Stephen Colbert described the role of the White House Press Corps under a Republicon president pretty well in 2006:
Let’s review the rules. Here's how it works.
The president makes decisions; he's the decider.
The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down.
Make, announce, type.
Put them through a spell check and go home.
Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife.
Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. The one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration.
You know -- fiction.
DJT and Scary Spice have made it clear that this is all they want from reporters:
- Listen to what they say.
- Figure out what their message of the day is (and they make it very easy to figure that out).
- Write it down.
- Don’t ask questions.
- Come back and do the same thing tomorrow.
If you write something they don’t like, they will deny you access.
If you do or say anything they don’t want, they will deny you access.
If you notice that what they say makes no sense, they will deny you access.
If you know the truth and point out they are lying, they will deny you access.
If you ask hard questions in an interview, they will deny you access.
If you demand simple answers to direct questions instead of sitting through word salad filibusters, they will deny you access.
Various members of the MSM have tied themselves in knots trying to please this man and his spokesbots.
They have smiled and nodded and agreed to ask only the acceptable questions.
They have moved on to the next topic on the notecards after no substantive answer was given to any of the other questions and it became obvious that no substantive answers would ever be given, because they were afraid of losing access otherwise.
There is literally nothing you can do to please DJT unless you simply parrot every single thing he says without filter or fact-check, no matter how outrageous, false, racist, sexist, or dangerous it may be.
Why the frak would you want to DO that?
is it even possible to do that without losing your mind, selling your soul and pimping out whatever integrity you have left?
At some point, members of the mainstream media will have to come to the obvious conclusion.
Access journalism is over. I can almost see the headline: your career is done.
But this might be a good thing.
The end of access journalism might lead to a revitalization of investigative journalism.
I watched All The President’s Men again on Sunday night for the umpteenth time. I have literally lost track of the number of times I have seen it. I can recite whole sections of dialogue from memory. There is only a small handful of movies I have seen more often (don’t ask LOL).
I love watching it because I get to relive a very exciting time to live in Washington, D.C.: waiting for the Post to arrive every day, wondering what fresh dirt they had unearthed against a corrupt and unpopular President, listening to my mom’s running commentary while watching the Sunday shows, learning how to interpret editorial cartoons (and Doonesbury).
It was the ultimate David and Goliath story. The leader of the free world against two guys with legal pads and typewriters. Wealthy privileged men who forgot their secretaries knew what was in the files, their bookkeepers knew what was kept in the safes, their clerks knew what records were being shredded, their wives heard what they said over the phone, their girlfriends remembered what they said over drinks, and a security guard might notice duct tape holding a door open. A whole team of liars and ratfuckers brought down by the power of the free press and the honest testimony of anonymous sources. Sweet.
Woodward and Bernstein didn’t sit around depending on the White House Press Secretary or any of the President's Men to give them information. They started with the assumption that they were going to have to dig for every morsel of truth out there, using back channels, digging through records, taking risks, and going for the jugular if necessary. When White House spokespeople issued non-denial denials, they knew that meant they were right, or at least on the right track. And even when Nixon was re-elected because the majority of the American public was not yet paying attention to the seriousness of the story, they persisted.
Nixon ignored them, then he laughed at them, then he fought them, then they won.
If it is true that access journalism is dead, that sucking up the the President’s Men will no longer get you the scoop or the best story, then there is only one alternative out there, guys.
Stop relying on official channels for information!
Hit the street. Find the people who are willing to talk. Work the phones. Call in favors. Get the story.
We have a few people doing yeoman work along these lines. Join them. Do your job. Earn your keep.
Tell the people what is really going on.
Since the White House press briefing is never going to be a source of reliable news, there is no need to send your best people there any more.
Others have already made this suggestion and I think it is a great one: send the interns.
Send entry level journalism interns to the daily White House press briefing and treat it like the joke it is.
This serves three purposes, all good for the Blue Team.
It frees up the time and energy of serious reporters to do the legwork on real stories.
DJT will feel massively disrespected by it and it will drive him around the twist.
But most important of all, it will remind you of the power of the press.
DJT needs you. He needs you more than you need him. He desperately, achingly needs you. In fact, he can’t live without you, and he doesn’t even know it yet.
You have to give him a chance to miss you.
A little tough love is in order. Like the little boy who wants to run away from home who then realizes he has no alternative way to get fed dinner, DJT will come crawling to you with his heart in his hands if you ever decided to give him a taste of his own medicine.
He hates you? You’re his enemy? Fine.
Let’s see him last a week without you.
Stop showing the pep rallies. Stop giving airtime to the most deceitful of his spokesbots. Stop breathlessly dissecting his every tweet.
Starve the beast. He lives for attention, even negative attention. Cut off his narcissistic supply.
He won’t have ratings to brag about if no one puts him on TV at all.
Deplorables will still get their news from his twitter feed and from Fakes News. Let him marginalize himself.
The rest of us are suffocating and would gasp in big gulps of fresh air from any sources that decided to go Trump free for a while.
