“The Cheney presidencyâ€
In Saturday’s Boston Globe Robert Kuttner presented a strong case against the Bush/Cheney presidency but also against the mediocrity of the White House press corps. Kuttner comments that
“…The media focuses relentless attention on the president, on the premise that he is actually the chief executive. But for all intents and purposes, Cheney is chief, and Bush is more in the ceremonial role of the queen of England….So let’s take half the members of the overblown White House press corps, which has almost nothing to do anyway, and send them over to Cheney Boot Camp for Reporters. They might learn how to be journalists again, and we might learn who is running the government…â€
Watching Bush’s press conferences is painful and not just because of Bush’s inability to string together more then a few words. The more painful part for some of us is watching the press lob softballs in what used to be a hardball game. But Kuttner also reminds us that by spending so much of their resources on White House coverage the press often misses the real story. The press corps’ reliance on “access†to the administration simply gives the game away.