When is the national press corps going to get the message from Cheney et a

[jhain]

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/columnists/chris_satullo/13905873.htm

Satullo's proposal has been my own fantasy for months on end.....I remember posting the wish here on DU awhile back- if only McClellan would walk into an empty room...

Chris Satullo is GOOD. Contact him at [e-mail].





excerpts:

So, reporters, why keep playing along with staged rituals like the White House press briefing? Why cram yourself into rows like schoolchildren, raising your hand to ask questions that a press secretary or president will evade with weary condescension, leaving you only the option of theatrical crankiness to show you're "tough"?

Face it, the only real value these rituals have is to provide fodder for Jon Stewart and The Daily Show. They have as much to do with real journalism as a Harlem Globetrotters game has to do with the NBA Finals.

And they are a trap. This absurd play-acting is all most Americans see of the practice of journalism. The setting is designed to make reporters look churlish and impotent. This bolsters the conservative view that reporters are impudent hacks, and the liberal delusion that if only reporters asked the really tough questions, W. would break down like a suspect on Law and Order, sobbing, "Yes, yes, I lied and people died!"

Never going to happen. So, press corps, why not meet unprincipled disdain with principled disdain? Don't even bother showing up. Don't play your debilitating role in the farce. Leave the questions to the planted sycophants; pick up the obligatory spin-quote from the C-Span feed.

[Lerkfish]

1. Because its the ONLY access reporters have to the administration at the

moment. would you eliminate our opportunity to hear Helen Thomas asking the questiong that need to be asked?

NOT showing up would allow them to stonewall without being able to demonstrate how fatuous their stonewalling really is.

I, for one, would much rather give them the rope to hang themselves than dismantle the gallows.

[jhain]

2. it *would* send a message

this admin wouldn't hear that message , of course. But, for the rest of us- Damn, it would give *me* hope to see that happen- even just once...........

[cyr330]

3. Never

The White House press corps with very, very few exceptions is nothing but a band of pussies, to put it bluntly. "Mr. President. . . . Could you please tell us how your religious beliefs have guided your presidency?" I kid you not--this question in lieu of anything substantial--fill in the blank--"Why did you lie about Iraq? Why do you insist on advocating torture? Why did your administration out V. Plame, and who exactly did it and who is responsible? Who met with Cheney about the energy policy???" Of course there are THOUSANDS of other pertinent questions, but we just don't have a soul to ask them. The American press is DEAD.