Too Many Cameras Better Than None

The White House, a day after cameramen boycotted President Bush’s photo opportunities, quit trying today to restrict television news coverage to one network on a rotating basis.

Referring to the effect of the new rules on independent television outlets, White House Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater said, “It hurts the little guys. . . . It isn’t worth it.”

In protest of the plan announced Wednesday, the networks ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN declined to cover two presidential events at the White House.

Bush, for his part, hailed the return of the cameras to a photo opportunity today. “Welcome back, gang. It’s been very lonely without you fellows,” he said.

Fitzwater said the plan had been “experimental” and was started at the suggestion of network executives in New York to reduce the growing number of cameras in the Oval Office, Cabinet Room and Roosevelt Room. But he acknowledged the networks’ Washington bureau chiefs opposed the plan.

The White House proposed letting one network record news events for the others on a rotating basis each day. Two cameras would have been allowed in the room.

Fitzwater said he later learned the plan would “put the independents at a disadvantage since they did not have the technology” to provide all the other networks with film.