Ana Marie Cox Says 'Get Rid of White House Press Corps'

Them's fightin' words.

Ana Marie Cox, founder of Wonkette, contributor to The Daily Beast, correspondent for Air America, writes in the Washington Post that we should get rid of the White House Press corps:

Intense interest in the Obama administration has swelled the ranks of the White House press corps. Outlets such as Politico have thrown a basketball team's worth of bodies at the project, and outlets that didn't even exist until recently -- Fivethirtyeight.com, the Huffington Post -- have created their own White House correspondent positions.

Yet too often, the White House briefing room is where news goes to die.

Name a major political story broken by a White House correspondent.

Well, how about this one? Sorry, go on:

It's not that the reporters covering the president are bad at their jobs. Most are experienced journalists at the top of their game -- and they're wasted at the White House, where scoops are doled out, not uncovered.

AMC makes some excellent points, but I disagree with her central premise, at least where the briefings are concerned (I can't speak to the traveling press, but she sounds on-target there). I think we need a more skillful press corps, with a fresher understanding of the job.
The job of the Press Secretary is to push the administration's message. As AMC points out, we can get that off of the YouTube. That means our job is largely to throw Gibbs off-message.

Too often, however, reporters attempt this with a ham-handed "Gotcha!" question for which there is a pre-ordained, Garanimals -style matching talking point. To paraphrase an old cliche, if you ask when the President stopped beating his wife, you'll be told that the President has consistently supported initiatives against domestic violence.

But the single best tool in the White House reporter's belt is the follow-up. I've noticed an increasing amount of give and take with Gibbs at the briefings, which is all to the good. Follow-up questions allow reporters to parry talking points to get to something that isn't in a press release. Still, actually getting something new out of a press briefing is a tough job. During the primaries, I once had to ask Howard Wolfson the same question six times before I got an answer.

The value of a White House reporter isn't just in receiving the administration's message, though. With the emergence of bloggers in the White House, we can also deliver messages to the administration in a way that other members of the press can't.

For example, in February, I asked Robert Gibbs about Michael Steele's comments on civil unions. He hadn't heard them. I also asked what specific plans the President had to support civil unions. Again, all I got was some campaign boilerplate. At the same time, I think they got the message that attacks on gay rights merit a response.

I'm still very new at this, but I have a very clear idea of what I need to do to become a better White House reporter. The best of us can turn a briefing into a conversation, and in doing so give voice to the American people in a way that other journalists cannot. That's a valuable job that deserves to be done, and done well.

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