“This makes it very difficult for the rest of us to do our jobs”

Newsweek columist Eric Alter has his knickers in a bunch after blogger Mayhill Fowler scooped the legacy media on Obama's thoughts of gun-totin', God fearin' country bumpkins and Bill Clinton's opinion of Vanity Fair writers.

"If you don’t have trust, you don’t get good stories. If someone comes along and uses deception to shatter that trust, she has hurt the very cause of a free flow of public information.”

Ironically Fowler gets two pretty "good stories" that Alter implies he would have spiked. I guess "a free flow of public information" means different things between Alter and me. Seems he uses the word "trust" to mean Obama and Clinton should be able to trust a reporter not to report their candid but negative sides (think Alter would consider this rule for President Bush? - yeah right.)

Alter espouses the Eason Jordan style of journalism. Ensure constant access with your subject by only reporting favorable stories. Alter fools himself, however, if he seriously thinks this leads to a "free flow of public information."

Originally posted in UNCoRRELATED 11 Jun, 2008