Tag Archives: reporting

Carney Needs to Listen to Himself

BY B. JAY COOPER
Reprinted from BJayCooper.com

Jay Carney, White House press secretary is having, the worst of times.

With Benghazi talking points, IRS targeting right-wing groups and the Justice Department targeting AP reporters, ol’ Jay is getting LOTS of questions these days.
Politico put together what seems to be his standard answer to a question he doesn’t want to answer: “I appreciate the question.”

Having sat in the White House press office when the pressure hits, I have a good sense of what’s going on (even though the addition of 24/7 cable, the dimunition of the old get-it-right-first journalism and the pressure of the Internet didn’t exist back then and certainly has dramatically changed the dynamics). Still, there are principles for handling crisis that always come into play. For  example, don’t speak before you know the truth. Not always easy, I know. Continue reading →

Take a Listen

BY B. JAY COOPER
Reprinted from BJayCooper.com

Those who know me will tell you that I can be quite obnoxious when it comes to word usage. Use a word in a weird way  and I’ll do an annoying rant for hours. Let me be clear, I am not a grammarian. I am not good at punctuation (I once lost a promotion because I was told I didn’t know how to use commas.) But I do favor plain English and not bastardizing the language to puff myself up.

All that as background before I rail about “take a listen” which I hear nearly every time I turn on a newscast lately. Chuck Todd just said “take a listen” on NBC’s Nightly News as he introduced a piece. I think every reporter on CNN  Continue reading →