There's an interesting article in the Jan 19 New Yorker,which I can't post because I don't subscribe to the online site, titled Fortress Bush. Naturally, being in the New Yorker, it is anti-Bush, but it makes, both advertently and inadvertently, some interesting points.
One is that Bush sees the media as essentially another special interest group. Which, when you think about it, it is. The press is a business like any other. Its product is controversy -- no controversy, few readers or viewers.
The article complains that in the Bush White House everybody is "on message," that reporters don't get as many leaks or complaints as in past administrations. The implication is that White House employees somehow have an obligation not only to disagree with what their boss says or does, but also an obligation to go whining about it to the press. The idea that folks should just go to work, do their job right, and go home is somehow alien to a reporter. It's a bit depressing, though not surprising, that the media would think this way.
Media people like to think that there is something special about their business. But in reality, if I had to choose between losing the food industry, the oil industry, or the media industry, for me, at least, the media would be the first to go. I can do without newspapers, magazines, and TV a lot mroe easily than I can do without food or fuel. |
