White House reporter syndrome? Aw, poor babies!

Who knew that the talking hairdos in the White House press corps were all stressed out?

Many reporters said they are mindful they are up against a White House that holds them in low regard. They point to a revealing article in The New Yorker from Jan. 19, 2004, in which Karl Rove, the president's closest adviser, told Ken Auletta, the author, that Mr. Bush saw the press as "elitist."

I think of them more as the east ends of horses heading west, myself.

Mr. Auletta concluded that "perhaps for the first time," the White House had come to view reporters as special pleaders, as if they were just another interest group and one that was "not nearly as powerful as it once was."

Ya think?

But here's the good stuff:

Renana Brooks, a clinical psychologist practicing in Washington who said she had counseled several White House correspondents, said the last few years had given rise to "White House reporter syndrome," in which competitive high achievers feel restricted and controlled and become emotionally isolated from others who are not steeped in the same experience.

She said the syndrome was evident in the Cheney case, which she described as an inconsequential event that produced an outsize feeding frenzy. She said some reporters used the occasion to compensate for not having pressed harder before the Iraq war.

"It's like any post-traumatic stress," she said, "like when someone dies and you think you could have saved them."

Gosh! I thought they were just in love with the sound of their own voices as they beat their chests for their favorite leftoid causes. Turns out they are really frustated "high achievers!" I would have classified them as excessively verbal low achievers, but I digress.

The best part is when they occasionally catch a passing clue:

White House reporters say they know the public hates them because they regularly receive abusive e-mail messages and read blogs that tell them so.
...
While the eruption from the White House press finally forced the vice president to discuss his accident on national television, he deftly portrayed the hubbub as a result of jealousy that a small paper in Texas was given the news first; reporters said they were upset because their questions were not being answered.

The message many perceived in Mr. Cheney's response was that the national media were no longer relevant, a point made and reinforced almost daily in certain blogs.

I think I'm going to need three hankies for this one. Those nasty bloggers are picking on the highly paid pressitutes again! Which reminds me - anyone seen Dan Rather lately?

More by following the link, but it's the NY Times so bring your salt shaker.