Prima Donna Protocol

The prancing prima donnas of the oh so very elite White House press corps are still carping about Nico Pitney getting that question at last week's presser. I watched this exchange on CNN between Dana Milbank and Nico and I got pissed off all over again myself. At the stenos of the elite media of course, not Nico. Nico is my new hero.



For the record, here's the question Nico asked on behalf of a resident Iranian who responded to his request for questions.

PITNEY: Yeah, I did, but I wanted to use this opportunity to ask you a question directly from an Iranian. We solicited questions last night from people who are still courageous enough to be communicating online, and one of them wanted to ask you this: Under which conditions would you accept the election of [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad? And if you do accept it without any significant changes in the conditions there, isn't that a betrayal of the -- of what the demonstrators there are working towards?

Contrast this to the questions posed by the "serious" press. "Eyerollers like, did you speak out on Iran because of Lindsay Graham and John McCain (CBS News's Chip Reid) or (Fox News's Major Garrett) What took you so long?" And of course the equally "serious" matter of Obama's smoking habit.

I don't know who the Village stenos think they're fooling but it's painfully apparent to anyone with two or more functioning brain cells that they're just jealous and moreover they're pissed because their "authority" is being challenged by both bloggers and the White House. They're not the gatekeepers anymore. They don't get to drive the narrative like they did before Blogtopia built its muscle.

As Matt put it, it comes down to simple "status anxiety among the special class of reporters who do things like attend White House press conferences." And besides, who engraved their precious protocol in stone anyway? It's their own invention, previously enforced under the threat of co-ordinated bad press. Their problem is, they don't rule the playground any more. And like any cowardly bully, as soon as the little guys push back, they run home crying.

[Via Atrios, who tells us that Dana whispered to Nico at the end of the segment, "You're such a dick."]

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