You Didn't Mention Banish
05/01/11 – President Obama – Last night during the White House Correspondence Dinner, you finished your speech with this, “You know, in the last months, we've seen journalists threatened, arrested, beaten, attacked, and in some cases even killed simply for doing their best to bring us the story, to give people a voice, and to hold leaders accountable. And through it all, we've seen daring men and women risk their lives for the simple idea that no one should be silenced, and everyone deserves to know the truth.”
You didn't mention Banish, but that is exactly what your Administration has done to Chronicle reporter Carla Marinucci. Here is the Chronicle's Update on the event:
Update: In a pants-on-fire moment, the White House press office today denied anyone there had issued threats to remove Carla Marinucci and possibly other Hearst reporters from the press pool covering the President in the Bay Area.
Chronicle editor Ward Bushee called the press office on its fib:
Sadly, we expected the White House to respond in this manner based on our experiences yesterday. It is not a truthful response. It follows a day of off-the-record exchanges with key people in the White House communications office who told us they would remove our reporter, then threatened retaliation to Chronicle and Hearst reporters if we reported on the ban, and then recanted to say our reporter might not be removed after all.
The Chronicle's report is accurate.
If the White House has indeed decided not to ban our reporter,
we would like an on-the-record notice that she will remain the San
Francisco print pool reporter.
Read
more:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/bronstein/detail?entry_id=87978#ixzz1L7PfMDPI
Obviously your words at the Dinner ring hollow. If Carla Marinucci or any others remain on a banned list, then you're no better than the Middle East dictators who also claim they are being “fair” and are allowing the free flow of information. I close with your own words, “....no one should be silenced, and everyone deserves to know the truth.”
Thomas Daly
Retired California Newspaper Publisher
www.tomasdaly.com