Current's Cenk Uygur expressed his displeasure with the newly revealed -- and very controversial -- practice of so-called "quote approval" between political reporters and top campaign officials in both the Obama and Romney camps.
The New York Times reported on Monday that it is now standard for senior officials to have veto power over any quotes that are attributed to them in an article, and that they sometimes edit and massage quotes until they are satisfied with them.
Reporters from many top media outlets -- including The Huffington Post, New York Times, Vanity Fair, Reuters and Bloomberg -- have allowed people such as Obama adviser David Plouffe and Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom to remove anything they might find unflattering. The journalists involved in the process say that, though they find the practice distasteful, it is often the only way to get the insiders into their newspapers.
Some commenters found this argument unpersuasive, and Uygur echoed their sentiments.
Calling it "outrageous," he said that the practice effectively turned reporters into "stenographers" and "PR flacks" for the campaigns.
"You're not breaking any news!" he said. "You're not the press!"
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