I'm sorry, but this just smacks of Soviet-style 'Ministry of Information' tactics that will sanitize the reports rather than calling for honesty in the media. Not good.
Naw. The present generation of journalists are simply idiots. How would you like everything you say filtered through an I-pod connected doofus?
Its called knowing the enemy.
Nevermind that the media does that on their own. Filtering of information that is. Take here in the States for example. For all we know, Iraq is going to hell in a handbasket, when in reality, it's not, and the media bitches they can't move about freely, when they're embedded with the fricken enemy of freedom and democracy.
The cabinet hashes out its differences in cabinet meetings, the content of which are secret, and then presents a united front to parliament and the public. The principle voice of the cabinet is the Prime Minister ("first among equals"). Under this system the press has no right to advance notice of cabinet meetings and the government has no obligation to submit ministers to scrums following cabinet meetings.
Parliament still gets its crack at the ministers and the press still gets to scrum them. In this system, the government benches face the opposition benches across an aisle designed to be two sword-lengths wide and the cabinet is confronted in an ancient practice called Question Period. At the start of each day's business, the opposition has an opportunity to ask questions of the government. The opposition uses question period to score points, to bring out issues and to generally harass and embarrass the cabinet ministers.
Unlike the Congressional system, the cabinet is part of the legislature and is therefore continuously subject to the cut and thrust of parliamentary debate.
The press scrums the members of parliament in daily scrums in the hall just outside the House chamber. The press focuses on the Ministers and on their opposite numbers in the opposition parties shadow cabinets. The scrums are sometimes rough-and-tumble.
There is a definite difference between a cabinet meeting and a caucus meeting. The doctrine of cabinet secrecy does not apply to caucus meetings.
The so called "tradition" of post-cabinet-meeting scrums is a recent Liberal party device between it and a tame media.
Anyway, the press has an obligation to do its own fact gathering, not merely rely on press releases and scrums.
BTW Yanks might find Hansard to be enlightening. (This is the parliamentary equivalent of the Congressional Record.)Debates of the House of Commons are not in the gentlemanly courteous style of Congress. They are neither as courtly nor as polite as we are accustomed to seeing in US Senate debates.
It is not for nothing that the opposition benches and the government benches directly face each other and it is not for nothing that the aisle is traditionally two sword-lengths wide and that the second most numerous party in the House is called "Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition". Opposition is essential to a parliamentary system, the system depends on it. Trent Lott and John McCain style "bipartisanship" is foreign to the system.
I'd agree with you if the press was fair and balanced. The PM is simply telling his aides not to consort with the enemy - and they are that - without prior approval. It's a reasonable strategy to adopt when at war.
"I'm sorry, but this just smacks of Soviet-style 'Ministry of Information' tactics that will sanitize the reports rather than calling for honesty in the media. Not good."
nonsense. It may 'smack' of something but that doesnt make it remotely comparable.
Every organization in a free media society has a press office and media contact channels, with SOP as to how member interact with those media channels, and organization statements are channelled through that office. This is true for the Red Cross, Fortune 500 companies, US Democratic Senate Caucus, The White House, the RNC, etc. This is bog-standard press management, and to suggest otherwise is absurd.
This criticism of yours is utter nonsense. The leftie media is freaking out and over-reacting because they know Harper is on to some of their tricks and is shutting them down.