You can report on his administration without reporting on HIM. Report on what he is doing, yes, what he is signing, actual work he is doing, if any. But don’t parrot his message of the day and don’t give him the visuals he stage manages and don’t give him the ratings he craves.
He will shrivel up like a wilted flower in VERY short order, I promise you.
But you have to fill time, you say?
- Talk to the people who are going to be hurt by the repeal of Obamacare.
- Educate people about the various state plans tied to Obamacare that people will lose if the Zombie Eyed Granny Starver gets his way.
- Report on what is happening in various marginalized communities that are going to be hurt even more by DJT policies.
- Talk to the people who are going to be hurt by cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
- Talk to the families facing deportation (and shield their identities).
- Talk to the refugees who have already faced two years of vetting about what they had to go through to get approved for immigration.
- Talk to the industries that depend heavily on undocumented workers and ask them how they expect to survive if their workforce is deported.
- Ask why the same employers get away with hiring undocumented workers and face no penalties while all the punishment goes to the workers themselves.
- Investigate DJT’s foreign holdings and how much he is still involved in his family businesses.
- Teach people what is in the Constitution and which sections DJT is already violating.
- Talk to mental health professionals about what evidence of impairment might justify invoking the 25th Amendment.
- Find out more about the connections between white supremacist groups and Bannon/Breitbart and key officials in the DJT Administration.
- Compare him to what other presidents did and didn’t do in their first month.
- Find out whether he approved the DAPL because he has a financial interest in it.
- Talk to the people in coal country and find out whether they have figured out that they were lied to.
- Interview downticket Rcons and ask them to justify their support of the President.*
- Talk to Democrats about what they would do if they took back Congress.
- Profile the creative artists whose work is keeping everyone sane through this nightmare.
I could go on but I want to publish this by midnight.
Everyone please add your own ideas for stories to cover instead of Trump’s lies.
Stop catering to the RWNJs who want to know what cereal DJT ate for breakfast. The rest of us want somebody to get to the bottom of a LOT of DJT scandalous behavior, and we outnumber them.
Refuse to report on him until he realizes that he needs you more than you need him.
Unless Donny gets a time-out he will never figure out his behavior is unacceptable.
Previous TRUE BLUE REPORT diaries
Feb 20: KAC lying low for now… can we banish her (and all her ilk) from the airwaves completely?
Feb 19: DeVos cartoon, Ruby Bridges, unearned unhappiness and childlike faith
Feb 18: Blue Ribbon Winners—Vice Adm. Harward, Melissa McCarthy, and intel whistleblowers
Feb 17: And Ain’t I an American?
Feb 16: Please tell your family and friends—If you regret your DJT vote, speak up NOW
Feb 15: R-supported forced childbirth laws deny the autonomy of women
Feb 14: What did the president know? Everything. When did he know it? From the beginning.
Feb 13: Coping with The Madness of King Donald by hoping political comedy will save us
Feb 12: The Poverty and Justice Bible
Feb 11: Blue Ribbon Winners: Swastika removers, Ninth Circuit Panel, and the Persisterhood!
Feb 10: The first three words of the Constitution are “We, the People” not “I, the President”
Feb 9: Who first inspired your political activism? Who inspires you now?
Feb 8: We cannot and will not be silenced—Here’s what to do if they try to silence you
Feb 7: Plain Talk Tuesday: Tell people the Affordable Care Act is the same as OBAMACARE
Feb 6: Interview Skills 101—Internalized oppression and what Ryan Lizza did right. BRAVO!
Feb 5: These protest signs with Bible cites will confuse and befuddle RWNJs
Feb 4: Blue Ribbon Winners: Temple B’Nai Israel, Judge Robart, CNN, Senate Phone Callers
Feb 3: Not rich, not smart, not a good businessman, not a winner—DJT is NOTHING he claims to be
Feb 2: Thursday action—Encouragement, thanks, and apologies (pick one or more)
Feb 1: July 7, 2009 to August 25, 2009 and September 25, 2009 to February 4, 2010
JANUARY
Jan 31: If you’re on overload that’s part of their plan—there’s more than one way to #resist
Jan 30: Interview Skills 101 for reporters attempting to interview KAC and other Rcons
Jan 29: Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness
Jan 28: Blue Ribbon Winners: Women's March participants and #NoMuslimBan demonstrators and...
Jan 27: I wish Steve Bannon would tell me to keep my mouth shut
Jan 26: Thursday Action—Have you ever written a letter to the editor? Here’s how to start
Jan 25: The Asch Conformity Study, inauguration crowds, and the importance of speaking out
Jan 24: #ResistTrumpTuesday—good news day or another paying dues day?
Jan 23: Spy the Lie 101: How to enjoy watching Rcon spokesbot interviews, even KAC!
Jan 22: Why I prayed for the President* today
Jan 21: The only silver lining in the midst of these clouds
Inaugural (!) diary: Stop expecting Republicons to make sense