Great piece by the NRO’s Tim Graham examining this sudden desire, on the part of credentialed journalists, to shore up their club’s membership list in the wake of the Gannon dustup:
Stunned by the liberal mini-tempest over Talon News reporter “Jeff Gannon” (real name: James Guckert) asking a softball question to President Bush on January 26, leaders of the White House Correspondents Association met with Bush press spokesman Scott McClellan Tuesday to discuss tightening up the press-credentialing process.
Liberal media elitists say they want only “real” journalists, not “partisan operatives,” to be allowed in the White House briefing room. But what they really might wind up accomplishing with their “Gannongate” pounding was the silencing of rare right-leaning voice in the White House press corps. To them, you can only be “authentic” by pounding the president from the left.
At the Columbia Journalism Review blog, Brian Montopoli claims “this isn’t a media bias issue, no matter how hard you spin it…Real journalists, the ones who belong in press conferences, know that access to a president is a rare gift, and they know enough not to squander it. Gannon threw away his opportunity in favor of self-aggrandizing partisan spectacle. He put himself and his agenda ahead of the public good, and he did it in a manner so egregious that he left little doubt of his intentions. If both sides of the debate, blinded by partisan zeal, don’t realize that’s the real reason he had to go, they’ve missed the point.”
Montopoli cannot be serious. If anyone who asked softball questions at the White House “had to go,” the White House briefing room would have almost emptied out in the Clinton years. The problem for Montopoli and other liberals is they seem to think that the need for an adversarial press emerged in 2001, when President Bush was first inaugurated. If we travel back to the Clinton era, it’s not hard to discover a whole chorus of White House reporters who, to use Montopoli’s words, squandered their access to Clinton with helpful softball questions, who put his agenda ahead of the public good and made a partisan spectacle of themselves in front of a large number of Americans who wanted the press to act as a watchdog of President Clinton.
Read the rest. But I must insist you not ask any questions unless you possess the proper credentials.
Let it never be said that protein wisdom isn’t doing its part to clarify the social strata. Peasants.
No reports on the sexual identity or the intactness of any of these reporters.
Chosen at random from the Clinton Foundation –
http://www.clintonfoundation.org/legacy/062800-presidential-press-conference-on-genome.htm
…..
But, see, that was fastpitch softball. What they don’t like is slowpitch softball, because, frankly, it’s just too gay.
Does an official “Citizen Journalist” qualify me to ask questions? Or only questions about pie and gay porn?
I’m having a hard time getting excited about this issue. What I really want to know is why don’t you make fun of Oliver Willis anymore?
swimdad
I got kicked out of the White House Press Corps once in the Clinton Administration. See, at the time, I was getting a regular nob gobble from one of the interns; so I framed a question (Mr. President, who gives the best head: The press corps interns or your White House interns?) around the idea, and was kicked out for asking too combative of a question.
I just wanted to use the term ‘nob gobble’ because I think it’s a sweet slice of literary artwork.
If I ask you a softball question, will you out me as a gay male prostitute?
I’ve found it’s much easier to eat my “Citizen Journalist†pie while tossing softball questions.
Ob Willis content: I didn’t know Dockers came in that size.
Sobeck, be careful with that “official” CITIZEN JOURNALIST moniker. When I applied to use the vaunted blog-banner displayed at left, I was told (and quite snootily, too) that in order to be considered a CJ, you must actually post something once in a while, and I was therefore disqualified. With extreme prejudice. And then Jeff just pointed at me and laughed.
Man, I hate when that happens. So I just content myself with being an “unofficial” CJ … even though I know that means now I’ll never be qualified as a White House Correspondent. Or be allowed to appear in gay porn.
Oh, Joe, you can always appear in gay porn regardless of your CJ qualifications. Without them, however, you may not be recognized to the full extent of your contributions.
Heh. Full extent.
I still have all those old Zap Comix with the “Spiny Tounged Knob Gobblers and Clit Likkers”
The prototype to the White Hose Press Corps.
Ob Willis content: I didn’t know speedo briefs came in that size.
Oops! Did I say ”White Hose Press Corps”?
I’m sure Corps should be spelled KKKorps now.
Ob Willis content: I wish he would strap those things up in a Mansiere.
Gail, Gail, Gail. Slow-pitch softball is gay?
I’ts a bunch of oversized mutants who drink a lot of beer and pat each other’s….hmmmm.
I AM A CITIZEN-HUMORIST!
And I can make fun of anybody I feel like…
Spambuster word: soviet
Da, starets!
Is an extent anything like a pup tent, jdm ? ‘Cause I’m a little sensitive about that …
Well, I dunno, Joe, my extent was full. Is your pup tent?
My word is distance, as in “going the”. Because as anyone knows if you get access to the president, it’s a rare gift, and you would be remiss if you didn’t go the distance. Which is exactly why presidential press conferences are like gay porn. And I understand much better now what this brouhaha is all about.
Brouhaha? Ha ha ha…
So did J.G/G have a boner when he tossed his softball question?
The thing that really confuses me about this whole kerfuffle (love that word) is that I always thought softball was a lesbian sport.
Whoa, JDM with the Firesign Theater reference from leftfield, so to speak! Nice.
I gather from that article there’s a lot of pounding going on in those press briefings.
No wonder Gannon wanted in on some of that.
Whoa there. Have you not seen Jennie Finch? Softball, its even better than gay porn.
Do CITIZEN COPY-DESK PUKES get pie?
Can I at least get a cookie?
I suggest that they allow a couple of regular citizens into the press conference every day. Give a couple of average folks a day pass, put them through a minimum background check, give them a good search for weapons and then turn them loose. The citizens get one question each to fire at McClelland.
“Yes, Joe Schmoe, what’s your question?”
Can you imagine the ire in that press room then?
The WH Press Corp is really coming off like spoiled, elitist wanks.
“How DARE a REGULAR person get to ASK A QUESTION of the President! Why, he didn’t even graduate from MIZZOU J-school! Well, I never (monocle falls out into champagne glass)!!”
Hope I don’t get up anybody’s nose by saying this, but I’ve found that journalism schools are a lot like education colleges. Nuff said?