W, Cuba and the press

A couple interesting notes about the current administration and how it treats the press:

Dan Froomkin, in his Washington Post White House Briefing yesterday, addresses the president's comments to the press at the ceremony announcing the closing of the White House Briefing Room for renovations. A close read of the transcript shows the president making jokes that were not very well received and show how he thinks of journalists. Transcript and video available here too. Example:

when former ABC White House correspondent Sam Donaldson, famous for shouting out important questions to Ronald Reagan, asked Bush an idiotic one -- "Mr. President, should Mel Gibson be forgiven?" -- Bush responded: "Is that Sam Donaldson? Forget it. You're a has-been. We don't have to answer has-been's questions."

John Ettore, whose blog I linked yesterday, notes how two-faced the White House can be, as they bring out the Cuban-American Secretary of Commerce to claim their support of a free press in Cuba. Ettore:

You would think this fellow worked for a media-friendly organization, not a presidency that has tried just about everything to undermine serious media.

Speaking of the press and Cuba, Greenslade has a reaction to the current story about foreign journalists not being allowed in Cuba: so what? It happens all the time, everywhere:

Try and get into the United States as a working journalist on a tourist visa. It's impossible. You probably wouldn't even get on to the US-bound plane in such circumstances.

(Added later:) More from Editor & Publisher magazine; and a Toronto Star reporter reports on his bad experience in Havana. Then there's Babalu's take....