Ashcroft Is Unprintable, and Glad of It

[donsu]

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0925-09.htm

Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, who is continuing his tour of the country to promote the Patriot Act, has at several stops, including Buffalo and Philadelphia, refused to speak to print reporters. While television correspondents can often breeze right in, their newspaper colleagues are kept at bay by Secret Service agents doing the bidding of the nation's chief law enforcement official, who prefers audiences of handpicked enthusiasts and interviews with local television reporters.

According to Justice Department spokeswoman Barbara Comstock, Ashcroft wants to explain "key facts directly to the American people" and not have to subject himself to "as much of a filter from people who are already invested in having a different view of it."

-snip-

Ashcroft knows that, with niftily chosen sound bites, he can dominate credulous local television, which harbors few practitioners of the probe and deep focus that can legitimately be called journalism. This has allowed him largely to stay "on message," rally his partisans and keep annoying critics at bay. The exception was an interview with ABC News' Peter Jennings this month in which Jennings did ask some pointed, specific questions about immigrant detention and other civil liberties infractions. No doubt Ashcroft will not be doing that again soon.

-snip-

Ashcroft is betting that the press corps has no core, that reporters are more committed to seeking advantage over rivals than protecting the public's right to know.

It's past time for journalists to hold him to account.
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this man who holds religious rites in his office every morning. the office that belongs to the american people, the office we pay for, the office he does not own................

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Malloy was playing a clip of a print reporter asking

Scott McClellan about this. He was referred to the Justice Dept. The reporter said, "He won't talk to us! That's the point!"

Hilarious.

[izzie]

2. Maybe this is good, as He hardly knows what the Am people really feel.

They will not miss him when he is gone and he will not beable to figure out why he is gone. This living in the bubble has never hepled a prez and I do not think it is hepling Bush, Rowe does not leave Bush's side and he does not know what is really going on out here.This thing in NYC with the subway was way over the top. Bush is starting to act like the Czar.