Roger L. Simon

April 14th, 2008 12:14 pm

Pajamas Media responds to constructive criticism from McCain

“The workings of American newsrooms are some of the least transparent enterprises in the country, and it is easy to believe that the press has one set of standards for government, business, and other institutions, and entirely another for themselves,” the Arizona senator said.

“If you don’t mind a little constructive criticism from someone who respects you, I think that is an impression the press should work on correcting,” he said.

I hope he wasn’t including Pajamas Media in this because I am not opening up my desk drawer. [Thank God for that.-ed. Who gave you the key?]

Comment
Bookmark and Share
Digg Print Digg PJM Home

Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:

1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.

2. Stay on topic.

3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.

4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.

5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.

The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.

These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.

1 Comment

1. DaveR:

“…it is easy to believe that the press has one set of standards for government, business, and other institutions, and entirely another for themselves,”…

I think there is a simple explanation for that belief: they do!

This “bitter” business with Obama is telling us much about the media too, not just about Obama.

Remember that the event was “off-limits to the media”, and the actual recording was made by a sympathic attendee who wanted to share the “gospel” with her friends at HuffPo.

Thus we learned about what Obama says in private only through a “mistake”, for which her friends chewed her out by the way, and one that you can be sure the “professional” media would never have made.

Why are candidates even permitted to exclude the media from “campaign” activities anyway? Is the media so compliant with everyone, or just those it wants to elect? Why doen’t someone like McCain take a stand that all “campaign” functions must be open? Have your staff meetings in private, but if you are speaking to voters, how can you justify excluding their faithful watchdogs, the reporters?

Looks to me like either the media has abandoned it’s post guarding our sacred right to know that the tell us about unceasingly, or perhaps they tend to nod off when “their” candidate is speaking.

Apr 14, 2008 - 6:05 pm

Write a Comment

Name: (required, displayed)
Email: (required, not publicized)
URL: (optional, displayed)
Comments:
 

Roger L Simon

Author Photo
The blog of the mystery writer, screenwriter and CEO of Pajamas Media

Just Published

Blacklisting MyselfWith gratitude to the readers of this blog without whom my new -- and first non-fiction -- book would likely never have been written.

Simon's first non-fiction book - Blacklisting Myself: Memoir of a Hollywood Apostate in an Age of Terror - Pub. date: February 5, 2009

Archives

Books