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DOES CNN REPORT THE NEWS OR MAKE THE NEWS?
Just noticed a twitter from Glenn Greenwald.
Ed Henry, beaming with pride . . . at self. He's an "amazing" "provocative" "gambling" "quarterback" who "pounced"Henry, you might remember, got a few seconds of infamy at last week's press conference when he demanded to know why it took Obama "days to come out and express that outrage" on the A.I.G. bonuses. This provoked a nice riposte from the President. "It took us a couple of days because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak."
Obama's jab is even more cutting in context of Henrys comically self-congratulatory column today. You might ask, for instance, why Henry decided to ask abut A.I.G., rather than about, say, the Geithner bailout plan. henry takes us through his thinking: "The pressure was on now because the president had called on me. Someone handed me a microphone, millions were watching, and it's scary to think about changing topic in a split second because you might get flustered and screw up. But it's fun to gamble and like any good quarterback (though I was never athletic enough to actually play the position), I decided to call an audible."
An audible. Alrighty. But more interesting than Ed Henry's high opinion of Ed Henry is the strategy that he took into the press conference.
At the first presser in February, I was about the 10th reporter the president called on. The economy had been chewed over so I went with a "sidebar" question about whether Obama, given his push for transparency, would overturn the policy at Dover Air Force Base preventing media coverage of coffins returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
It was a surprise line of inquiry. The president made news by saying the policy was under review -- and a few weeks later he overturned it.
I was heading into this event with the same strategy: make news on something unexpected (I won't tell you which topics I was working on cause it would ruin the surprise for a future presser or interview with the president).
"Make news" is an interesting formulation for a reporter. I'm pretty sure the J School graduates are taught to "report" news, or maybe "explain" news. But creating news is rather a different goal. Inserting himself into the story, however, is well-aligned with Ed Henry's incentives. A lot more people know Ed Henry's name today than did a week ago. Henry can now write a column congratulating himself for standing tall in the face of the President's ire. It's similarly well-aligned with his industry's incentives. Though the American people might appreciate seeing the President offer a substantive explanation of his policy ideas -- 32 million of them, after all, watched the press conference for exactly that -- it's not the sort of thing that the cable channels can replay in bite-sized chunks. They're better off "making" a new news story that can lead tomorrow's Situation Room.
COMMENTS (12)
So Ed thinks that was a success? Wow.
Posted by: spot check billy | March 26, 2009 2:06 PM
I love how he not-so-subtly implies that it was his question that spurred Obama to overturn the media blackout on dead soldier's coffins.
This whole thing is unbelievably cringe-worthy. He's a member of the press, and he asked a question at a press conference (a somewhat stupid question), for which he got shot down, and now he's writing about it with the breathless tone of a bad romance novel.
Doesn't this man have any friends? Surely he has at least one person he can depend on to shut him up when he's making a fool of himself.
Posted by: Roq | March 26, 2009 2:29 PM
HA! I called it a couple of days ago...
Posted by: anonymoose | March 26, 2009 2:32 PM
You know... this would be an awesome country, if you could just get all the narcissistic douchebags out of it.
Posted by: left behind | March 26, 2009 2:32 PM
Oh, come on.
Obama got caught flat-footed, and gave a bad and misleading answer to Henry. Obama didn't tell the full truth when he finally spoke about AIG, so he either didn't tell what he knew or he didn't "wait to know what he was talking about."
So once again, Obama does something wrong and it is the messenger that has to be shot down.
Posted by: kaybeel | March 26, 2009 2:47 PM
Hey, Ed. Just for your information, I watched the news conference. I read your column. I read this post, and between the time I click post and the time the page reloads, I will have forgotten who you are. Sorry about that.
Posted by: Curtis | March 26, 2009 4:48 PM
the question Ed Henry is saving contains the following intro "Mr. President, if Michele Obama were raped and murdered, would you still favor...."
Posted by: i am bigger than Bernie Shaw | March 26, 2009 8:56 PM
Last week's press conference?
Uh, that was this past Tuesday, March 24, 2009, ie less than 48 hours before you posted this. Long week, Ezra? Take a breath, man.
Posted by: Mike | March 26, 2009 11:45 PM
I like how Ed Henry is criticized for attempting to "make news" by throwing a curveball that defies the President's narrative. But I understand Ezra for being upset with Henry-it undermines the hard work of Journolist in supporting and propogating that narrative!
Posted by: TBD | March 27, 2009 7:40 AM
Don't these journoquarterbacks go into the game with a game plan? Like a list of questions (each with a handy follow up if possible)?
Posted by: bdbd | March 27, 2009 10:02 AM
By the way, doesn't Henry's tie in the photo above just scream "Twitter!" ?
Posted by: bdbd | March 27, 2009 10:03 AM
"You know... this would be an awesome country, if you could just get all the narcissistic douchebags out of it."
~Posted by: left behind | March 26, 2009 2:32 PM
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Hear, hear!. But to which country will Barack and the Democratic leadership move?
Posted by: melrose1 | March 27, 2009 4:21 PM