Posted on October 14, 2010

White House Meeting for Black Journalists Doesn’t Stay Off-the-Record for Long

Jeremy W. Peters, New York Times, October 13, 2010

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A group of black bloggers and journalists from outlets like Essence and BET were invited to the White House on Monday for a half-day of policy briefings by the president’s advisers. The White House provided the journalists with an agenda that spelled out the ground rules: the first half of their briefings was to be on background, meaning they could report any information they learned but not attribute it to any specific official; the second half was off the record entirely.

Still, that did not stop bloggers from writing about the event and, in one case, posting a video of the president’s remarks to the group.

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The black blogosphere, he added, was a crucial medium through which the White House could covey its message and get feedback from the black community.

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Jack and Jill Politics [a blog that has “a black bourgeoisie perspective”] also wrote about the feeling among some who attended Monday’s gathering that they were being used for political expediency. “We essentially told the White House that we are not willing to be ‘pimped,'” the blog said{snip}

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