Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Bush and a free press
One of Suskind's most severe critiques of Bush was not only Bush's lack of press conferences but also his management of those conferences.
For each press conference, the White House press secretary asks the reporters for their questions, selects six or seven of the questions to answer and those reporters are the only ones called upon to ask their questions during the press conference, Suskind said.
This system makes it so that the president has answers already prepared for questions that he knows will be asked, Suskind said.
"He needs unmanaged time in front of the nation right now," Suskind said. "The White House has to engage in a way that it hasn't engaged in before."
Suskind also said that the White House uses intimidation to force writers into only writing favorable stories about the administration.
"If you write something the White House doesn't like, they take you in and say, 'If you ever write something like you did today, nobody from the White House will ever talk to you again,'" Suskind said. "(The White House is) pissed, and ... angry."
Story, via Atrios.
posted by chris at 1:54 PM
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