It’s more good than bad that a lot of mainstream reporters are speaking openly about the chilling effect of the Obama White House’s investigations into leaks of classified material. But this willingness to talk about how the White House operates can lead some journalists to make some rather strange arguments.
On the CBS Sunday show Face the Nation (5/26/13), host Bob Schieffer complained:
Information management has become so sophisticated, every administration learns from the previous one. Each finds new ways to control the flow of information. It’s reached the point that if I want to interview anyone in the administration on camera–from the lowest-level worker to a White House official–I have to go through the White House Press Office. If their chosen spokesman turns out to have no direct connection to the story of the moment, as was the case when U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice was sent out to explain the Benghazi episode, then that’s what we and you the taxpayer get.
This is especially unfortunate, considering that federal law that requires Sunday shows to book only government officials…. Oh wait, never mind. Bob Schieffer can book anyone he wants to book for his show. So what’s the point in whining about who the White House will permit you to speak with?
But while we’re on the subject, I was struck by one comment made on Face the Nation by ubiquitous TV pundit David Gergen. He liked Obama’s recent speech on terrorism policy, but then made this strange claim:
But the speech at the end of the day did not address what the really hard our issues are: Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, especially Iran, weapons of mass destruction coming out of Iran could throw all of this out. We could be right back in a war on terror.
One has to assume he’s talking about nuclear weapons, and there’s no intelligence to suggest that Iran has any such program. And it’s not especially clear why we could be “right back in a war on terror” if Iran did have nuclear weapons; why would Iran possessing such weapons be any more “terror” than Israel or Pakistan having them?
I get that Bob Schieffer is annoyed by the White House making it difficult to book certain guests on his show. I would assume booking David Gergen is pretty easy. But does he know what he’s talking about when it comes to Iran? If not, maybe someone at CBS should consider booking a different guest next time.
Maybe he should start getting people on who are investigating the kinds of things that Bob Schieffer is puzzled about and interview them. FAIR is a good start but there are others who investigate despite the risk.
Well, Bob, do us all a favor & retire so u can hang around with your fellow Fox News Lite right wing toadies like your brother ’cause we were tired of u a long time ago.
Why not book Poppy or big brother W of the burning Bushs, whose Company’s Bully Puppetry manipulates the White House Wall $treet-theatre in any case?
Read an article that referred to a study that asked the tenured profs in the top twenty journalism schools their political affiliations.95% were libs.i was not surprised.Minds of mush being turned out on an assembly line.95%! Not 50%…,not 25%.95%!!!Has Obama gotten a pass?Of course-in spades ,times ten.I dont believe the press would be as co opted by a conservative leader for that reason.That said it is also the American people(sheeples)fault.Where is the massive outrage over the scandals now plaguing the white house?Seems only FOX is investigating.The rest are dragged along kicking and screaming(though lately i have seen signs of their re-awakening like rip van winkle to what we on the right have known since day one)FAIR is completely left wing.We need investigative journalists back.
Bob, just like Faux Noise, you provide no facts but allude to something u read somewhere, sometime. Go back to Faux Noise ’cause truth is not something you ever want to hear about.
If anyone speaks from a mind of mush,it’s Michael e.
Bob Shieffer plays golf with Dick Cheney. His guests are always right wingers be they democrat or republican. When he wants to talk about social security he brings on board a democrat and republican who want to gut it. If he wants to spruce up his show he ought to invite Amy Goodman or Noam Chomsky Naomi Klein and others who speak to power. Instead he usually invites a long list of neocons and shills who surround one good guy lke Paul Krugman. His show is typically pro corporate no doubt due to his big oil sponsor.
I agree with Peter Hart all the way. There is no case in which a nation possessing nuclear weapons has used them to attack an enemy state, except the US. More to the point no, state that has nuclear weapons has ever been attacked by anyone except Japan. The evidence means that nucleat weapons keep the peace.
As for needing investigative journalists back, it’s true we need them more than ever, but all to be found on Fox News and most other major media is punditry and the so called experts..all ex military or CIA who feed us the same old lame lines handed down to them by the Pentagon and government officials. And speaking of this recent reporter from FOX and the sudden outburst of discontent concerning the first amendment, these kinds of invasions on the first amendment have been going on since Bush 2 on all Americans, yet not a peep about those by FOX and most major media who always side with the thugs on the conservative right rather than the average citizens getting beaten, tased and locked up on for simply exercising their right to peaceful assembly and redress. As William Rivers Pitt put it…”it’s as if they suddenly discovered water is wet!” “Where have they been for the last ten years??” FOX News…the worst of the lot amounts to Shock Jock Journalism tinged with racism and political bias.
Dear Bob S.:
Perhaps you have started to see where your approach is taking us, and our country, after all. Better late than never, except it is terribly late!
Good luck on your next assignment, should you decide to accept it.
Sincerely,
an American citizen
To Michael Shaw……We in the tea party are the ones who took GREAT offense every time Bush stepped over the line of his constitutional authority.When you say FOX -a lot of folks think all conservatives are lumped one on top of the other.I did not vote for Bush(I did not think he had the stellar qualifications needed for the job.)And of course Obama had zero qualifications.Fox gets a lot of things wrong but is still much better than the drive by media,who would I believe give Obama a pass if he was caught grabbing a 14 girls butt on live TV.I think FAIR is like that.Nothing ,and I mean nothing….In fact let me say that again nothing nothing nothing would convince them that the Obama choice has been a disaster.And that Mitt or any of a dozen other people(yes even Hilary) would of been far better.They investigate yes…..on behalf of their client.The progressive liberal ideology.If FAIRs work was looked at en total ,I dare say that nothing they have ever written would stray far from being a liberal love letter.At this point we are at a time when if it is found that the president had knowledge of some of these scandals- that the word impeachment should be coming up.As it is the AG should go soon.FAIRS job is to muddy those waters.Or deflect the bullets flying by writing about other things.Bengazi….IRS…….AP wiretaps…….The buying up of all the ammo(more than in 27 years of war )by DHS……Fast and furious,and now the Obama care funding scandal ready to break.The cost…..Printing ,borrowing, and spending like we are insane.This is all we should be talking about.The election is over.Now we can all talk.And it is like an Oklahoma twister bearing down on us.
Michael E.
Please go back to FAUX NOISE & leave the thinking to those better qualified to do it…which you obviously aren’t.
FYI to the Sunday morning shows: the press does not have to be on bended knee before the White House. It is possible to book independent experts and journalists who might add some depth to your discussions of White House policy!
Tomcat if you know me you would know I watch very little FOX.I spend most of my time on Democracy now……Stephanie Miller……BBC.You see when FOX says the president has been lying or that he made a deal to back Hilary if she and Bill endorsed him….I already know that.I worked for Clinton.Still have friends there.I know the lying bunch pretty well I think.And Im very good at reading between the lines.Don’t need Fox to tell me the obvious.To tell me we are borrowing,spending,and printing too much.To tell me Obama care is double in cost and rising(and we never could afford it in the first place).To tell me our foreign policy is a mess.That this administration is out of control, and completely untrustworthy?What do I need Fox for?…To confirm what only blind sheeple cant see?No I pay attention to the liberal progressive smokescreen and spin.That is were the danger lies.That is the insidious group that uses the constitution as toilet paper.This is the group in power.This is the tide that has swept America along on a rip tide of massive proportions.Sweeping under so much of what worked -and replacing it with progressive socialistic failures.Who needs FOX?