After the events at the White House over the past week and the overload of “Constitution Law” and “media” experts on social media, I feel compelled to say a few things as someone who has been a journalist for over 35 years including press conferences, newsrooms, as an independent.
There was a time when the Associated Press (AP), United Press International (UPI), and Reuters were the main sources for news. Expect for local news, they were it for everything else around the world. Local newspapers “subscribed” to the news sources and were given all the news and were allowed to print what was already written or dig a little deeper and write something of their own. TV stations’ news anchors frequently did what was known as “rip and read” – the news came over the teletype, someone “ripped” it off the machine, handed it to the anchor and he (mostly men in those days) “read” it. That was how the world learned of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination – a “rip and read” breaking news event.
Today, there are seemingly as many news outlets and sources as there are members of Congress and that’s not counting all of the “citizen journalists” sitting at their laptops pecking away.
There are dozens upon dozens of journalistic members staked out at the White House…and the rest of the governmental offices. More than can fit into any one room at any given time.
The answer is to create “pools” where each member(s) in the pool take turns attending the various press events and then sharing the information collected with the rest of the pool.
The five major television networks – CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, AND FOX are the video press pool.
No matter what a journalist writes, there is always going to be SOMEBODY that doesn’t like what is said – it’s the nature of the business. That does NOT mean the news is FAKE or WRONG!
There is a scene in “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” where the sheriff has to tell the king some bad news and he thinks that if he tells the king the news in a funny manner it will make the news better.
The delivery didn’t change the news at all and in the end the king still had to deal with the bad news.
It is the same today…the White House objects to what is written but it was the White House that presented the information for what was written.
As for all those press conferences…no, they do not have to call everyone’s name and not everyone in the room will want to ask a question. Why do you need to ask the same question six times??? Didn’t you hear the same answer the first five times??? Most journalists carry around tape recorders (today it’s the phone) to record everything to avoid missing information.
In most cases, every member of the press at an event receives a press kit with all the important information and background on the topic. Often there are photos that can be used in the articles. (How do I know??? I have a file cabinet full of them!)
And now the really tricky part…
The First Amendment guarantees Freedom of Speech which means you can’t be banned or jailed for expressing you opinion; but there are a few rules regarding the people who gather the news – the press.
Every who is granted a press pass ANYWHERE, first has to be granted the permission to be a representative of the publication where they are employed (or own). In major establishments like the federal government that permission includes being “vetted” (investigated) before the press pass is presented.
HOWEVER, that doesn’t give the journalist carte blanche to go wild. The government absolutely has the right to remove a journalist, BUT there has to be a legitimate cause, the person has to be told before the action takes place, and they have the right to defend themselves.
In the most recent events at the White House NONE of those things happened.
“I DON’T LIKE THEM” is NOT a legitimate excuse!
And then trying to tell a judge that it was for “national security” long after the lawsuit was filed and the parties are in court certainly will not fly with an self-respecting judge.