White House "Punks" CNN re: Bush's Baghdad Visit

[Field Of Dreams]

From Howard Kurtz's column today regarding the press selected to accompany Bush to Baghdad:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17508-2003Nov27.html

"The 13 pool correspondents summoned for the trip included Jim Angle of Fox News, the AP's Terence Hunt, Mike Allen of The Washington Post, Richard Keil of Bloomberg News, a Reuters reporter and photographers from Time, Newsweek and three wire services.

"The White House uses a rotating system for a pool that includes newspaper, wire-service and television reporters when the president travels, but even news executives were uncertain yesterday whether the standard procedures had been followed."

-snip-

"Kathryn Kross, CNN's Washington bureau chief, said a two-person crew from her network was dismissed from the White House pool Wednesday, with the understanding that no further news would be made. "We're all for the president boosting the troops however the White House feels is appropriate," she said. "But apparently the White House put together its own group of people to accompany the president on this trip, and we're real interested to learn their reasons for doing that."

[maddezmom]

1. this may explain the shift at CNN n/t

[Hand]

2. Well, boo friggin' hoo...

So one group of Ho's got pushed out of the bordello in favor of the cheaper ones. My heart bleeds... well, no it doesn't.

:nopity:

[maddezmom]

4. my thought is that they "may" have hand-pick reporters

<<The White House uses a rotating system for a pool that includes newspaper, wire-service and television reporters when the president travels, but even news executives were uncertain yesterday whether the standard procedures had been followed." >>

[oneighty]

5. Please

be kind to the ladies of the night. Somewhere a mother cries for them.

The people you refer too are NFG opportunists, nothing more.

180

[Hand]

8. I stand chastened...

Good point--they work hard at a terrible job and earn little for their trouble. That's 180 degrees of difference from the Media Ho's, a completely different, far less valuable, and far less worthy class of humanity.

If anyone weeps for the latter class, they must be peeling onions.

[Terwilliger]

3. kick

[finn]

6. there is no surprise here nothing is working for the shithead

shrub can t get his policies to work so he has to go off show up in iraq to put on a show. like some ratshit eater figure head. that is no good for nothing but stinking upthe airwaves.

[Cat Atomic]

7. This sort of thing speaks to a deeper problem- it's actually disturbing.

Fox News is unabashedly biased in favor of conservatives, everyone knows that. And here you've got an administration that's willing to funnel news through the unofficial GOP propaganda piece, at the exclusion of other media outlets.

It's an acknowledgment that the public is deeply divided and that there is no middle ground. You're either a loyal Republican or you can fuck off.

I don't like what I'm seeing in the population over the last few years. The anger expressed by us lefties is to be expected when you've got such a ridiculously extremist administration. But what's surprising- and to me, troubling- is the support they get from a segment of the population that puts party loyalty above all else. I know the Nazi comparisons are scoffed at, but I do think they're warranted.