LAT - Slams CNN's Ed Henry As Example of WH Reporters Trying To Be The News (Better Late Than Never)

Many of us have posted about how Ed Henry is a narcistic idiot who belongs on millionaire matchmaker more than he does in the WH press room, but it is nice to get some commentary in the LA Times about this. My main critique is that this self-criticism has come a bit late. It is really sad with blogs and such how journalists are trying to build their brandnames, rather than report the news. I swear it seems like every time I hear Ed Henry he is gushing about what a great reporter he is. All reporters appear to be doing this now, except that Ed Henry is more obvious about it than most.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-et-onthemedia3-2009apr03,0,4074795.column

/snip

CNN correspondent Ed Henry mulled pre-game strategy and the element of surprise. He wrote that when "the pressure was on," he decided to gamble and call an audible "like any good quarterback." Later he would recount how he rose to the occasion in a "pressure-packed environment."

Henry had asked a relatively mundane question at a presidential news conference. But, for all his preening and prattling, you might have thought he'd won the Super Bowl or landed the space shuttle. With one wing on fire.

Henry's news conference run-in with President Obama last week over AIG bonuses proved a win-win. (Or maybe a spin-win.) CNN's "senior" White House correspondent got to show he could play the tough guy, by asking why it took the president days to express outrage over the exorbitant payouts. Obama got to play the thoughtful leader, avoiding a direct answer while snapping at Henry that, "I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak."

The only potential losers were the rest of us, numbed by years of these over-hyped White House sideshows, full of sound and fury and signifying . . . a lot less than they might.

A review of the recent history of White House news conferences teaches us several lessons: The Henry-Obama kerfuffle pales in comparison to previous showdowns; reporters who succumb to the trend of posting their every thought online look silly and self-serving; and the media would generate more real information by working together to build stories rather than by nurturing their personal "brands."

Baby-boomers will recall that President Nixon and CBS correspondent Dan Rather set the standard for fierce combat. The president challenged the aggressive reporter: "Are you running for something?" and the newsman shot back, "No, Mr. President. Are you?"

* * *
But most of that was in the pre-blog era, and those veterans (healthy egos all) didn't have the opportunity to wallow in the moment quite like Henry did last week, when he blogged about the incident at CNN.com.

It took 12 paragraphs for Henry to build to something close to a crescendo. "The pressure was on now because the president had called on me," he wrote. "Someone handed me a microphone, millions were watching . . ."

I half expected Henry to add, "The nation held its collective breath." He spared us that much.

Noting that other public officials had spoken out sooner against the AIG bonuses, Henry asked: "Why did you wait days to come out and express that outrage. . . . Why did it take so long?"

Obama responded, "It took us a couple of days because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak." Then he turned briskly to the next question.

* * *

Clearly, the president preferred to turn the focus back to his economic plans. But I don't know that it was "very revealing," as Henry insisted on the CNN program "Anderson Cooper 360" later that night.

I called Donaldson and read him the CNN correspondent's musings. "To write about this as if he ought to be awarded the congressional Medal of Honor," chuckled the old ABC warrior, "well, I guess that is part of the new game."

Ann Compton, who has covered nine presidents over nearly 35 years at ABC, said "reporters who are on the beat for awhile learn that they don't want to be the story. They do not consider it a personal victory if they become a headline. They want the answer to be a headline and to focus on the person being interviewed."

* * *

"One thing we collectively don't do very well is listen to the answers a president gives our colleagues and really follow up on each other," Peter Baker of the New York Times recently told Politico.com. "It's easy for a president to remember the first, stock answer to a range of questions. But to go deeper, we should try more often to keep pushing on a topic by asking him to elaborate or explain what he's just said or point out contradictions."

Indeed. But that would require some reporters to play for the team, instead of dreaming about their next close-up.

/snip

The rest of the world saw Obama hand Henry his balls on a platter.

as the laughingstock that he made himself out to be.

...my PUB-DAR went off. He LOOKS like a tool.:thumbsdown:

"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)."

He is but one of many who work this way, premadonnas whose focus is to "MAKE news" at the very real expense of no longer REPORTING the news. The emperors, indeed, have no clothes.

The correspondents are not even trying to elicit a response. Rather, they are just trying to create and capitalize on a manufactured a-ha moment based on a mundane question. Ed Henry is just more obvious than most in trying to draw attention to himself.

Make him smell what we ALL know stinks like shit when he tries to pass his work off as "journalism".

Henry was being honest in his view of what his "job" was and is as it is for what passes for "journalism" these days whereas the rest of them are still hiding behind their very pathetic pretenses. Genuine questions have been replaced by "Gotcha" ones.

That he should not let the cat out of the bag that he is only trying to draw attention to himself, rather than gather news. While we know that he is an attention whore, to own up to it is pretty cheeky.

it actually goes way, way beyond that and Ms. Compton hinted at such.

For a professional, old school, shoe leather reporter, "becoming the story" is actually a total complete red-faced embarrassment.

Ed Henry is an embarrasment to the craft and profession of journalism. He's a TV personality. That is all.

Their role is to communicate what the Administrations is doing to the People and to inform the People of the correct view on issues. That is it.

We need to arrest a few of these fuckers to teach the rest a lesson.

of course he was too afraid to face the press.

He needs to go back to journalism class and get schooled.

edhenry or Prez Obama? edhenry is his own worst enema.

He knows what his real job is: to promote the "CNN brand" by any means necessary, thus selling more ad time. News be damned.