It's probably the most sensible thing I've ever read in The New York Times.
Like EVER. EVAH EVAH EVAH!
"Manifestly undemocratic, in contrast, is the way Mr. Obama’s administration — in hypocritical defiance of the principles of openness and transparency he campaigned on — has systematically tried to bypass the media by releasing a sanitized visual record of his activities through official photographs and videos, at the expense of independent journalistic access."
"The official photographs the White House hands out are but visual news
releases. Taken by government employees (mostly former
photojournalists), they are well composed, compelling and even intimate
glimpses of presidential life. They also show the president in the best
possible light, as you’d expect from an administration highly conscious
of the power of the image at a time of instant sharing of photos and
videos"
"By no stretch of the imagination are these images journalism. Rather,
they propagate an idealized portrayal of events on Pennsylvania Avenue."
"If you take this practice to its logical conclusion, why have news
conferences? Why give reporters any access to the White House? It would
be easier to just have a daily statement from the president (like his recorded weekly video address) and call it a day. Repressive governments do this all the time."
