Shorter Cintra Wilson
If you have neither read any political news articles in the past month and you have never heard of the White House briefing room, you will learn a lot from Cintra Wilson's lengthy investigation of the WH press corps, "I Was A Teenage Washington Correspondent." Summarizing:
•WH spokesperson Scott McClellan does not really provide that much information: " Scott McClellan would be providing no information ever, about anything. It wasn't his function."
•The Roberts nomination effectively killed what little momentum the CIA leak investigation may have had --and this might have been intentional: "It was a classic slick Bush move. . . The press corps now had another job to do, and they could no longer pester McClellan about Rove."
•Liberals continue to confuse Helen Thomas's longevity with omnipotence: "She is the only member of the press corps who has the power and freedom to say what she believes about the bigger picture, on the record."
•And last but not least: "where to put the blame in Washington is never entirely clear."
We understand that this piece was to have run in Rolling Stone but the magazine killed it. Salon, Wilson wrote in an email, ran it "COMPLETELY UNASSAILED." Touche.
Cintra's email after the jump.
I invaded the White House press corps [Salon]
From: Cintra Wilson
Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2005 18:56:36 -0400
To: SEATTLE
Subject: I Invaded the White House Press Corps
My Dear Friends, Allies, Countrymen:
As a few of you know, I was sent to Washington DC last month by Rolling Stone magazine to sit in the White House Press Corps for a few
weeks and absorb the post-Rove Corps meltdown. It was f-ing amazing. I wrote what I felt to be a solid magnum opus about it -- I was proud,
very proud, I felt it was some of the best stuff I'd ever written -- naturally, Rolling Stone killed the piece.
That's the bad news.
The GOOD NEWS is that Salon.com, patron saint of my entire career, is going to run the article COMPLETELY UNASSAILED, this SATURDAY, August 27. For those of you confused by Salon's inscrutable subscription laws, all you have to do for the premium service is watch some small
ad, and you're in for the day. Worth it.
Please, please log on and check it out, if you ever wanted to read someone tearing Scott McClellan a new one. Several new ones. And please bombard me with your comments, thoughts, objections, etc.
Americanishly Yours,
Cintra