any unguarded statement, any off-the-reservation political observation, might be noted.
---
You'd expect to read something like this about Stalinist Russia, not modern America.
