Don't quote me on this

Jay Rosen has a good, informative post that discusses the ins and outs of the White House press corps' feeble attempt to make the Bush administration stand behind their own words. I'm no journalism professor, and I'm sure their are some instances when background briefings are appropriate, but this is ridiculous:

There is new imagery in [The NY Times article] too: a causal chain from readers fed up with anyonymous sourcing generally, to editors getting the message, and top editors pressing the bureaus, and bureau chiefs pressing reporters, who are supposed to plead with McClellan, and, now, finally, the bureau chiefs themselves meeting with the press secretary.

My take on this is 1) the Bush administration has done whatever it can to undermine the credibility of the press and this is yet another example, 2) BushCo doesn't have the balls to put their names next to their statements, and 3) the press is too scared of the administration to do anything about it. Not that you can blame them too much, McClellan might just replace the entire press corps with male prostitutes.