By PHK
Peter Baker’s article in the WaPo on the MSM’s reluctance to send reporters along on W’s trips speaks volumes. It may well simply mean that times have changed – and that as Tony Snow, W’s new spokesman, has pointed out “it’s all about money” and the news agencies are no longer willing to foot the bill.
Since Baker reports that the WaPo was charged $3,317 to send a reporter along with W on a one day trip to St. Louis and $3,795 to Yuma, Arizona can you blame the MSM for thinking twice before forking over the cash for any more travels with W? Oh, yes, a two day trip to Europe cost the WaPo $8,283 excluding hotel.
Whether the administration’s goal of charging these inflated prices is to reduce W’s media exposure given his continued low poll ratings (33% approval in the latest AP/IPSOS poll) and propensity to put his foot in his mouth whenever he opens it or whether it simply reflects the costs of putting on an extra plane when fewer and fewer media outlets are willing to share the bill to cover the every word of our erstwhile commander-in-chief remains to be seen.
Did W have anything new to say this week except for usurping the neocon phrase “Islamofascist” in his never ending quest for adulation from the Christian Evangelicals salivating for the second coming?
So why should the MSM devote resources to covering his every word? They’re not worth it. Far cheaper to assign a stringer on site and otherwise rely on the White House website for the statements the administration intends for public consumption anyway.
Is this a dereliction of duty on the part of the MSM? Another example of W’s lapdog press? Or is the MSM getting wise and figuring that in the waning days of this administration, covering W’s every utterance is just not worth the cost.
The lack of panting reporters at W’s heels, of course, plays into this country’s most secretive administration on record. Pepper Cheney, W’s second in command has –according to Baker – left Washington for weeks at a time with no public notice. Witness his quail-shooting episode last February in Texas. The Washington media had no idea where he was.
Interesting that Pepper’s about to come our way for a fundraiser this coming week: sure wouldn’t know it from the coverage – or lack of – in the local press. Tells you something about the mood in this state – except among the high rollers – that Cheney’s fundraising trip – presumably to help finance the reelection of our righter-than-Attila Congresswoman Heather Wilson in her battle against New Mexico Attorney General Patsy Madrid - is being kept under close raps.
Oh, but I did hear on our local PBS station on Thursday that UN Secretary General Kofi Anan will soon be here for a dinner with Governor Bill Richardson and other New Mexico notables at the governor’s mansion in Santa Fe. I’ll bet Anan can’t wait for a much deserved respite from the UN these past few weeks.
Since he knew Richardson when the latter was US Ambassador to the UN, New Mexican hospitality including the choice between ‘red or green’ (this relates to the color of the chili peppers not anyone’s political persuasion) – should come as a welcome relief after dealing with Bolton and the inanity of a neocon driven US foreign policy that held up passage of a realistic UN resolution for weeks that otherwise might have brought the Israeli invasion of Lebanon to a far earlier, far less devastating and costly close.