But I guess if moral is already on the floor it's hard to go any lower. Dear Mr. Welch, I'm writing to urge you to reconsider your decision to deny press credentials to NASA Watch. I find NASA Watch an essential source of information about NASA, space science and the space program. Though I read a variety of other publications which publish similar material, none have the focussed quality of NASA Watch. I find that five minutes with NASA Watch keeps me better informed than an hour browsing more general information sources.
Web publishing is a new paradigm for journalism.
There is no shortage of web journals like NASA Watch which cover a narrow slice of the news better than any of the standard print publications. NASA is well served by the coverage in NASA Watch, not in spite of the critical tone that NASA Watch sometimes presents, but because of it. We trust NASA Watch because it is an independent and, yes, critical voice. That critical tone means that we care enough about NASA and its mission to look deeply into the issues, to the point where reasonable men will inevitably disagree about goals and methods. Please grant NASA Watch press credentials.