Bush's Disdain For The News Media Puzzles, Angers Many Journalists

USA Today ^ | 12-22-2003 | Peter Johnson

[Hillary's Lovely Legs]

Lyndon Johnson got so angry watching Walter Cronkite's CBS Evening News that he'd call during the broadcast and demand to speak to the anchor right then, while Cronkite was on the air.

In person, Johnson would get right in Cronkite's face, sometimes lifting up The Most Trusted Man in America by his lapels.

"He was a strong man," says Cronkite, 87. "I was sure my suits would give way before he did."

Today, President Bush's relations with the media are no less tense than Johnson's were during Vietnam, Richard Nixon's during Watergate and Bill Clinton's throughout Whitewater and the Monica Lewinsky affair.

But unlike his predecessors, analysts say, Bush openly brags about not reading newspapers, watching TV news or TV newsmagazines - dismissing the news media as unworthy of his time.

"I get my news from people who don't editorialize," Bush told ABC's Diane Sawyer last week. "They give me the actual news, and it makes it easier to digest, on a daily basis, the facts."

"It's the old MBA thing: 'Give me the five points, the nut graph,' " says veteran CBS White House correspondent Bill Plante. He says this is one of the most secretive administrations ever - highly distrustful of the media.

Bush's wife, Laura, told Sawyer she read newspapers and columnists and tells her husband what they are saying.

CBS White House correspondent Mark Knoller says that getting the news from his wife or aides seems to work for Bush. "We very rarely catch him unaware of something in the way that we used to catch Ronald Reagan. He is a very well-informed president."

And a deliberate one. Questioned at a recent press conference about a critical New York Times editorial about Vice President Cheney, Bush dismissed that influential editorial page, saying he never read it. And at last week's ceremonies honoring the Wright brothers' first flight, Bush took a dig at the Times, noting that it opined after the first flight that man was not destined to fly. "He enjoyed that a lot," Knoller says. The Times had no comment.

Bush may in part be playing to people who have distrusted the media ever since the Watergate days, when Vice President Spiro Agnew railed against the media's "nattering nabobs of negativity."

Cronkite thinks Bush may be exaggerating how little attention he pays to the media. "It's a defensive move. It must be very hard to have every move you make put under the microscope."

But that goes with the job and "it's difficult to understand why a president who spends so much time promoting the virtues of democracy would want to insulate himself from one of democracy's most important institutions, namely, a free and independent press," says Stanford University journalism professor Ted Glasser.

"One of the great ways to learn about America is by reading a newspaper on your own, whether it's the letters to the editors or anything else," says Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. "It makes you wonder if the only people he is talking to are people who work for him or agree with him and whether everything he sees about America he learns through them or through the window of a motorcade. One of the few ways to not do that is to read a newspaper or watch TV."

Says Playboy editor James Kaminsky: "It's appalling to think that the man who runs the country somehow finds time for a long gym workout each day, but can't muster up the intellectual curiosity to peruse the newspaper. Is it laziness, arrogance or a willful combination of the two? Does the president really need a human filter to deliver only news the White House staff thinks he wants to hear? Do gossip items sometimes get thrown into the daily 'readings'? How about the funnies? How hard is it to watch the damn TV news, even while working out?"

[driftless]

They're just upset because Bush doesn't read their drivel. Their little egos have been hurt the poor things.(yuk,yuk)

[arasina]

Perfect! LOL!

[leprechaun9]

""One of the great ways to learn about America is by reading a newspaper on your own, whether it's the letters to the editors or anything else," says Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

On this point, I side with Thomas Jefferson, "A man who reads nothing is better educated than a man who reads nothing but newspapers."

[dix]

Dubya is turning the libs every way, but loose. The man has flat out got them nailed.

[Tabi Katz]

But he pulls this Ike stuff to make the press think he's just a dummy.

I thought exposure to the mainstream media was what made someone a dummy.

