Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

White House Reporters Question Limits On Photo Access At Press Briefing

White House reporters are riled up about restrictions placed on photos of President Obama, and they made no effort to hide it at Thursday's press briefing.

In a letter delivered to the White House on Thursday, journalists from a variety of media organizations protested limits that often prevent them from taking photos of Obama. The letter questioned why only White House-approved photos were the only ones of certain events allowed to be released.

NBC News chief White House correspondent Chuck Todd raised the issue at a briefing with White House deputy press secretary Josh Earnest. Todd compared the restrictions to Vladimir Putin's control over the press in Russia, and later clarified on Twitter.

Later, WHCA President Steve Thomma challenged Earnest on photo access, and explained the differences between the pictures taken by independent journalists and White House photographers. Earnest replied, "We don't view the government camera as a substitute in any way" and acknowledged that the two sides will never agree "100% of the time about those decisions," but that working with the press corps is "a priority" for the administration.

Also on Thursday, the American Society of News Editors and the Associated Press Media Editors urged their members to stop using photos and video released by the White House.

"We must accept that we, the press, have been enablers," the organization said in a letter. "We urge those of you in news organizations to immediately refrain from publishing any of the photographs or videos released by the White House, just as you would refuse to run verbatim a press release from them."

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com
Author: Katherine Fung

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