Currently the mainstream media are scolding the Obama administration for lack of access and for using other types of media (social media and local media) to get their message out. Many in the mainstream media tend to believe that all news, especially from Washington should be filtered through them first.
As seen in the video below some are even calling this new form of information dispersal by the President a form of state run media. That would be a false statement since a direct chat with constituents or local media still gives the populace the opportunity to question the President and his policies.
The panel discussion below on CNN’s Reliable Sources was quite interesting. The elitism by the panelist was in full display as they believe it is they who should be the dispersers of the Presidential message and the ones to form the message.
Partial Transcript:
BILL PLANTE, CBS NEWS: We have gotten used to being called whiny lap dogs. I’ve heard it for 30 years. But this is not about a picture of Tiger Woods. This is about access to the president. And access to the president has been cut and pushed and curtailed over every administration I’ve covered. Here’s the nub of it, Howie, this administration has the tools to reach people on their own. They don’t need us as much. And to the extent that they’re able to do that, they’re undercutting the First Amendment, which guarantees a free press through many voices.
If they put out their own material, it’s state-run media.
JULIE MASON, SIRIUS XM RADIO HOST: Yes.
KURTZ: Bill makes an interesting point. But Tiger Woods was the catalyst at least for this explosion, for this debate. And part of the reason that the White House Press Corps, no picture was put out. We never saw the two of them together. Maybe Obama administration wanted it that way given Tiger’s previous scandalous past.
MASON: Yes. They didn’t want a picture of the president with Tiger and, in fact, the White House was incredibly squirrelly about this trip and about this golf game.
And Bill makes a really good point. This isn’t about golf. We push for access all the time behind the scenes, regular meetings with Jay Carney, asking for more access, asking for more opportunities to ask questions. When this president gives more access to the view than the reporters of "The Wall Street Journal" something has gone horribly amiss.
KURTZ: And yet, David Zurawik, I have the impression that the White House press corps is losing the battle of public opinion. There’s been a lot of mockery about this.
DAVID ZURAWIK, THE BALTIMORE SUN: I think — you know, look, Howie, that’s what the Obama administration is good at. Winning the public opinion battle and that’s where they’re playing this game.
But I absolutely agree. Look, this is our job, this is our job to push for it and it’s the job of critics like myself to reinforce that push, not back off and say, oh, my readers don’t care or they love Obama, whatever.
The reality is that times are changing and most Americans no longer view the mainstream media as reliable or credible. There is ample reason for that. They are lazy. They do not ask probative questions. They allow themselves to be used by political operatives and the Plutocracy to misinform the population at large.
Lest one forget, the mainstream media was complicit in America’s entry in to the Iraq War. They were complicit in making asinine statements on healthcare reform like “death panels”, “throwing grandma off the bus”, and “government takeover of healthcare” plausible. They were lazy and negligent in researching in depth and presenting to Americans the scores of universal healthcare systems around the world that work.
The question remains, Why would any President attempting to effect major change, use the mainstream media to get its message out? They are fully owned by a Plutocracy intent on maintaining an ignorant citizenry.
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