"I do not believe for a second that President Bush was openmouth and nonplussed and could not respond to Putin as the article was suggesting. This is why I am saying this story is fake and at best greatly over exxagereted."
Is this what you are questioning?
I can see Bush being stunned that Putin would ask such a ridiculous question.
Actually, here is a second thought.
This question and the topic in general may be for domestic russian consumption. Given the political history of the press in russia, it isn't a stretch to see that many russians might believe this, and it might be a tool to draw some similarities between bush and putin given putin's centralization of power. In this scenario, the disbelief western audiences show to this topic is irrelevant, it is a matter to be played out for internal propaganda.
I don't think any russian leader can be so mis-informed as to believe the US government can control the press on domestic political issues beyond a certain level.
Its definatley exagerrated.
You can see the clip, if you haven't seen on the news yet, just wait, I know some of the networks have shown it already.
I do know that a russian media reporter asked Bush about it again, later on, and he did give a well spoken answer, though he was definatley annoyed and had a nasty quip.