Posted on 11/17/2018 8:18:54 PM PST by Coleus
A lot of my fellow journalists are upset that CNN's Jim Acosta was banned from White House press conferences.
Not me. I would prefer that all press conferences be restricted to the press, by which I mean the print media.
I've been a print journalist since before Acosta entered kindergarten. For the first five years or so of my career I never attended a press conference that included TV and radio people.
That made for a much more informative interchange between journalists and politicians. The reporters wanted simply to have their questions answered. The answers could then be incorporated into an article.
Not so with the TV guys. All too often the TV journalist is more concerned with turning the press conference into a talk show in which he serves as the host. If the guest says something the host dislikes, the host feels obligated to correct him.
Acosta is one of the worst offenders. I happened to be watching that exchange that got him banned with my wife, a former newspaper reporter. Even before that tussle over the microphone began we both said the same thing: He's not asking a question. He's giving a lecture.
"I want to challenge you on one of the statements that you made in the tail end of the campaign," Acosta said. He then launched into an attack on Trump for calling that migrant caravan in Mexico an "invasion" in the run-up to the mid-terms.
"As you know, Mr. President, the caravan was not an invasion," Acosta said.
After Trump responded, "Thank you for telling me that. I appreciate it," Acosta should have let the microphone go to one of the many reporters who had real questions to ask.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
I agree that letting tv and radio people (journalists???) in the briefings is a waste of time. Newspapers and magazine jurno’s would be much better. The answers given then the investigators findings reported factually would be informative. What we have now is theatrical bs. It does give DJT another way to get his points out though. Print media is next to dead. It used to be the go too.
You have no constitutional right to be heard by the President.
I would have kept Acosta banned for life and told the judge to go fly a kite.
A judge has no business telling the President how to run the WH and vice versa.
Yeah, the whole concept of reporting is getting lost with these cable news freaks. Just report the facts and otherwise STFU!
lol, very appropriate for that little, arrogant shithead.
President Trump should stop press conferences.
He can tell people what he wants via Twitter, which he uses a lot anyway.
He can allow people, including journalists, to submit questions to him in writing and he can respond as he sees fit via Twitter.
I am with you. I would tell the cameras that it is my press room, and I will determine who is invited into it. “If there are any journalists who feel I am wrong, they can feel free to not attend them anymore in solidarity with him”
I agree with all your points.
Mr. Acosta,
The judiciary may rule that your credentials be reinstated but you will never be called upon to ask a question ever again.
Well said!
"..Only in America do the media try to enforce speech codes on the politicians. It's not the job of the reporter to tell politicians which terms they should use. The reporter's job is to faithfully report the politician's words and let the reader decide which are objectionable...."
The television reporters are no longer journalists: they are self-aggrandizing wannabe media stars.
They might consider a government controlled video link directed only at the speaker and never showing the reporter, even to the extent of not having a microphone positioned which can pick up their voices? Ban all cellphones and other cameras from the event. I'm old enough to remember when there wasn't the crush of cameras in the back and on all sides of a news conference and the television reporters went outside to report what was said.
Find some means or methods to cut down on the grandstanding and we will get more questions answered and have less conflict in the room. Alternately, have them write down questions and eliminate the live pressers entirely. If they can't be civil that is the final solution.
One way is to not point a camera at anyone but the person behind the podium. On tv we could hear the person asking a question but not see them. A camera can record the reporter for the official record so if one collapses or something; it's recorded and can be allowed to be seen by us or not.
Yes!
Taking the tv news reporter out of the camera view is the important step; he is not supposed to be the news but just reporting it. But I don't know how you would do that without controlling the camera. A camera feed controlled by the speaker, focused only on the podium and given to any who want it is the only way I can think of to get it done.
Ban all video recording devices, except for the White House camera. At the end of the conference, the WH releases the video, with bad behavior EDITED OUT.
Agree.
Do what CSPAN does in both chambers. Have a single camera fixed on the dais and no shots of the audience.
It would remove the circus atmosphere if the clowns can't get their faces on a nightly news clip with a ‘gotcha’ question. :^)
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