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DRUDGE: Putin Grills Bush on Dan Rather
Drudge Report ^
| Sun Feb 27 2005
| Matt Drudge
Posted on 02/27/2005 1:37:05 PM PST by West Coast Conservative
George Bush knew Vladimir Putin would be defensive when Bush brought up the pace of democratic reform in Russia in their private meeting at the end of Bush's four-day, three-city tour of Europe. But when Bush talked about the Kremlin's crackdown on the media and explained that democracies require a free press, the Russian leader gave a rebuttal that left the President nonplussed, TIME magazine will report on Monday.
If the press was so free in the U.S., Putin asked, then why had those reporters at CBS lost their jobs? Bush was openmouthed. "Putin thought we'd fired Dan Rather," says a senior Administration official. "It was like something out of 1984."
TIME's John Dickerson: The Russians did not let the matter drop. Later, during the leaders' joint press conference, one of the questioners Putin called on asked Bush about the very same firings, a coincidence the White House assumed had been orchestrated. The odd episode reinforced the Administration's view that Putin's impressions of America are often based on urban myths fed to him by ill-informed aides.
Developing...
TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Political Humor/Cartoons; Politics/Elections; Russia
KEYWORDS: bratislava; bush; bush43; cbs; cbsnews; euvisit; fakedocuments; freedomofthepress; putin; rather; rathergate; russia
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To: West Coast Conservative
That's not just wierd,
it's scary.
2
posted on
02/27/2005 1:38:32 PM PST
by
billorites
(freepo ergo sum)
To: West Coast Conservative
this is too bizarre to be made up, i guess. Putin must think bush is really a pushover to have taken this long simply fire a few folks, without any arrests for forging government documents.
Comment #4 Removed by Moderator
To: West Coast Conservative
Does this mean that Dan Blather is a KGB operative?
To: West Coast Conservative
Putin was confused...CBS has so many embedded "journalist" from Pravda, he thought all of their reporters served at the whim of the government.
6
posted on
02/27/2005 1:40:09 PM PST
by
Drango
(Freepmail me to get on/off the *NPR/PBS* ping list)
To: West Coast Conservative
Hasn't anybody brought the Russians up to speed on Bloggers?
They are so last year.
7
posted on
02/27/2005 1:40:14 PM PST
by
Noachian
(We're all one judge away from tyranny.)
To: West Coast Conservative
I thought we got Dan Rather fired!
8
posted on
02/27/2005 1:40:50 PM PST
by
billorites
(freepo ergo sum)
To: West Coast Conservative
One can only assume that a country that has always been steeped in misinformation would have a hard time distinguishing between truth and lies.
To: West Coast Conservative
More interesting will be to see how the MSM handles this.
10
posted on
02/27/2005 1:41:07 PM PST
by
Breyean
To: West Coast Conservative
Did bush rebut him? If not he's just an idiot.
To: West Coast Conservative
Is this real or it is a joke?
If this is true, this moron Putin must understand that the White House did not fire Rather, but CBS let him go so they save their ratings.
Anyway, I do not believe this story at all of what Putin told President Bush, it is too dramatic and too dumb to be true. Another lie created by a delusional left wing liberal media.
12
posted on
02/27/2005 1:42:31 PM PST
by
jveritas
To: West Coast Conservative
And this guy has his finger on the button. Scary.
13
posted on
02/27/2005 1:42:31 PM PST
by
finnman69
(cum puella incedit minore medio corpore sub quo manifestus globus, inflammare animos)
To: West Coast Conservative
In Putin's world, all reporters tell the lies they have been instructed by government to "report" as news; he simply doesn't have a frame of reference since the Russian press is merely an extension of the government propaganda ministry. Rather was not fired because Bush ordered it; he was fired because he was caught by the people telling a deliberate lie.
14
posted on
02/27/2005 1:42:40 PM PST
by
45Auto
(Big holes are (almost) always better.)
To: jveritas
Its real. I saw clip on FNS.
15
posted on
02/27/2005 1:43:14 PM PST
by
marajade
To: West Coast Conservative
This is too good to be true.
Maybe ;)
16
posted on
02/27/2005 1:43:37 PM PST
by
SE Mom
(God Bless our troops.)
To: West Coast Conservative
I guess he just assumed the American government controlled their media just like he does.
To: billorites
Frank Gannon's sleepover friends got Rather fired...? ;)
18
posted on
02/27/2005 1:44:13 PM PST
by
Darkwolf377
(Condi Rice: Yeaaahhh, baybee! http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1350654/posts)
To: Drango; maica; ColdSpringGirl
Putin was confused...CBS has so many embedded "journalist" from Pravda, he thought all of their reporters served at the whim of the government. no bias in our MSM...only enough to have a former KGP leader think our govt. controls our media!
To: bahblahbah
And since that has been disproven time and time again, you can be sure that he (and his aides) corrected the record.
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