No excuses: Why the TV nets must carry Obama's press conference this week

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/22916

No excuses: Why the TV nets must carry Obama's press conference this week
by Eric Boehlert | July 21, 2009



Just moments after the White House's tweet last Friday announcing President Obama's prime-time press conference on Wednesday to discuss health care reform, media industry speculation began swirling over which broadcast networks would refuse to carry the presidential presser, the way Fox walked away from an Obama press conference in April.

The chatter represented the continuation of an unprecedented pity party television executives have been throwing themselves since Obama was inaugurated and began regularly communicating with the American people through network television. Bellyaching endlessly about lost viewers that Obama's prime-time press conferences have caused (American Idol got bumped!) and complaining contemptuously about advertising revenues that the commercial-free Q&A were eating up, network suits have been egged on by media reporters.

big snip//

By the way, here's some context for the moaning about lost advertising revenue. Combined, the parent companies of ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox generated more than $250 billion in revenues last year. (Yes, $250,000,000,000.) But TV execs are whining about a couple of million that might -- might -- be lost while broadcasting a White House press conference.

Don't you just feel awful?

The fact is, when the federal government granted the broadcast networks extraordinary access to the public airwaves -- and granted that access for free -- the networks promised in return to set aside modest amounts of time to inform the public. White House press conferences, especially those hosted by a newly elected president facing all kinds of historic challenges, clearly represent such occasions.

It's time for the television networks to fulfill their public duty. It's time for them, and the press, to stop whining, and to stop mounting bogus claims about lost ratings and revenues. The networks should air Obama's press conference this week. No excuses.

UPDATE: CBS announced that it will air Obama's press conference on Wednesday. No word yet from the other three networks.

[Abq_Sarah]

1. I believe the figure is

$10,000,000 in lost advertising revenue for every news conference.

[FrenchieCat]

2. The American media is not interested in informing Americans......

as they have aggresively been disinforming us for years now.

and they make no bones about it; they believe that they are there
to influence us, not to educate us.

[newinnm]

3. Wrong

The networks have no obligation to carry any thing except what is written into the federal code. Regardless of what side of the issue you are on, freedom of the press is a fundamental right. If the networks are required to carry this president then they will have to carry every president whenever that president wants to have a press conference.


-nnnm