Cheney Keeps NYTimes Out

[BlueNomad]

Desperately Seeking Dick Cheney
By RICK LYMAN
Published: September 19, 2004 (tomorrow NYT)

This has a satirical note to it but is frightening. The New York Times excluded from the Air Force Two pool of reporters. ....

.... The vice president travels on Air Force Two, a tech-packed wide-body with private areas in the front, a Secret Service buffer in the middle and a media cabin in the back. A crew of about 10 reporters flies with him, representing all the networks, the wire services and two or three newspapers. There are snacks, cable television and camaraderie.

But there is not a seat for me.

Nor has there been a seat for the previous two New York Times reporters sent to cover the vice president. I am told not to take this personally. Nor, I am told, is this intended as a slight against the paper, which normally maintains a seat (paid for handsomely) on all campaign planes, presidential and vice-presidential.

Frankly, there are some colleagues who suspect that antipathy toward the newspaper may be behind it. Anne Womack, the vice president's chief spokeswoman, says such suspicions are baseless. There simply are not enough seats for all of the press, and other publications got their names on the list before us. If someone drops out, they'll let me know...

<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/19/weekinreview/19lyma.html?ex=1096171200&en=28f5c6f796489cda&ei=5006&partner=ALTAVISTA1>

[jpgray]

1. They whored so hard for them, and are still denied access (nt)

[Scairp]

2. Amazing isn't it?

How the Times has worked so hard to get Shrub back in the WH and the thanks they get is the shaft? Go figure.

[amber dog democrat]

3. so this is gratitude

for all the work the Times did to help the chimp ?

:nopity:

[bluedeminredstate]

4. Wow!

But don't take it personally... Uh huh.
:eyes:

[Leilani]

5. This story was discussed on C-Span on Friday morning

on Washington Journal, with Brian Lamb reporting this folly.

Lamb & 3 journalists on the panel, agreed this was wrong.

This was in response to a viewer who called & asked about media access, & how it affects reporters.

Lamb said it was the most important question of the show.

[RevCheesehead]

6. c'mon, people, read the entire article before you slam!!

Yes, it's a satire - of sorts. But it's not all tongue-in-cheek.

There is a lot here worthy of paying attention:

1. Dick Cheney is inaccessable from reporters who might dare ask a difficult question. They are hand-picking their media on AF-2. Dick is essentially skipping around the country attending Pampered Chef parties (no offense, really!)

>snip<
People ask me wherever I go: What's Dick Cheney like?
As if I'd know.

All I have are little images, most of them from afar, of a man who's essentially all business, who feels a little uncomfortable in the spotlight, who is happier and looser when his wife is with him, who laughs more frequently than his reputation suggests but usually at unkind jokes aimed at Democrats shouted from the crowd. He barely raises his voice, even when punching home an applause line in a speech.


2. This reporter has engaged the public surrounding Cheney events. He takes time to speak to all the people:

>snip<
I may not spend a whole lot of time in the small towns and state fairs that the vice president visits, but I spend a lot more than he does, or that members of the press on the plane do. I talk to people everywhere, and not just the supporters who got tickets to his sanctioned events. I listen to local radio stations, get lost on local roads.

>snip<
Rebecca Dixen, a St. Paul reference librarian and a Kerry supporter, said she had come to the fair hoping to get into the vice president's town hall event and ask him a question, unaware that it was by invitation only and there are never, ever any rude or discomfiting questions. "You can't even get in unless you already support him," she said. "I don't know what kind of democracy that is. To tell you the truth, it's a little bit disappointing."


3. He clues us in to the level of hatred from Dick's supporters:

>snip<
"I found the vice president to be very warm, very trustworthy," said Elaine Schoman, an English and Spanish teacher at Cuba High School in Cuba, N.M., just after she was one of a dozen hand-picked supporters to have breakfast with the vice president on Thursday. "Which publication did you say you were from?"

An icy look passed quickly across her face. "You need to talk to your people," she said. "You're all twisted in one direction."

Don't I know it.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. kick