Reporters: White House sometimes demands changes to press-pool reports
Those of us who have journalism degrees or understand how the White House Press Corps is supposed to work understand full well that even such a request, much less a demand, such as this is completely unacceptable.
If President Bush would have even requested anything like this the result would be wall to wall coverage of the Bush Administration's war on free speech and transparency. The fact that the current Press Corps allows this to happen is testimony to just how partisan and corrupt the elite media has become.
White House press-pool reports are supposed to be the news media’s eyes and ears on the president, an independent chronicle of his public activities. They are written by reporters for other reporters, who incorporate them into news articles about President Obama almost every day.
Sometimes, however, the White House plays an unseen role in shaping the story.
Journalists who cover the White House say Obama’s press aides have demanded — and received — changes in press-pool reports before the reports have been disseminated to other journalists. They say the White House has used its unusual role as the distributor of the reports as leverage to steer coverage in a more favorable direction.