By the time I was done covering Washington politicians I’d came to the rock-solid conclusion that they were only half the problem. The other half were the people paid to cover Washington for major media outlets.
Bagging a White House correspondent post is to admitted to the most exclusive club in the world. I don’t use the term “club” by accident. These media “watchdogs” breathe the same rarified air, fly on the same comfy 747 and speed through traffic-free streets in the same convoys of blacked out SUVs.
And. worse yet, when it’s time to party they attend the same parties. Hell, they even throw parties for one another where they make where they celebrate their relationship with the kind of biting self-deprecating humor only the closest of friends could accommodate.
I came to the conclusion long ago that major media outlets should treat posts in Washington the same way the military treats assignments to active war zones; rotated in for a year or two, then rotate out for a year or two. Because when it comes to uncovering stuff, there’s nothing like the eyes and ears of a fresh reporter eager to make a name for him or herself.
Also editors need to enforce an ironclad rule against their reporters fraternizing with the people they cover. Building relationships of trust is fine. I did that with my sources, as does any good reporter. Burn sources and pretty soon all you’ll be reporting on is who died this week. But there’s a helluva difference between building relationships of trust by treating sources fairly and honestly, and dropping by their house on weekends for a pool party and BBQ.
But that’s what the Washington press corps has become. Those reporters and those they cover have developed a co-dependent relationship that borders on a protection racket. Familiarity has bred a strange mixture of mutual contempt tempered by the reassuring warmth of familiarity.
Which is why we now have to rely for real “scoops” on underground sites like wikileaks.com. And why it was Rolling Stone not the New York Times, or Washington Post or CNN or MSNBC who got the scoop on how General McChrystal feels about his Commander in Chief. (“the real enemy -- those wimps in the White House.”)
I have nothing to add.
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