Bury Me Broken

President Bush finally starts talking to reporters

From the Washington Post op/ed (subscription required):

ONE OF THE unattractive distinctions of President Bush's first term was his inaccessibility to reporters. Through his reelection last November, Mr. Bush met the press for full-scale, solo news conferences just 15 times... White House officials argued that Mr. Bush disdained the formal news conference, with its self-promoting reporters and "gotcha" mentality, and they said he was available to reporters in other venues, answering news-of-the-day questions in quick encounters or holding mini-news conferences. But these are inadequate, watered-down alternatives -- Question Time Lite -- and in any event these sessions, too, were often scarce.

We write, though, not to criticize Mr. Bush's performance during his first term but to praise that of his second. Yesterday the president held his seventh news conference in as many months (and that doesn't count a session with newspaper editors in April at which Mr. Bush answered questions).

I agree with the praise that WaPo gives the president for having these press conferences. It doesn't matter whether he is meeting wth the press becausehe doesn't have to worry about re-election or that his policies are failing and he needs to do a lot of damage control. The problem however is the dance that is played such that pertinent questions which should be posed, questions that American citizens without the love affair with the leader, questions Americans that travel abroad or want a sound foreign policy to protect our nation, those questions don't get asked.

posted by niteskolar @ 10:35 AM