SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Free press isn't free under White House's onerous rules (Editorial)
Muzzling the press is chapter one in the authoritarian ruler's playbook. By the Founders' design, the president of the United States is not a king or dictator. He doesn't control the media, or get to decide which reporters are assigned to cover him.
A free press isn't free if the government imposes rules on what reporters can ask and how they must ask it. That violates the First Amendment. Period.
Banning reporters from asking follow-up questions or challenging the president's statements, under threat of taking away their access to the White House, hobbles the watchdog function of the media. White House reporters will be looking over their shoulders, calibrating the consequences, every time they ask tough questions. Meanwhile, the president will be able to dodge accountability and lie to the American people with even more impunity.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Entropy on Friday November 23 2018, @10:24PM
These interviews were always scripted. Clinton, Obama, Bush, the press has never really been allowed to ask real questions and no politician has really ever answered real questions. Politicians (and now the press) are fundamentally dishonest. The press acting like this is some sort of new Trump thing is one of the many examples of their dishonesty.