Sometimes I wonder, in numbed astonishment, how anyone is supposed to believe the stuff that comes out of the Bush White House. It had never occurred to me that there was a practical answer to this questioon. Here is part of it. The White House press machine rewrites and approves even supposedly off-the-record briefings from people who work there; and, when a journalists baulks at this, accuses him of unethical conduct: here is a Washington Post reporter getting himself into trouble.
Recently, I was working on a profile of the now-departed chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, R. Glenn Hubbard. I dutifully went through the White House press office to talk to an administration economist about Hubbard’s tenure, and a press office aide helpfully got me in touch with just the person I wanted. The catch was this: The interview would be off the record. Any quotes I wanted to put into the newspaper would have to be e-mailed to the press office. If approved, the quotation could be attributed to a White House official. (This has become fairly standard practice.)
(via Scott Rosenberg)
Does even Microsoft try that amount of control?
Thanks for that. I found this article by Robert Fisk about CNN which is also pretty depressing
http://www.robert-fisk.com/articles173.htm
Embed, inbed?
I don’t remember which company it was now — although I’m sure it wasn’t Microsoft — that I was writing about where the PR said I could talk to so-and-so, who knew all the stuff I wanted, but any quotes I used would have to be attributed to so-and-so-else (I can’t remember if they had to be apporved or not) because he was the only person authorized to speak for the company — but who didn’t know the stuff himself. I said, “I’m sorry. I think that’s getting a little closer to writing fiction than I’m comfortable with.” Can’t remember now how we resolved it.
But the White House thing is particularly astonishing because so many of today’s journalists came into the profession wanting to be Woodward and Bernstein. So instead of doing hard-edged investigative reporting in Washington, they’re doing it in LA about the lives of movie stars?
argh