Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Stop the Presses, the Press has Lost their Press Room

So, the press is upset that the White House is renovating the press room. Dana Milbanks sees it as a symbol of the further isolation of the press:

The White House press corps spent its first day in exile yesterday, banished from the White House compound for the first time since the John Adams presidency while the West Wing briefing room undergoes a renovation.
Where in the constitution does it say that the president has to meet with the press and answer silly questions like these:
Does President Bush think the cease-fire in Israel and Lebanon will undermine support for Hezbollah?

"Did the president call for the respect of sovereignty by both sides?"

Does Bush support the Republican candidate for Senate in Connecticut, Alan Schlesinger?

But when he took questions later in the day at the State Department, Bush was sharp and energetic. "Hezbollah started the crisis, and Hezbollah suffered a defeat in this crisis," he said bluntly when asked who won the month-long Middle East fighting.
The press thinks that they are the watch dog of the government and to a certain extent it's important to have a public watch dog but the press isn't guaranteed access by the constitution. It isn't their right and from the way they have treated this president and the war on terror, they should expect to be isolated. They deserve to be isolated and for the safety of this nation, they better be isolated because they can't be trusted with our secrets.