At the White House

It was Sept. 9, 2009. Accompanied by Bill Clinton, Barack Obama had gone to the Lincoln Center in New York to speak at a memorial service for Walter Cronkite, the great American journalist who had died two months earlier. On this occasion, the president of the United States made a speech that deserves to be framed and hung on the walls of every newsroom.

“We know that this is a difficult time for journalism. Even as appetites for news and information grow, newsrooms are closing. Despite the big stories of our era, serious journalists find themselves all too often without a beat. … And too often, we fill that void with instant commentary and celebrity gossip and the softer stories that Walter disdained, rather than the hard news and investigative journalism he championed. … The public debate cheapens. The public trust falters. We fail to understand our world or one another as well as we should — and that has real consequences in our own lives and in the life of our nation.”

An excerpt of this speech is shown at the end of “Full Access?,” Laurence Haim’s remarkable documentary airing on [the French television channel] Canal+ on Friday, Jan. 15. A member of the White House press corps, Haim followed the American president’s every move during the first year of his administration. In this documentary, we learn about the enormous communications machinery surrounding Barack Obama, the “invisible wall” separating the presidential staff from the White House press corps. As Graydon Carter, editor of the monthly magazine Vanity Fair, emphasizes, the situation is paradoxical. The president grants a huge number of interviews, “too many,” Graydon says, but at the same time, even the briefest of discussions take place behind closed doors. Many journalists participated in this documentary: White House correspondents like Chuck Todd of NBC News, CNN’s Ed Henry and even the extraordinary Helen Thomas, now 89 years old, who has covered all the presidents since Kennedy. There are “stars” like Dan Rather of CBS News* and Jim Hoagland of the Washington Post, as well as representatives of the new media like Bill Nichols, managing editor of the web site politico.com. Each, in his own way, acknowledges Obama’s skill as a communicator, but they are disappointed that he has not implemented the “transparency” he promised during his campaign.

The result is a gripping documentary. The major networks offer nearly continuous coverage of the president’s activities. Chuck Todd does fifteen live reports for NBC’s news channel (“I barely have time to go to the bathroom and call my kids.”**) and gets as many as 3,000 e-mails a day on his BlackBerry. But the live reports only let us see and hear news routinely filtered by the president’s staff.

It’s something to think about. Meanwhile, we’re hoping to see another documentary some day, this time about the working conditions of the press corps at the Élysée Palace [the French presidential residence].

Translator’s Notes:

* Dan Rather is no longer with CBS.

** Quote could not be verified.