Hoedje af voor de bewakers van de democratie, elke dag weer op de laptop of achter de pc strijden voor een transparantere betere wereld. Chapeau. Eh, sorry foutje bedankt. Ben Rhodes, één van de voorlichters van het Witte Huis deed een boekje open over de stand van zaken in de journalistiek aldaar en hoe het “nieuws” gemaakt wordt.
Enkele citaten:
“All these newspapers used to have foreign bureaus,” he said. “Now they don’t. They call us to explain to them what’s happening in Moscow and Cairo.”
“ Most of the outlets are reporting on world events from Washington. The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing.”
“The easiest way for the White House to shape the news, he explained, is from the briefing podiums, each of which has its own dedicated press corps. “But then there are sort of these force multipliers,” he said, adding, “We have our compadres, I will reach out to a couple people, and you know I wouldn’t want to name them,” “I can name them,” I said, ticking off a few names of prominent Washington reporters and columnists who often tweet in sync with White House messaging. Price laughed. “I’ll say, ‘Hey, look, some people are spinning this narrative that this is a sign of American weakness,’”he continued, “but in fact it’s a sign of strength!” I said, chuckling. “And I’ll give them some color,” Price continued, “and the next thing I know, lots of these guys are in the dot-com publishing space, and have huge Twitter followings, and they’ll be putting this message out on their own.” (zie)
Zo dus, dus als de Volksfiets weer eens een artikel schrijft hoe goed de vrijhandel is, en hoe verkeerd het is om tegen de TTIP verdrag(en) te zijn, dan weet je hoe dat komt.
Overigens, Stan van Houcke heeft over dit laatste dit geschreven.
