Why We Should Get Rid Of The White House Press Corps: Ana Marie Cox

Washington Post:

Intense interest in the Obama administration has swelled the ranks of the White House press corps. Outlets such as Politico have thrown a basketball team's worth of bodies at the project, and outlets that didn't even exist until recently -- Fivethirtyeight.com, the Huffington Post -- have created their own White House correspondent positions.

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[philosophe]

Rather than getting rid of the press corps, why don't we actually require that they report things? For instance, instead of just telling us what Obama said about whether or not the folks who "devised the policy" on torture should be prosecuted, the white house press corps could also tell us something about the legal framework within which such prosecutions are required to take place. They could do a bit of investigation about previous legal decisions, nationally & internationally, and put the current discussion in that context.
Instead of saying that fluffy reporting is going on and so that beat should be discontinued, let's demand that the reporting be less fluffy.

[nobillary1]

I really like Ana Marie Cox. Both is print and on the cable talk shows but I've got to say that - on a scale of 1 to 10 - this story is a MINUS 3! Must have been a slow news day, huh Ana Marie?

[serindipity803]

Blaming the Press Corp isn't where it is at -- They can only carry home what they are given, try as they may - our President will let us know HIS WAY where he can be seen and heard CORRECTLY. I like that! The smudges of reporting that have passed for journalism when it comes to anyone or thing important are a shame - todays journalist are primarily tabloid competitor­s...who buys that stuff?

[GeorgeP922]

How could the administration work to rid the press corps of the lazy do nothing types and keep the real journalists.

What is so ironic of left versus right, is ONLY the progressive independent reporters have actually posed good questions and made news.

Sam Stein twice posed questions and tore it up.

So Anna Marie, I reject your notion the press corps is FILLED with talent. There are some there, but there are also alot of worthless people too.

[Soundofthunder]

Yeah, the daily tap dance routines are a waste of time. We get little insight into the president's mind or agenda. Gibbs or any other press secretary is there to disseminate information approved by the White House. Real stories are never spoon fed from the podium, but exist only in the muck and mire of investigative toil.

SOT

[peterg76]

So much news happens at the White House that it's natural to have reporters on site, but it is an environment where investigation is literally not possible. Despite the theatre of reporters' questions, it is a genuinely one-way communication stream - the press corps could be much better journalists if they simply stopped pretending otherwise.

[RNAngel20]

I have yet to hear BO give a short, succint and specific answer to ANY question, one that actually provides useful information. He tends to ramble on (and on) and ends up saying nothing relevant.

[Soundofthunder]

Yes, I hate it when the president is thorough. I like my answers short and full of spoonerisms, malapropisms and demonstrable lies.

SOT

[peterg76]

Obama is smarter than us. It's a good thing.

[trudem2]

Cox makes an important point. While inane questions and circuitous replies or frivolous topics are the mainstay of the daily WH briefings, we the citizens are starved for useful and relevant news that impact our very existence. We lived through an 8-15 year period with no incisive, sustained investigative reporting of the unregulated sub prime mortgage shenanigans that would one day rear up and threaten the world economy. The seeds of this crisis and cooking of books was known as far back as Enron; excessive ceo pay has been an irritant for the last 20-25 years; outsourcing of jobs has destabilized the nation for decades; universal health care, global warming, undereducation in America, unfair taxation, mass shootings.­....there is no dirth of hard core issues that need to be exposed, dissected and brought to the fore for vigorous, sustained, exhaustive public discussion and resolution. Instead, we read endless pieces on such irrelevancies as puppies, Bill's "bad behavior", who gets to ride on Air Force 1 or what Michelle's wearing. The press has and continues to fail this country on a daily basis immeasureably.

[deepintheheartoftejas]

Are people reading the whole article? The purpose would be to facilitate tough questioning of white house policy (a cool idea, but it'll never happen):

"Instead of heaping more telegenic reporters into a single White House beat, break up the work among the corps of plugged-in journalists. When the president speaks out on AIG, let financial and labor reporters truth-squad him; when North Korea launches a missile, let defense and Asia specialists assess the White House reaction."

