Will Pitt on Jeff Gannon: " What is happening is very, very dangerous."

[Amaryllis]

The News Is Broken
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Friday 11 February 2005

Once upon a time, working the White House Press Briefing Room was the crown jewel of mainstream political journalism beats. That was it; short of reporting live from under the President's desk or nailing down an interview with the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, you weren't going to get a better gig if you were a political reporter.

To hold such a position was also to be the repository for a great responsibility. If you are privileged enough to be placed there, if you have put in the time as a reporter to earn the right to be there, you are the first line of defense in the eternal struggle between the rights and well-being of the people and governments that are always willing and ready to lie, cheat and steal in our name and 'for our own good.'

All governments lie. That is what they do. A reporter in the White House Press Briefing Room bears the burden of being the person whose role it is to speak truth to power, to write down what happens after speaking truth to power, and to beat their editors and publishers about the head and shoulders to make sure that truth is delivered to the people intact.

We perhaps like to imagine the men and women in that briefing room - if we take the time to think of them at all - as people with big ears and sharp eyes, with too many pens in their pockets, a rolodex with every important name on the planet sitting on their desks, a hand well used to holding a glass of scotch, an unspoken promise to keep sources protected to the bitter end, and a bedrock sense of being beholden to nothing and no one beyond the integrity and mission of their chosen profession. 'Without Fear or Favor,' goes the refrain.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021105A.shtml

[Erika]

1. Gannon is only a political operative of W.

Bush is dangerous. He manipulates government information by these plants. Just like his and Cheney's meetings with the public. His team shows only those rooting for him and his polices.

Rice is following the same deceptive practices by only answering scripted questions while abroad.

[ClintonTyree]

2. This is posted on the Home Page as well

n/t

[teryang]

3. Well said

The ethical crisis of corrupt mainstream journalism is just the tip of the iceberg. The society is rotting to the core. All of its institutions are being systemically castrated and many professionals are faced with debilitating and ever increasing ethical compromises as the corporate military police state increases its hold on power.

Destroying traditional institutions is the necessary prelude to belligerent totalitarianism. The press is discredited, the Congress is discredited, elections are discredited. Traditional sources of state and agency power are dismantled. It has all happened before folks.

[Wrinkle_In_Time]

4. To Will Pitt...

... I enjoy your work. Thank you for doing it. I do have two comments to make about the Perspective article referenced above:

1) Your train left the tracks twice. Unless the train jumped onto a second set of tracks before being derailed again, you are stretching the metaphor... unless there were two trains.

2) I participated in the DU thread that encouraged you (or anyone, to be honest) to seek out the same type of WH press pass that Guckert received. My naïve thought was that this would have been a good story, regardless of the success in getting the pass: if Guckert could get one, then you (or someone else) were even more worthy of one; if you/someone were refused, then how did Guckert qualify?

While I am saddened by your decision to not pursue this, I respect that is was your decision to make. However, I still don't understand your rationale, despite having read your DU post on this subject and the article referenced above. Your respect for what the WH Press Corp used to symbolise (in reality or perception) is evident, as is your belief that there are still some big-eared, sharp-eyed, pen-toting, rolodex-riffling, scotch-drinking idealists in there. Your opinion on how low they have sunk (in general) is also clear.

In deciding not to seek out a WH press corp pass, where you: concerned about demeaning yourself by using a Guckert tactic; afraid of further demeaning the WH press corp image by demonstrating how weak they had become; or something else? I would like to know more.

[Amaryllis]

5. Didn't know when I posted this that it was also on the home page. If you

go there, Will addresses that.

[KoKo]

8. Yes....agree...more must be done to prove the point and not

sound like a crusader who hasn't testest or tried to verify that there really is a "cause." and, what you did to prove or verify what you say...as noble as what you say is.

[Senator]

6. Sorry Pitt, but...

... this bit just ain't so.

I know there are still reputable journalists, men and women of integrity, working that room. Those are the people who need to raise the hue and cry on this matter, before it is too late.

It's long past "too late."

The only "big ears" left among the entire DC/Media Analstocracy are Koppel and his kid.

-------

[Joe Chi Minh]

7. "It was as luxurious

a backrub as has ever been broadcast". (of Gannon by Blitzer)

I remember one "backrub", Bill, almost as luxurious, but kind of more understandable. It was Larry King's interview of Paula Jones! He was terrified of blurting out a "compromising" question. You could see that giant corkscrew whizzing around behind Larry's eyes, was on overtime.

Mad Larry must have been particularly please he was spared the Gannon interview. It would have chimed better with Blitzer's habitual appearance of distracted torpor, wouldn't it. "Nothing here", as they say.