Political press

Re David Shaw’s “Administration Adept at Keeping Journalists at Bay,” Feb. 15: While politicians are generally ambivalent about the media, candor in acknowledging that the media is held in “minimum high regard” (to use the Washington cliche) is provocative and stupid.

Indeed, we have elaborate events like the White House correspondents dinner dedicated to the fantasy that we’re all friends. Obviously we’re not. But that’s one price politicians pay for getting a marginal advantage. Those who play it the other way, as the White House does, will be at a marginal disadvantage. They may think they’re smart enough to win without the press (think Reagan in 1984), but they’re taking an unneeded risk.

Also, if you don’t provide fodder for the press, albeit at minor risk, they’ll graze elsewhere. I’d argue that the current revival of interest in Bush’s National Guard service is at least partially because the press is seeking White House-related issues in the absence of White House cooperation. There are a lot of smart, hard-working journalists who need something to fill their time. If the White House fails to provide it -- as it has recently -- it runs the risk that they’ll find other, more dangerous issues to explore.

Jim Jaffe

Washington