Doc Mercer
EOG Master
For most of his five years in office, President Bush has acted as though the media were merely a cross to be borne, a needless impediment to his goals.
Whenever he could, the president went over the heads of the White House press corps to reach the masses beyond. Bush, who famously said he doesn't read newspapers -- and whose aversion to detailed questions is palpable -- has held only a fraction of the press conferences that his voluble predecessor did. Instead, he has relied on a rigid system of information management that often has stumped even the most determined reporters.
But with plummeting poll numbers, an unraveling war and ethics probes in the top ranks of his party, Bush's almost-legendary sway over much of the White House press corps seems to be fraying. No longer can he and his aides invoke the specter of the war on terror to fend off tricky questions and silence critics.
In recent weeks, Bush has begun courting the press, reaching out to reporters for off-the-record chats in his private quarters in an apparent acknowledgment of the altered circumstances.
At the same time, the reporters, recognizing Bush's growing vulnerability, have stepped up their questioning of Bush, when they can, and Press Secretary Scott McClellan, who runs the daily White House news briefings. McClellan, who in the past has greeted such barrages with a bland, well-rehearsed indifference, now looks less sure....
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/ideas/bal-id.w...
Whenever he could, the president went over the heads of the White House press corps to reach the masses beyond. Bush, who famously said he doesn't read newspapers -- and whose aversion to detailed questions is palpable -- has held only a fraction of the press conferences that his voluble predecessor did. Instead, he has relied on a rigid system of information management that often has stumped even the most determined reporters.
But with plummeting poll numbers, an unraveling war and ethics probes in the top ranks of his party, Bush's almost-legendary sway over much of the White House press corps seems to be fraying. No longer can he and his aides invoke the specter of the war on terror to fend off tricky questions and silence critics.
In recent weeks, Bush has begun courting the press, reaching out to reporters for off-the-record chats in his private quarters in an apparent acknowledgment of the altered circumstances.
At the same time, the reporters, recognizing Bush's growing vulnerability, have stepped up their questioning of Bush, when they can, and Press Secretary Scott McClellan, who runs the daily White House news briefings. McClellan, who in the past has greeted such barrages with a bland, well-rehearsed indifference, now looks less sure....
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/ideas/bal-id.w...