[Burkeman1]

No media is unbiased. There is no such thing as unbiased journalists. That is laughable. I have long accepted that most Network news programs have a left of center bias as do most major papers. But it hardly means that they don't do some good reporting despite their tilt. You can be a good journalist and be left wing. You can be a good journalist and be right wing. What I would appreciate at least- is that they admit their political leanings openly instead of denying that they have any.

[suzyq5558]

What I would appreciate at least- is that they admit their political leanings openly instead of denying that they have any.
I too would be more open to watching if they declared where they stood.

We all have biases to say we do not is to not face reality,this what i fault most with journalist's.and that insults my intelligence.

[Trust but Verify]

"One of the great ways to learn about America is by reading a newspaper on your own, whether it's the letters to the editors or anything else," says Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

This guy has been getting too much press lately. He was one of the 'journalists' who was so offended by Bush keeping the secret about the trip to Baghdad. Wahhh... Baby.

On a personal note, I learned a little something this morning about our local liberal rag, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. We were caught in the middle of a high-speed police pursuit in Milwaukee yesterday in which officers from 4 jurisdictions were trying to apprehend a driver who had committed several hit-and-runs and was eluding police by smashing through fences and driving erratically and fast during rush-hour traffic. At one point, LEO thought they had him stopped and as an officer approached the vehicle, he accelrated towards a deputy, who fired three shots at the large white van. Here's the headline from this morning's paper:

Deputy fire shots at unarmed motorist.

You can't make this stuff up!

[e_engineer]

When you are the President of the United States of America and privy to early morning threat assessments from the most respected Intelligence Agencies in the world as well as updates from his political and Domestic advisor's second to none, The mainstream media maggots are just annoying ankle biters who deserve scorn and patronizing at most

That's also true for anyone who reads FR.

As Lancey Howard stated in post 27: "Anything in the news that is important always ends up right here on Free Republic, complete with all the corrections of fact, analysis of spin, background and agenda of the source and the author, and cross-references with any number of other news sources. You simply do not get that anywhere else."

[Snuffington]

Money paragraph here. It has the full-blown self-importance of the old media, delivered with anger and scorn by a proud pornographer. And the media left wonders why America thinks they're out of touch, instead of Bush.

Wow!!! I've just had my comment swiped almost verbatim by Rush! Does anyone have a transcript so we can put Rush's comments side by side? This was WAY to close to be accidental. Rush was definitely perusing FR.

You're welcome for the show prep, El Rushbo.

[an amused spectator]

But that goes with the job and "it's difficult to understand why a president who spends so much time promoting the virtues of democracy would want to insulate himself from one of democracy's most important institutions, namely, a free and independent press," says Stanford University journalism professor Ted Glasser.

We Merkuns got to get us one of those. ;-)

[Coleus]

Great post, the press must be seething. Their news is biased and worthless and now the whole world knows it.

[Ghengis]

Says Playboy editor James Kaminsky: "It's appalling to think that the man who runs the country somehow finds time for a long gym workout each day, but can't muster up the intellectual curiosity to peruse the newspaper. Is it laziness, arrogance or a willful combination of the two? Does the president really need a human filter to deliver only news the White House staff thinks he wants to hear? Do gossip items sometimes get thrown into the daily 'readings'? How about the funnies? How hard is it to watch the damn TV news, even while working out?"

Some folks don't like being told, "You're beneath me. You're irrelevant to me."

When I read Kaminsky's response, it reminds me how much of a collective tightass society the left has become. They used to be the free and easy, no rules, who cares folks. Now they're setting up rules and paradigms faster than they can remember them.

[maui_hawaii]

Disdain For The News Media

This guy has to be kidding.

When I was in college I had the unfortunate experience of meeting some pretty horrid girls.

They were the biggest liars, back stabbers, trash talkers, two faced, mean people one could ever hope for.

They were seriously unforgiving and hateful. They sought to degrade others or catch them in something all the time. And talk about gossiping (and believing gossip...)

And they wondered why we weren't and still aren't friends.

I say good riddance. I wish I had never met any of them.

[reg45]

So what does the New York Times have that the President's Daily Brief doesn't?

Jayson Blair!