All Blog Posts from Public Eye

While examining the ever-contentious relationship between the White House and its press corps has been all the rage lately, much of the discussion has left out potential solutions to the inherent problems of existing within the White House press bubble.

Well, the Washington Post’s Joel Achenbach -- on his Achenblog -- noted such an insight, shared at a pundit awards dinner in Washington last night. During a panel discussing the question, “Are White House Correspondents Real Journalists?” former White House press secretary Mike McCurry (who has examined similar questions on panels before) shared this with the audience, writes Achenbach:

"The problem is, the White House is a place without a lot of real news." He described an operation where one must feed the beast. It would be better for the country, he said, if news organizations sent reporters to the various federal agencies where the work of national government is really done -- including the intelligence agencies, where mid-level employees might have helped steer the press in the right direction on WMD. But of course news organizations are cutting budgets these days, and it's those outlying agencies that will get less and less coverage.

What do you think? Do the networks need a Commerce Department correspondent?

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When The New York Times reported last month that President Bush authorized NSA surveillance and wiretapping of Americans without first obtaining a warrant the story was an inevitable topic for reporters at that day’s press briefing. As Romenesko noted that day, however, it came as “no surprise” that White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan would not discuss the story:

Q: The New York Times -- they sat on a very important story about possible breach of our Constitution for a full year, and they reached an agreement, I guess, with somebody in the White House. I'm wondering if you could give us a tick tock about how the White House reached --


MR. McCLELLAN: I think I've already said that I'm not going to get into discussing any matters relating to ongoing intelligence activities. And that means not getting confirming or denying such reports.

This is but one example of the exchanges that seem de riguer for the White House press briefings and the morning gaggle, which begs the question, what is the point? How effective is the gaggle and the press briefing as a venue for the exchange of information between the White House and reporters?

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