The media loves being around politicians and celebrities - courting them and hoping for that exclusive scoop or inside unattributed news-break.
Informed commentators, and journalists worth their salt, want nothing of that sort of ongoing contact and associating with politicians and celebs. It compromises what they, as the Fourth Estate, are supposed to be doing. Independence and the ability to be objective and report without fear or favour is lost.
It is therefore more than a tad surprising to hear a MSM (main stream media) personality, Tom Brokaw, call into question the cosiness of a function such as the White House Correspondent's Dinner.
"Tom Brokaw set off a media firestorm by saying it’s “time to rethink” the “glittering,” celeb-studded White House Correspondents’ Dinner, but his criticism is being seconded by the likes of Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren, who replied, “I am game.”
A charter member of the association, Brokaw said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that the annual dinner showcases just how out of touch the national media is with the public.
“Look, I think George Clooney is a great guy. I’d like to meet Charlize Theron,” he said. “But I don’t think the big press event in Washington should be that kind of glittering event where the whole talk is about Cristal champagne, taking over the Italian Embassy, who had the best party, who got to meet the most people. That’s another separation between what we’re supposed to be doing and what the people expect us to be doing, and I think that the Washington press corps has to look at that.”
The event “separates the press from the people that they’re supposed to serve, symbolically,” he said. “It is time to rethink it.”
Informed commentators, and journalists worth their salt, want nothing of that sort of ongoing contact and associating with politicians and celebs. It compromises what they, as the Fourth Estate, are supposed to be doing. Independence and the ability to be objective and report without fear or favour is lost.
It is therefore more than a tad surprising to hear a MSM (main stream media) personality, Tom Brokaw, call into question the cosiness of a function such as the White House Correspondent's Dinner.
"Tom Brokaw set off a media firestorm by saying it’s “time to rethink” the “glittering,” celeb-studded White House Correspondents’ Dinner, but his criticism is being seconded by the likes of Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren, who replied, “I am game.”
A charter member of the association, Brokaw said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that the annual dinner showcases just how out of touch the national media is with the public.
“Look, I think George Clooney is a great guy. I’d like to meet Charlize Theron,” he said. “But I don’t think the big press event in Washington should be that kind of glittering event where the whole talk is about Cristal champagne, taking over the Italian Embassy, who had the best party, who got to meet the most people. That’s another separation between what we’re supposed to be doing and what the people expect us to be doing, and I think that the Washington press corps has to look at that.”
The event “separates the press from the people that they’re supposed to serve, symbolically,” he said. “It is time to rethink it.”
Comments