Everybody does it. I wonder if self-admitted pothead Albert Gore, Jr. has ever bonded with a reporter over a shared joint. That might help explain the unit cohesion between the White House and the press corps. I guess he inhaled his marijuana. Unit cohesion is very far from being a dry subject that sociologists can quibble over.
Unit cohesion is what can make or break a military unit.
Units lacking in cohesion become bickering armed rabbles that frag their officers, commit atrocities, rape vill age women, abandon their wounded and lose their battles. On the other hand, military units bonded together have superior discipline, and they are more likely to withstand the stress of warfare, fight effectively, win their battles, and defend America's in terests. The blood winging fiasco has the U.S. military's top brass jumping through flaming mass media hoops like obedient circus animals. There is not to be heard anywhere, the voice of one admiral or one general possessing the courage and good sense to buck the political sensitivities of a feminized and amoral White House and tell all the frenzied media hyenas to shove it where the sun doesn't shine. Oh yes, the media deserves to shoulder part of the blame for its lurid muck-raking presentation of a story that wasn't even real news.