Prior Approval

   Business and political leaders, as well as celebrities of all kinds, have long demanded prior approval of any story before publication or broadcast. Few actually get it, but that has never stopped them from trying.
   Attempts to control the news media have been made as long as there have been news media, and government officials, even at the local level, have been fond of saying, "If the press wasn't here, I'd have something to say about that." At a public meeting, however, that doesn't wash, even less so during a live broadcast.
  Sadly, the current president of the United States expects journalists to ask only positive questions during press conferences, and attacks reporters who ask what he deems "hostile" questions.
   That assumes that journalists are only allowed to ask synpathetic questions, and should produce stories that coincide with the official political stance of the government at that moment.
   News flash: Journalists are not on any government payroll, and neither the president nor any of his minions can say "You're fired" to any reporter. Neither do they get prior approval of any question any reporter might ask, nor any printed or broadcast report.
   Many politicians expect all others to "get with the program, and be part of the team."
   But journalists are not team players. They may practice a form of adversarial journalism, but their questions come from a neutral position. Too many political leaders expect that if someone is not a friend, they must be an enemy.
   Reality check: News reporters are neither.
   That said, however, there is room in journalism for opinion writers and talk show hosts. They are not always neutral, but all are protected by the Constitutional guarantee of a free press.
   As for the president's threat to "take away their license," that's nothing more than ignorance. Newspapers and magazines don't have journalism licenses, so there's nothing to take away. Individual broadcast stations have licenses, but only as a way to assign them to a place on the broadcast spectrum, so to prevent them from colliding with each other. Network and cable TV operations don't have broadcast licenses.
   Either way, any threat to prevent news organizations from publishing reports or even asking questions that a president considers "hostile" is a severe hazard to the American way.