Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Snow Days

The new Bush administration appointment of Tony Snow as Press Secretary has some striking consequences for the blending of popular news networks and state officials. Is it any surprise that a Fox News pundit is now “hosting” the federal government show?

While I don’t expect to see objectivity from any presidential candidate or administration, the overlap of a giant news agency and the government is a new type of influence. While some are highlighting that Snow has had some critical remarks of the Bush administration, I’m not sure that is the dangerous part of this new relationship. Instead, I think the conversation should be about the type of information that will be released in the future. This administration has been increasingly secretive and the ability of the public to make judgments about its inner workings, and effectively vote, are dependent upon the transparency of its responses to public inquiry. The Press Secretary should be a voice that speaks to inform the people, not continuously “duck and cover” from the questioning media.

Getting back to Snow, if he has already been a voicebox for the conservative party in other types of public, will he continue the policy of secrecy in the Bush administration? To what expense?

In the end, I see this as fake news watchdog (Fox News media pundits) continuing to serve the needs of a failing administration.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Polishing a turd.

While the role of the press secretary has never been glamorous, I feel that within the last few years the entire notion of an actual briefing from the White House has become almost humorous. The press corp seems more focused on theatrics than actual answers, and the press secretary is more than happy to oblige.

Sadly, comedians like Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert seem to have more journalistic integrity than many (dare I say most?) of our main stream media outlets.

3:33 AM, April 30, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I am appalled at our government.

Thats what we get for having Alfred E. Newman running the country.

10:36 PM, May 01, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The press conferences for the white house have indeed become a joke. Every time I hear anything from Fox news or from the white house I assume it's full of bs. This is because so many times before the public has been mislead and in essence disrespected. The administration banks on us not being critical consumers.

It seems that the presidency today is just a place for a bunch of snotty rich kids to play video games with our lives and make deals with big corporations and news networks in order to line their pockets.

The type of government that Washington, Hancock and the others envisioned has been completely lost. As Jefferson said - we need an overthrow and a re-vamping of our government - we are long overdue according to him.

- Pessimistic Gina

8:45 PM, May 07, 2006  

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