Respect vs Obedience

Respect cannot be commanded. It must be earned. -- Pug Mahoney

Message to the president: You can't fire reporters. They don't work for you.

   Note: A federal judge is expected to rule today on whether the president can control the White House press corps.

  Time was, journalists covering a presidential news conference submitted questions in writing in advance, and the president chose which reporters he would call on, knowing the question even before it was asked.
   That changed with the advent and the election of John F. Kennedy.
   Now, the current president ousts any journalist who asks a tough question or one that the president doesn't like, and cancels that reporter's credentials and White House press pass.
   But who gets to choose which reporters get press passes to cover the White House? Does the president have the right to select only those journalists who are sympathetic to his views, and those who will help to spread his message?
   Granted, there is a limited amount of space in the White House briefing room, and a limited number of people who can fit in the available space. But controlling who gets in and controlling which questions are asked, and in what manner, amounts to controlling the news media, and is on its face unconstitutional.
   Courtesy, civility and respect, yes. But that works both ways. Or as President Harry Truman once put it, "If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen."

   Clearly, the current president can't take the heat of tough questions posed by reporters. But that's their job. They ask tough questions because they need to be asked, and they do so on behalf of the American people.
   So why is the current president attacking those who ask tough questions, and going to the extreme of banning them from the White House? If he wants a press corps of only reporters who agree with him and ask only soft questions, he's not going to get it, regardless of how much he demands obedience.
   He cannot fire every White House reporter, and that's because they don't work for him. They work for private enterprise news organizations, and pose tough questions on behalf of readers and viewers.
   "Congress shall make no law ... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press," says the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

   Attempting to control the news media by banning reporters you don't like or those who ask questions you don't like is a clear violation of the Constitution. And the more you try, the more they sharpen their pencils.