In every president’s White House, there will be reporters who want more access and officials who want less. With Bush, this is a problem that’s become intensified.
It doesn’t come up as often, but photo journalists are struggling with being shutout as well. For example, under eight years of Clinton, the White House distributed 100 handout pics of staged photos of presidential events. After five years of Bush, more than 500 have been distributed.
“They average about two per week,” said Susan Walsh, an AP photojournalist and president of the White House News Photographers Association, after directing that review. “The White House staff photographer’s role is to document the president. They have now crossed the line and become public relations photographers for the administration.”
She added: “I don’t know the rationale behind it, but there are [handout] events that could clearly include press coverage. The problem with the [photo] releases is that they are often of events that could accommodate press coverage and that previous administrations had allowed press to cover.”
It’s just another part of the “bubble.” The Bush gang could allow photo journalists to take pictures of presidential events, but they find it easier to carefully manage which images are shared with the public and which aren’t. In a very real sense, it’s a restriction on the press. As one publisher, who has photographed each president since LBJ, said, “It curtails our access to events we should be covering with an independent eye and it fools the American public into thinking they are news pictures when they are really public relations pictures.”
We’re not talking about letting cameras into the situation room; the policy applies when the event has nothing to do with national security. When Bush visited the Smithsonian recently, photo journalists were not allowed to take pictures and news outlets were told they’d have to accept official White House pictures if they wanted any picture at all. When Bush re-signed the Americans With Disabilities Act, the same thing happened. When Bush hosted recipients of the Kennedy Center Honors last month, it happened again.
Susan Walsh, an AP photojournalist and president of the White House News Photographers Association said, “Would anyone on the word side take a press release and regurgitate it verbatim and publish it in the newspaper as legitimate news,” she asked. “Of course not.”
It’s just another element of public perceptions that the Bush gang feels the need to control. It’s kind of sad, really.