The government should not be in the business of telling the press what to cover. Individuals and businesses, sure. Government, no. I understand there are occasional exceptions due to national security, but those requests come from the highest levels of government and are rare. This is some asshole at the TSA calling up reporters to spread FUD. Completely indefensible.
Well I work in the press and the government can say what they want. It's wrong for the press to obey the government's every wish and it is wrong for the press to immediately ignore the government's every opinion. If a NASA PR person tells me that the agency has determined the Earth to be round that doesn't mean that I need to launch an investigation into the possible flatness of the earth.
There's a difference between "telling/informing" and mandating. The latter is bad; the former is...well, part of a government's job is to disseminate information.
