Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Today's Word—Press Mosh Pit

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News from the Obama White House:

“At [Obama press secretary Robert] Gibbs’ maiden press conference, all that was missing was a brass band. The briefing room, which is about the size of a suburban garage, was stuffed with easily more than 100 journalists and photographers. Veteran reporters surfed through puffy winter coats to get to their assigned seats. Helen Thomas had to take the arm of a colleague to run the gantlet. A cameraman for a foreign news outlet set up a stepladder in the middle of the narrow aisle, and when he swung to capture the scene his buttocks offended a series of his colleagues.”
—John Dickerson, chief political correspondent, Slate.com, 1/22/09 (Click here for link.)

Today in History
2006: Last Western Union telegram; 1996: Monica Seles wins first Grand Slam since being knifed on tennis court; 1976: “Laverne and Shirley” premieres; 1967: Astronauts Gus Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee die in Apollo I fire; 1951: 1st A-bomb test in Nevada; 1926: TV demonstrated; 1918: 1st Tarzan movie, “Tarzan of the Apes”; 1888: National Geographic Society founded; 1785: Georgia’s first state university
(See History.com)

4 comments:

  1. this just shows that now more than ever the media is getting more involved in politics and presenting them to the public in both biased and unbiased frames. Perhaps its getting a bit silly when someones butocks offends his colleagues in the pursuit to take pictures.

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  2. Cecily's comment is ridiculous. How does this show anything about press involvement or bias? Dickerson's report from the Obama press room does illustrate, however, that when packs of journalists are crammed together--whether in the captive-audience incubator of the White House or as the ravening boys and girls on the campaign bus--they really are silly.

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  3. Journalists or paparazzi?

    The whole media circus - what's she wearing; dont the girls look cute; how did their first day at school go; gee, you can see that they're still crazy about each other....

    From the sublime (US history-making election of first black president) to the ridiculous in one easy lesson....

    Why dont we just give up pretending we are intelligent adults and can take things seriously in this country and admit that the borders of Hollywood have extended from shore to shore and we're all really just living in a soap opera.... Matrix...

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  4. I think it's a good thing that the jornalists are so "excited"(I guess you would say)about the Obama administration. Everyone is looking for that bright ray of hope and it is certainly evident in the positive light that has been shed upon Obama.

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