Sign of the Times: National Press Conference

Blogs are bashed... to a certain degree. High-fives are passed out, backs are slapped, and there is lots of whining. I smell fear.

Tony Snow [Admitting he writes blog posts] still derides blogs, only highlighting the negative:

"You get this wonderful, imaginative hateful stuff that comes flying out... not only should you not beliefve your own press, you shouldn't believe your blogs either."

NBC's David Gregory:

"It's the internet and the blogs that have really used this White House press conference to somehow spupport positions out in america, political views, and they will clip and digitize portions of these briefings to fit into their particular argument and I think people try to devine motives of the questioners and certainly draw conclusions about the answers or non-answers."

I'd love to get a list of the blogs he reads. If politicians or journalists cannot be judged at press conferences by what they say, or avoid saying, what greater opportunity is there to analyze and explicate their thoughts, words and deeds?

I just don't know what to make of it.

Richard Wolffe of Newsweek:

"A lot of the blogs are unduly devoted to media criticism..."

and

"It's not a political exercise [press conferences], it's a journalistic exercise."