Politics Running The Newsroom?

Shouted ideas, shuffled papers, the occasional hah! moment, and now political approval? The defenders of the press are being challenged by politicians to obtain the final verdict on stories that contain quotes or attributions from officials.

With the increasing speed of information, introduced by the Internet through social media such as Facebook and Twitter, officials would like more control over the spread of information.

Both the Obama  and Romney campaign mandate quote approval for any interview before sent to production. Following in the two presidential candidates footsteps, other government officials are helping to make quote approval the norm. Most news organizations like New York Times and Vanity Fair agree to conditional interviews.

Approval requests prove to challenge newsrooms as they can hinder or completely reshape a story. Despite these conditions, journalists will not back down to the limitations.

“We don’t like the practice. We encourage our reporters to push back. Unfortunately this practice is becoming increasingly common, and maybe we have to push back harder,” Dean Baquet, managing editor for news at The New York Times said to the New York Times.

For more on these challenges in the newsroom check out the NYT coverage.