MoveOn is circulating a petition to the White House Correspondents’ Association asking them to give Helen Thomas’s White House press seat to NPR over Fox News. (The third organization in the race is Bloomberg.)
I’m not a huge fan of Internet petitions, but this one could make a difference, on the premise that WHCA might give a damn what their audience says about the matter.
The text of the petition (which IMHO is poorly worded):
Give Helen Thomas’ former briefing room seat to NPR, which has provided public interest coverage for decades – not Fox, which is a right-wing propaganda tool, not a legitimate news organization.
The comment I added:
“Better yet, give the seat to NPR for its track record in following Thomas’ footsteps by asking hard, factually-based questions of the administration, even when it is not popular to do so.”
Or admit that in the 21st century, which seat you’re sitting in means absolutely nothing, and this is just MoveOn.org taking a political swipe at Fox News.
Helen Thomas made her reputation on the questions she asked, not the location of her chair. She’d have been just as good (and just as famous) from the back row as from the front.
Fox News is currently doing the same thing, but playing to the opposite side of the same publicity coin – they’re making their reputation on asking the *partisan* questions, and this drives groups like MoveOn.org crazy. Which is ironic, of course, since they try to do the same thing, but with much less success…
Actually, which seat you’re in *does* make a difference, because it determines whether you can ask a question of either the press secretary or the president. There are permanent assignments and rotating seats; I dunno if NPR, Fox, or Bloomberg had permanent assignment before now.
MoveOn made this about blocking Fox. Me, I just wanted the best journalist butt in that chair, so it’s not a win that NPR didn’t get it either.
Any evidence that folks in the front row get called on more than anyone else? Helen Thomas being an outlier, of course, given who she is (was?) not where she was sitting…
No idea if the front row gets called on more—simple psychology would say yes, but most press secretaries are more disciplined than that. My comment was more along the lines of who gets a permanent seat in the room, versus who’s in the first or fourth rows.