I’m busy returning emails and neck-deep in last-minute planning for the Roadshow, and, in the background, I’m watching Scott McClellan perform his umpteenth interview about his book, What Happened. And I wondered, what has happened to him in the gauntlet of media that he’s done in the past couple weeks? I wonder what he’s learned about being interviewed. I mean, I’ve seen some political figures get coverage, but nothing like McClellan’s gotten. I hope his publicist gets a bonus.
Keith Olberman, who was interviewing him tonight, tossed him softballs. But Jon Stewart didn’t. As usual, Jon Stewart — you know, the comic — did the job that journalists should have.
Beliefnet
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posted June 16, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Hi Tony,
Doug Padgitt and I spoke for a bit at Envision 08 at Princeton last week. Re Scott McClellan and White House manipulation of media – it is not, at root, a variant of “what about the chickens?”
There is no organized Christian influence in public relation profession, Scott McClellan was not a member of Public Relations Society of America, which has a code of professional conduct relevant to what he did and did not do as press secretary (its website http://www.prsa.org has info about this).
There is no organized Christian influence in journalism/news media, so even though there are a number of professional societies for journalists that have codes of professional ethics, employers of journalists do not respect them, so it becomes a race to the bottom.
Why should anyone read a paper out of a sense of civic responsibility when its some much spin garbage – where is the responsibility of journalism profession to expose gov’t/corporate wrongdoing in the name of the first amendment freedom of press? The operative answer to “what about the chickens?” is “show me the money” just as it is to McClellan’s book “What Happened”?
I hope to see you in Charlotte stop of your show.
Joe Carson