When a man jumped the White House fence on August 2nd and was taken down by the Secret Service, John King’s program was already broadcasting live from the location. King commented:
Now you see, if you are ever thinking about this, the inevitable result if you hop that fence. … One of the things we don’t like to do is give too much coverage to this – if it is a political stunt, it would encourage somebody else to do it. So we’re going to turn away from this for now and come back to our coverage. … You never know what happens if you come down here. But the Secret Service, as always, performing quickly and admirably to bring it to a close.
He later told Don Lemon:
We usually don’t give these things any coverage, Don, because political stunts can happen, people trying to make a political statement, who want to be on television, jump the fence. Because we were on live television, from the White House, what had happened – we did show it.
I’d phrase it as this incident shows what “journalism” is currently – when “political statements” from politicians get firsthand by the minute coverage, but “political statements” from the rest of us don’t get any coverage.
I love incompetent translation (or word variation) software. One of the spam comments on this post reads: “abode of the damned yes, i want write something like this except didnt have time, may i repost this John monarch Explains on what account He Is Not a Real Journalist.”
I’m going to have to start saying “abode of the damned yes” and “what the abode of the damned?”