New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Frank Bruni asks "Who needs reporters?"

Who Needs Reporters?  (The New York Times, 6/1/2013)

Excerpt:    For her big announcement last week, Michele Bachmann neither convened a news conference nor waited for some other moment when she was in public, reporters and television cameras nearby. She didn’t even pick a favorably inclined journalist for the kind of one-on-one interview in which politicians have often parceled out their revelations and answered a few tame questions.

She went for something less extemporaneous than any of that, packaging the declaration that she wouldn’t seek a fifth Congressional term in a lacquered online video. It could easily have been mistaken for a campaign ad, with lighting that flattered her, music to her liking and a script that she could read in as many takes as she desired. There was no risk of stammer or flop sweat, no possibility of interruption from reporters itching to challenge her self-aggrandizing version of events. Weird, no? 

Well, no. 

Anthony Weiner had taken the same controlled and controlling approach a week earlier with the announcement of his mayoral bid.