Instead, you see the white house (not just this administration--all of them) attempting to shape coverage by doling out questions mostly to favorable reporters. The frequently critical reporters rarely get called on. Networks in favor move up to the front of the queue. The reporting is mostly bland... except perhaps when there's a scandal, and the white house press corps during the Lewinsky affair was the lowest nadir of journalism in the past century, with constant questions about nothing else.

[Durango]

After watching Bill Moyers interview with David Simon of the Wire I wish to amend my previous post.

ALL these reporters need to get out of the White House basement and get on police beats, city council beats, county commisioners, school boards etc, etc, etc. Hey, how about stationing reporters in the House and Senate?

And learn their beats well enough to give us informed reporting.

My sister, who was a reporter told me it took her 3 years to finally figure out what was really happening in her small town.

When the White House has a press conference or news releases they can fax or email it to the press rooms. Now need for these highly paid poodles to be waiting for handouts at the WH.

[lvdragonlady]

Well said. There is much more to report on the just what is going on in DC.
Time to see some REAL reporting for a change.

[OhComeOnNow]

So, Ana - should we just have an official news source for the administration? We could call it "Pravda". Oh wait a minute - that's been done. we could call it FOX. Oh wait a minute - they are not the "news" arm of THIS administration.

We need clones of Helen Thomas...

[DocGreen]

A dim witted idea. For all its flaws, it is a visible acknowledgment of the function of the 4th estate. Ana Marie is the principal reason I stopped watching Rachel Maddow.

[Dancer]

I'm no fan of Cox's (didn't/oesn't she blog as WONKETTE?)­...but why stop with the WH press? I feel more strongly about replacing our entire press corps than some do about term limits for Congress! By noon on Sunday I'm ready to punch out my tv after watching the highly paid, poorly informed, egotistic pundits that appear regularly on what passes for NEWS PROGRAMS. TWWGS is the most egregious with Timmeh's replacement coming on strong.. This country might have a fighting chance to pull itself outta the muck and mire if we actually had a press corps that was capable of and interested in doing investigative reporting to inform the, all too often, braindead and apathetic public!

[LostRiverLedger]

I'm shocked, totally shocked that there is even suggestion that we could go without know what Michell Obama is wearing...­...I'm mean really, who will be there when its time to pick the radishes..­.......wer­e they picked too soon, too late, or just right for optimal flavor....­..

[OhComeOnNow]

LOL!!! I'll definitely give you that.

[sarabono]

Good idea. Those folks certainly could find more productive work elsewhere rather than at the WH listening to Gibbs blather and spin and spin and blather.

[nomobull]

dana perino and tony snow have left the building

[larry278]

Ms Cox seems to forget that reporters are called news hounds. Reporters relentlessly seek news. Either 1 reporter or a pack of reporters are always seeking news in Washington, DC. Abolishing Washington's press corps is going to do as much good as a law forbidding forsythia to bloom.
The only way that Washington will lose its press corps is when Washington is no longer the capitol of the USA. The Washington press corps will then desert DC for the new capitol of the USA. If Flatulent Wolf, SD becomes the new capitol of the USA-the former Washington press will be there, all of them. In time they may be called the Flatulent Wolf press corps.
News hounds say that they have a nose for news. That is the nature of the breed.

[Montgriz]

You don't seem to grasp the point here....Th­e Washington News Corps is not a good thing and they are merely tools of the adminsitration of the moment. They are too close to the power to be objective and have lost all credibility even when deserved. They whole process needs a redo....th­ere is no reason press corps travel in planes with politician­s.....

[rsprags]

They really don't do anything; they really are an embarrassment to the organizations they suppose to represent.
I like to laugh between 1:30 and 3:00 so keep them around as Robert give them information that the rest of us have already read on the internet 2 hrs - 24 hrs ago while they sneaking around every corner in the WH trying to get a story.