Helen Thomas, the oldest member of the White House Press Corp. on the secrecy of the Bush Administration:
I did think that tough questions were always very important. With Kennedy, we knew he enjoyed the banter with the press, and he had the first live televised news conferences. And it made a big difference in terms of really capturing the imagination of the public. It was the first time they really saw reporters in action, they saw a witty president that was able to dodge questions as deftly as anyone, and he had great eloquence. That was the first time the American people really became interested in presidential news conferences.
And then Johnson had a love-hate relationship with the press. He couldn’t live without us, and yet at the same time, he thought we were hurting him every day. The words “credibility gap” were created in that era.
With Nixon, that is when news management and manipulation really began. Now, every president wants to put his best foot forward, and always be able to manage and manipulate news coverage.
All presidential candidates, especially, vow to run an open administration. But they step foot in the Oval Office and the Iron Curtain slams down. Suddenly, all information that I think belongs in the public domain becomes their private preserve.
The manipulation of the press has become greater and greater. This is the most secretive administration I have ever covered. And they’re all secretive.
The whole interview is on Salon.com.
Thanks to Michael Parker for this post.
If you enjoyed this post, subscribe to my RSS feed
Naomi Klein in Rolling Stone reports how China is gearing up to use the latest people-tracking technology, thoughtfully supplied by American corporations who are currently sponsoring the Beijing Olympics.
Now, as China prepares to showcase its economic advances during the upcoming Olympics in Beijing, Shenzhen is once again serving as a laboratory, a testing ground [...]
The Iraqi people were well on their way to freedom. The scenes of free Iraqis celebrating in the streets, riding American tanks, tearing down the statues of Saddam Hussein in the center of Baghdad were breathtaking. Watching them, one could not help but think of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of [...]
Hanif Kureishi, in The Guardian, on creative writing courses, which he describes as “the new mental hospitals”:
Aspiring writers have plenty of things to say, acknowledged Kureishi, “but then they get degrees. I always give people the same mark - 71% - and then you write these reports. I always say they were well-behaved, well-dressed.
“Then they [...]
Kate Connolly in Berlin for The Observer, reports on Der Spiegel magazine’s comprehensive study into the ‘typical German’.
The average Teuton family goes on holiday for two weeks a year, mainly within Germany, although their favourite destination is Majorca. He (45 years old) is 5ft 10in, she 5ft 5in. He is invariably overweight (83.5 kg) while [...]
The Los Angeles Times have published an adaptation from Amos Oz’s acceptance speech in Spain last week for the Prince of Asturias Award for Literature.
I believe in literature as a bridge between peoples. I believe curiosity can be a moral quality. I believe imagining the other can be an antidote to fanaticism. Imagining the other [...]
A teenager facing court in London said: “I brought a sign to the May 10th protest that said: ‘Scientology is not a religion, it is a dangerous cult.‘
“‘Within five minutes of arriving I was told by a member of the police that I was not allowed to use that word, and that the final decision [...]
Daniel Green at The Reading Experience replies to Kassia Krozser, who is “baffled and amazed by authors who do not see marketing as part of their jobs.”
If they’ve (publishers) let their business practices spiral out of control, whose fault is that, exactly? Should we really compound this failure by now chastising those writers who [...]
This one from Bad Attitudes but attributed to KC Constantine:
Scientists in the current issue of the journal Nurture announced the discovery that affiliation with the Republican Party is genetically determined. This caused uproar among traditionalists who believe it is a chosen lifestyle.
Reports of the gene coding for political conservatism, discovered after a decades-long study of [...]
This is part of a flyer Barack Obama is using in Kentucky:
The words in the inset proclaim:
My faith teaches me that I can sit in church and pray all I want. But I won’t be fulfilling God’s will unless I go out and do the Lord’s work. Barack Obama.
On the rear of the flyer is [...]
