People are so mad at the governor of Indiana

Are you people kidding? EVERY government entity is putting its stuff out directly to the public these days. And that doesn't stop media outlets from reporting and telling people that there's more to it than what the government tells them.

 

Office of the Mayor | News, Press Releases, Statements & Executive Orders | City of New York

 

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If they ARE the reporters, there's really no reason to have a press conference.

Anyone see the problem?

 

City of Arlington, TX

 

Let me know when they stop holding press conferences or taking questions from the media.

 

The NFL has its own network and still holds press conferences. It can be done.

 

From Pence's own document:

"Best practices for press-release distribution are under consideration, but for now, agencies are expected to continue to issue press releases via established channels."

To sum up, anyone who buys Pence's walk-it-back line of bullshit that this is just "a website for issuing press releases" isn't paying much attention.

 

Let's stop comparing sports to state governments full of elected officials who are directly accountable to the public.

 

Just showing that having your own outlet doesn't stop others from covering you as well.

Again, when the government stops allowing the media to ask questions, we can talk about infringement of the First Amendment.

 

OK, so let me get this straight. You're saying that because they want their people to continue to issue press releases via established channels that this isn't a platform to issue releases? What that means is in addition to sending out releases to the Indianapolis Star and the rest of the media, they also want to be able to get them DIRECTLY TO THE PUBLIC! Oh, my God, how sinister!

So when they decide in the future that this site will be the only way they'll issue releases, will you get apopleptic and declare, "NOW THEY'RE CUTTING OFF THE MEDIA!"

 

No, it doesn't stop you. It can, however, interfere and obfuscate, which we can split hairs about all day but goes against the intentions of the First Amendment.

The Obama administration got flack for doing the same sort of thing. Its attempts to control the "message," be it through the "White House blog," social media, etc., has been close to unprecedented.

And, absolutely, part of it is the erosion of trust with the legacy media. Used to be the media was trusted to sift through all the bullshit and get to the truth. Now, a lot of people mistrust the media for various reasons, some legitimate but most of the tinfoil hat variety, so they think they ARE getting the truth directly from the source.

It's a very dangerous precedent.

 

The "tinfoil hat" people, as you refer to them, don't believe the government, either.