Voices
A Modest Proposal
Captive Audience
How technology could free the White House press corps
The White House is a tough beat. The pace is frenetic, the pressure to perform intense, and the spin unrelenting. Within those walls, the press corps — roughly 100 correspondents, producers, and technicians — is a captive audience, tied to the ground like Gulliver and subject to the whim of White House press briefers, communications specialists, and assorted underlings. Even more constricting: they’re in the thrall of the president’s schedule. The time left over for enterprise reporting is — most often — zilch.
And so I raise the protest placard: “Free the White House 100!” Take advantage of easily available technology that would allow a tiny, skeleton pool to cover the moment-by-moment White House action, while the reporting teams previously condemned to work there roam and dig and commit journalism in the effort to find out what’s really going on in the executive branch; to report what they do, instead of what they say.
By technology, I mean a small computer system that would capture audio, video, and still photos in real time, store them, and feed them to correspondents’ laptops and newsrooms. White House people and the press would quickly get used to the new arrangement, and prefer it to the chaos and long stretches of boredom that go on there now. Questions for the president’s press secretary could be e-mailed from the field and posed by the pool reporter in the briefing room. A similar, wireless system using somewhat more rugged and portable components could be configured for use during travels with the president.
The captured video, audio, and stills would be downloaded over the Web or on leased high-speed fiber or wireless from the servers to the participating individuals and news organizations. All of this can now be done in real time with the advent of small, powerful 64-bit computers and accompanying servers, along with imaging and videoconferencing software. On occasions when greater face-to-face contact with administration officials seems necessary, a simple videoconferencing capability can be tacked on, allowing correspondents and even their editors to ask the tough questions live.
Imagine how enriched the sessions with Scott McClellan, the president’s press secretary, might be if correspondents and editors could summon up documents on the spot to refute, or verify, information proffered at press briefings, and then instantly ask more informed, fact-supported questions — from wherever they might be. At the very least, correspondents would have more time to nail down details of complicated issues relating to the economy, energy, the budget, the quality of U.S. intelligence, the conduct of wars.
I say the White House press corps deserves to be set free. All it would take is the application of some simple technology and a willingness to join the twenty-first century.
Enjoy this piece? Consider a CJR trial subscription.
