Photo-op aircraft landing. (Letters to the Editor).(Letter to the Editor)

I disagree with you about President Bush's photo-op landing on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln ("Photo-op Patriotism" by William Norman Grigg; June 2nd issue of TNA). Yes, it was staged, but no mare so than MacArthur's return to the Philippines, the second-flagraising on Mt. Suribachi, or Lincoln's train ride to dedicate the battlefield cemetery at Gettysburg. Moreover, all these events served a useful and legitimate objective: to rally and inspire soldiers and civilians in support of a cause. One may debate the righteousness of the cause, but insofar as the media offer a means to communicate widely with larger audiences, I see nothing wrong with these situations, and a lot which is right, both morally and in terms of effective public relations.

If you want to criticize misuse of the Oval Office, I suggest "press buyout" by the White House. At least since FDR, the presidency has gradually turned reporters from watchdogs into lapdogs. When President Clinton went to China, be brought along 350 reporters at a $10 million taxpayer expense -- the greatest number of reporters ever to travel with a president. News organizations should pay for their own travel rather than suck up junkets on public money.

Another example: the White House has for years had an annual Press Corps Dinner at which hundreds of reporters are boozed and schmoozed by the president. That is another waste of taxpayer money, and any reporter with integrity should spurn such an invitation. Instead, the networks send TV crews to cover the president and his family whenever they set foot aboard a plane or helicopter, as if climbing a set of stairs is a major news event. (It seemed the Clinton family went to Stair-climbing School because of their perfectly synchronized ascent to the door of Air Force One, at which point they would turn in unison and wave like they were an underwater ballet team.)

A final example: the nonevent in which a ...