Ms. Woellert:

Frankly, it sounds to me as if you are penalizing David Sirota for being more honest than his counterparts on the right. For instance, no rational human being could pretend that Sirota works more to achieve progressive goals than, say, O’Beirne does to achieve … well, regressive goals. And no rational human being could pretend that a majority of the journalists who write about politics haven’t tried to influence Congress. That’s “wink-wink, nod-nod” disingenuousness.

I’m not sure I understand why it matters whether Sirota is working freelance rather than on commission. And I don’t understand the distinction between working on a book and working on an article. How many books comprise collections of more or less edited articles? That distinction seems equally disingenuous.

I would urge that you be guided by common sense and fairness. Of course Sirota is an activist as well as a journalist. So was Edward R. Murrow; so was/is William Buckley; so was/is Bill Moyers—and so are a lot of the persons to whom you have given passes for this event.

Sincerely,

If Mr. Sirota doesn’t qualify for a press pass, why should he receive one?

Mr. Sirota engages in bona fide acts of journalism. Fred Barnes and other examples identified above, abandoned any pretext of committing journalism years ago.

I do not advocate revoking press credentials for those who do not bother using their congressional passes for journalistic pursuits.

However, it is a democratic and 1st Amendment obscenity that people such as Mr. Sirota who are deserving of a congressional press pass due to their legitimate journalistic pursuits, are arbitrarily denied press access. This is especially true in light of the fact that the press gallery has for years credentialed disassembling propagandist who despise journalism and actively choose to never in engage in journalism. People (once again Fred Barnes and others noted above) are paid NOT to report, but to distort. They are on the payroll of the behind-the-scenes entities whose agenda is to do everything possible to insure that the typical American news consumer is unable to understand – or completely misled – about what congress is actually doing.

It is really snowing today — FINALLY!
kfl

Army Times Publishing Co. 50
Aviation Week 26
BNA News 166
*Business Week 18
Chronicle of Higher Education 43
Education Week 29
FDC Reports 42
Inside Washington Publishers 58
Kiplinger Washington Editors 29
McGraw-Hill Company 54
National Journal 48
Newsweek 22
Roll Call 28
Tax Notes 45
The Hill 26
Thompson Publishing Group 38
Time Magazine 25
U. S. News & World Report 27
UCG 22

http://periodical.house.gov/index.shtml

These are brief descriptions drawn from their websites:

BNA reports on information and analysis products for professionals in law, tax, business, and government.

FDC Reports for pharmaceutical and healthcare executives, policymakers, and analysts reporting on developments affecting regulation and marketing of healthcare products and services.

Inside Washington Publishers behind-the-scenes coverage of the federal policy process for professionals in Washington, across the United States, and around the world, etc.

Thompson Publishing Group reports on compliance information for professionals in business and government

UCG: unknown

As prostratedragon notes from the Press Gallery site:

All gallery members are prohibited from lobbying the government, being employed by the government, or providing clients with consulting or public relations services. No part of your publishing family or parent organization may be involved in providing representation services, feasibility or marketing studies, nor be engaged in research or analysis not available to all subscribers. Gallery members must be principally engaged in the gathering and reporting of news.

However if you use Time and Newsweek as benchmarks, it quickly becomes obvious that some fairly obscure publications have a very major presence in the Gallery with consequent influence over it. Probably just a coincidence how many of them deal with taxes and regulation.

Bottomline: There is something pretty odd about the makeup of the Press Gallery and if it isn’t made up of lobbyists, it sure isn’t doing much not to look like it is.

What is Lorraine W’s email? It’s not easy to find!

Lorraine_Woellert@businessweek.com

President Bush is right: Americans deserve gratitude for cutting Iraqis’ energy consumption and tackling their overpopulation problem.

Imagine the irony when the same outcome (lower energy use, etc.) takes place in the US due to economic pessimism aka recession. Watch the tech sector take back all its recent gains over the next few months.

“conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy”

Will the market “discount” Dick?

Eureka Springs if you’re still around you have mail.

You are a peach. Just sent a reply.

Would be great if all the press-passes were reviewed for strict conformance w/ the published standards, and that the more obvious wrong’uns (at least) were weeded out.

My personal philosophy in general, and preference is for more inclusion, less exclusion. If we could send people to the moon, we should be able to build more Gallery space . . .

OH wait – it did work! But for your eyes – not mine at first. Dah!!! Thanks so much. By the way, emptywheel’s piece on the Libby trial is terrific.

Yes!!! It did work!!!! TADA!!!!