Ari: It's a TV Show!
Ari Fleischer has an opinion piece in The Post today. He makes the case that the press briefings have become a "TV show." According to Fleischer:
"Gone are the days when this daily session was a serious affair, with mostly serious questions asked and mostly serious answers given. Instead, the public is now treated to a spectacle in which the media do their best to pressure the White House, regardless of which party is in power, into admitting that much of what the president is doing is wrong, and the White House pushes back. The two sides talk past each other, and the viewing public gets to watch a good fight."
...And who's to blame for this state of affairs?
"One of President Bill Clinton's press secretaries, Mike McCurry, in an effort to accommodate the new 24-hour-a-day cable news programs, allowed his briefings to be open to TV coverage. Poor Mike. The first briefing the press covered live was on the day the Monica Lewinsky story broke. Since then the briefing room has never been the same."
"Gone are the days when this daily session was a serious affair, with mostly serious questions asked and mostly serious answers given. Instead, the public is now treated to a spectacle in which the media do their best to pressure the White House, regardless of which party is in power, into admitting that much of what the president is doing is wrong, and the White House pushes back. The two sides talk past each other, and the viewing public gets to watch a good fight."
...And who's to blame for this state of affairs?
"One of President Bill Clinton's press secretaries, Mike McCurry, in an effort to accommodate the new 24-hour-a-day cable news programs, allowed his briefings to be open to TV coverage. Poor Mike. The first briefing the press covered live was on the day the Monica Lewinsky story broke. Since then the briefing room has never been the same."
posted by Matt Lewis at 6:19 AM
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