Casting call

So there's going to be a "press conference" tomorrow. I wonder if this one will be scripted too.

Some notables — including Time, Newsweek, USA TODAY, The Washington Post and Hearst columnist Helen Thomas — were never called on, leading to all sorts of buzz in the press corps. Follow-up questions, a White House tradition, were non-existent.

USA TODAY White House reporter Larry McQuillan, seated in the front row, stopped raising his hand after he realized that Bush — who himself used the word "scripted" during the news conference to describe what was going on — was calling on names from a list and not deviating from it.

Posted by Prometheus 6 on April 12, 2004 - 5:54pm :: Politics
 
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see, this shows a woeful lack of imagination and initiative on the part of some of these reporters.

if there truly is a script being followed, and only a chosen few reporters being selected to answer questions, then it's time to game that system. i see two ways:

1) a few of the chosen reporters offer to toss in one question each from some of the shunned ones

2) a few of the shunned ones offer up their questions to some of the chosen

both scenarios assume that some of the chosen have gone past their tolerances of being fed lies, and also that some of the shunned wouldn't mind sharing or giving up claims to whatever stories result from the questions they haven't been able to get answered.

it could also result in a total ban on most of the press corps, which would truly raise a stink they couldn't quash, or we'd see Bush lose his temper because "they're not following the script."

we need more of those reporters to think like instigators, dammit... they owe the people of this country nothing less.

Posted by  DesertJo (not verified) on April 12, 2004 - 10:09pm.