Posted on 02/17/2006 6:45:21 AM PST by SwinneySwitch
For all of us at this "small newspaper in South Texas" or as the host of MSNBC's "The Situation" Tucker Carlson says "podunk paper," it's enlightening — and sometimes embarrassing — to look at our big brothers and sisters in the national media on a story we each are covering.
The first step we could all see coming. Someone should have given White House press secretary Scott McClellan a blindfold as he stood at the podium Monday afternoon. The White House press corps spent the previous day stewing about how the White House had failed to deliver a press conference to announce the vice president’s hunting accident.
They went into full "kill the messenger" mode, peppering McClellan with 65 questions about Dick Cheney’s shooting of Harry Whittington, while asking only 17 question not related to the shooting. (Good thing we are not at war, have a CIA leak, record-setting trading deficit or anything big going on.)
On Tuesday, the folks at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial felt a bit of the brunt. As Whittington suffered a morning heart attack, hospital administrator Peter Banko and director of emergency services Dr. David Blanchard stepped to the bank of microphones for a noon press conference and were battered with questions.
It was bad enough that Banko started the Wednesday press conference by declaring that the meeting would end if the same question were repeated and that they were not there to teach medicine.
Still waiting for Cheney to speak, Fox News grabbed an exclusive interview on Wednesday. That was the last straw for some.
Most outspoken in his criticism may have been CNN’s Jack Cafferty. Appearing on "The Situation Room" before the Cheney interview aired, Cafferty had this to say while speaking with host Wolf Blitzer.
CAFFERTY: "Well, I obviously didn't see it because it hasn't been released in its entirety yet. But I would guess it didn't exactly represent a Profile in Courage for the vice president to wander over there to the f-word network for a sit down with Brit Hume. That's a little like Bonnie interviewing Clyde, ain't it? Where was the news conference? Where was the access to all of the members of the media? Whatever ?"
BLITZER: "You still think he needs to do a full-scale news conference and invite all the cameras, all the reporters and ask whatever they want?"
CAFFERTY: "That's never going to happen. But running over there to the Fox network? Talk about seeking a safe haven. He's not going to get any high hard ones from anybody at the f-word network. I think we know that."
I hate it when people blame the media. As a member of this group, I like to think that we are part of the solution. But in this case, we look like the problem.
Contact John Allen at allenj@caller.com
Gee, Jack, if Fox is the "F" network, that means you work at the "C" network, don't you? You know what that means Fox is gonna do to you?
Europe knows ALL ABOUT the c-word network.
EVERY news announcement would be made to the some small local outlet somewhere.
I would have so much fun:)
It would be a hoot if they had a bigger subscription than the NYT's.
I am sure they already have a bigger audience than MNBC.
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