Introducing "Nevin McNevin" and "Washington Fresco"

Today marks a milestone in Chickaboomer history.  I have the pleasure of introducing you to "Nevin McNevin" - Chickaboomer's first contributor with "Washington Fresco."  

"Nevin" is the nom de plume of a prominent Washington, DC broadcast journalist who prefers to not jeopardize a successful career.  The well-plugged in "Nevin" dumps all the inside stuff he/she/it can't officially report with under-the-transom titillation that would get "Nevin" dumped big time.  Veteran WH press corps Nevin is cut from the same political cloth as the lion's share of the Mainstream Media.

The only place you can peer under Nevin's kilt is on Chickaboomer:

White House to cable ratings-leader Fox News: “Yo Fox News, I’m really happy for you and I’m ‘o’ let you finish. But Brian Williams had the best bow to me of all time. And now all the other networks are bowing to me all the time!”

What’s up with the Fox News bashing? Could it be the Obama team is so young and inexperienced that they think they can operate the White House message machine like their generation text-messages: raw, thoughtless, dripping with bad manners and no respect for consequences?

From the outset, the Obama press operation has demonstrated there will be a maximum of access for outlets that curry a maximum of favor. One network producer claims to have seen an Obama Press Office log of stories, tilt, and networks, and claims to have been told that access to the President would be gauged by such measures.

The question becomes: not just where does that leave Fox? The question is where does that leave all journalists who practice the craft of questioning and reporting, with factual and contextual accuracy, rejecting advocacy, despite the clear willingness of the Obama Administration to vilify those who stray from the President’s ongoing campaign message.

David Axelrod should know better. He used to cover politics for the Chicago Tribune. But here’s what he said about Fox News on ABC’s “This Week.” "It’s really not news — it’s pushing a point of view. And the bigger thing is that other news organizations like yours ought not to treat them that way, and we’re not going to treat them that way.”

Speaking to “Politico,” Tom DeFrank, veteran of eight administrations and current New York Daily News Washington bureau chief said, “I can never remember a White House urging news organizations to boycott other news organizations. That strikes me as unprecedented.”

In the face of this assault, at Fox News, the ratings are thriving. But, for journalists at large, waking up every day and wondering if they’ll get cut in the next round of their company’s lay-offs and dependent on big important sources like Barack Obama, the picture is bleak.

And it’s too bad. Because -- with the war heating up in Afghanistan, Iran’s finger on its nuclear trigger, the descent of the dollar’s value around the world, the government spending money like there’s no tomorrow, rising unemployment, and no good details about health care reform and what interest groups win -- people need good, clear, non-advocacy information now more than ever.