Poor Media

Oh, gee. Let me get out my violin. The media is choosing not to send a chartered jet full of reporters chasing after the president everywhere he goes. It costs too much, you see. But Critics of Anything Bush™ are whining that it's "secrecy".

The idea that Bush could travel across the country without a full contingent of reporters, especially in the middle of a war, highlights a major cultural shift in the presidency and the news media. In the four decades since the assassination of John F. Kennedy, presidents traditionally have taken journalists with them wherever they traveled on the theory that when it comes to the most powerful leader on the planet, anything can happen at any time.

But increasingly in recent months, Bush has left town without a chartered press plane, often to receptions where he talks to donors chipping in hundreds of thousands of dollars with no cameras or tapes to record his words for the public. Barred from such events, most news organizations will not pay to travel with him. And so a White House policy inclined to secrecy has combined with escalating costs for the strapped news media to let Bush fly under the radar in a way his predecessors could not.

Good lord. Don't you feel sorry for the media? No more free travel. Dang. Let's throw a bake sale for the poor reporters. Even funnier id the outside pressure groups power whining:

Patrice McDermott, director of OpenTheGovernment.org, a coalition formed three years ago that includes groups such as the American Library Association, Common Cause, the League of Women Voters and the Society of Professional Journalists, called the changing pattern of coverage "quite disturbing" and part of a "rising tide of secrecy" in Washington.

"It's another way of closing off responsibility and accountability and shutting themselves off from public view," she said. "I think the public would prefer that somebody be in the room who is not there for their own interests to be served."

So, fund it yourself, Patrice. Write the check. Because Tony Snow has it exactly right here:

White House spokesman Tony Snow said there is nothing insidious about closing fundraisers in private homes and noted that news organizations choose whether to pay for a plane follow the president. "It's really all about money," he said. "It used to be that media organizations had more dough."

News flash: Media is a business, not a charity to give junkets to reporters. The president has a pool that is always with him. Having a flock of redundant reporters wandering around everywhere he goes is not a smart way to do business. Welcome to the real world.