Eddie Scarry of the Washington Examiner notes with amusement the mainstream media’s response to Donald Trump’s process for selecting top staffers.
For all the transparency in government that the national media say they want, it’s a curiosity that they suddenly seem to need so much less of it.
It’s been a show to watch Donald Trump openly deliberate about who he’s going to pick to fill out his cabinet, having high-profile politicians and personalities come in and out of Trump Tower to meet with the president-elect.
The public has so often had to rely on reports of rumors and considerations as these matters in the past were typically done in private and at a distance further than in one of New York City’s most famous buildings.
Now there’s a near 24-hour stream of live video out of Trump’s HQ, where reporters are close enough to ask questions of the big-name guests and cabinet contenders as they come and go.
So much access is what a reporter’s dreams are made of.
But for the national media, Trump’s method of letting this play out in front of cameras has been an affront to tradition and the seriousness of the process.
It’s “unprecedented.”
In the most concerned voice she could muster, NBC’s Katy Tur said last week that “this is a serious break from tradition about how you take these cabinet positions and how you fill them.”
She said things are normally done “behind the scenes” — We love when government decisions are secretive! — and that Trump was “treating this” process “like one of his reality shows” by “parading in and out of Trump tower and keeping people in suspense.”
