A FEW PRESS QUESTIONS?

[Jon Estes]

1 - How much access should the press have to the President, constitutionally?

2 - Without denying the freedom of press, can the President deny freedom of access to the press?

3 - Should the press who report on the Presidential Briefings be journalists (deliverers of unbiased facts) and not those who simply give more opinion than solid facts?

I am in favor of keeping out of the Press Room at the WH, all those who opine and allow only those who actually report facts. I say this because it seems too many people are basing their facts on someones opinions.

Freedom of the press is not the same as freedom of access.

If you were President and the Press was hostile towards you, what would be your rules?

[Tim Bonney]

[Haruo]

Jon, how would you define "unbiased" with respect to journalistic reporting of presidential press briefings?

Timothy, how would you determine who should have "press credentials" sufficient for access to press briefings?

[Jon Estes]

[Jon Estes]

[KeithE]

[Neil Heath]

I'm pretty sure that much of Trump's dislike of the press is not because of his oft-repeated "fake news" charge. Rather, they are reporting the truth, the facts of his presidency, and many of those facts are not very positive toward any part of his administration.

They lay bare for the world to see his ignorance, incompetence, vanity, insecurity, pettiness, moodiness, and all the rest, how completely unfit he is for the office he holds. He should feel threatened by the press, because they are doing their jobs. Dictatorial types move to stifle the press so they can control access of information.

I hope they continue to show what he is and what he is doing, and let the cow chips fall where they may.

[KeithE]

[Jon Estes]

[Jon Estes]

[Jon Estes]

[Sandy]

The guarantee of freedom of the Press is equal to, and should be interpreted in exactly the same way as any other constitutional guarantee. Look at how extremist right wingers and ultra conservatives argue the NRA position on the right to bear arms. If the press had that kind of freedom, and the kind of access that goes along with it, they would have access to anything related to national security.

Conservatives don't like the press because what they want is a media that whitewashes and ignores the bad things about their leaders and heroes, and only bashes those they have determined to be lesser beings because they are liberal. Ironically, the names they smear the most when it comes to alleged "liberal bias," are those which provably hold to the highest standards of verification, and stick with the facts, the Washington Post and the New York Times, along with major news networks who invest in the personnel necessary to get facts. Conservatives slip inside a bubble held up by Fox News, though that is clearly sliding away, and sources like World Net Daily, Breitbart, and other internet agencies which use information they get from real sources, because they don't actually have reporters or field personnel, and simply put their own spin on it, or like Breitbart, just invent stuff.

If you think that politicians like former presidents Clinton and Obama, or Democratic party candidates like Hillary Clinton, haven't had their issues with the press, and are in love with that "liberal mainstream media," then you've locked yourself inside an insulated, right wing extremist media bubble and you have allowed your eyes and ears to move past their own words and most of the issues. It's funny to hear that criticism, while watching the Times or the Post or a commentator like Rachel Maddow or Chris Hayes take Democrats to task, just like they do Republicans. If that's your conclusion, you've disqualified yourself from commenting, because you haven't watched, heard, or read anything from the mainstream media, you've only read what someone else said about them.

Freedom of the Press means exactly that. Any politician in this country who tries to avoid media scrutiny, and hides out from the people who elected them is attempting to suppress that right in exactly the same way that conservatives shriek and wail about liberals trying to take away their guns.

[KeithE]

[KeithE]