We have truly entered a new millenium in the digital age. The "old media" of newspapers, once the trusted source for information in this country has suffered a great blow in the last week, and my head is still reeling.
The White House now has employees who issue apparently a series of articles in hopes of Setting the Record Straight.
Besides the obvious factual discrepancies and lack of journalistic integrity in these "posts" to the White House website, I have much larger concerns.
I could be wrong, but I can not remember a time in history when the White House would issue it's own "rebuttals" to statments made by
Senator Kennedy,
The Washington Post,
Senator Levin, and then today
the New York Times Op-Ed pages.
Now put aside the fact that the statements coming from the White House are ridiculous spin and do not attempt to offer a full detail or even give the reader of the article the context of the disagreement which is being addressed. The fact that they exist is what scares me.
Is the White House so incapapble of dealing with the media that they can no longer find a "water carrier" to run their spin for them in the Washington Times or Wall Street Journal Op-Ed pages?
Since Talon News Service was discredited due to their hiring practices (a.k.a. Jeff Gannon) do they not have another outlet for getting their press releases distributed?
Do we really need Scotty McClellan to stand up their and get pelted with questions every day if the press release is already on the website and it's just the usual spin without new information?
I can't beleive my tax dollars are going to pay the salary for someone to sit and essentially write "Diaries" to the "White House Blog" who is lacking in David Brock's talent for exposing bias media coverage.
Does anyone have any theories as to why the new web based PR campaign is around? Does it have legs? How long until the White House takes on Susan G or Mary Scott O'Connor?