I can understand why charges raised by Kitty Kelley’s new book would cause the White House some consternation, but this is a little creepy.
Anticipating a barrage of unflattering accusations and innuendo about President Bush’s personal life in a soon-to-be-published book by the celebrity biographer Kitty Kelley, the Bush campaign has opened a wave of advance counterstrikes intended to undermine her credibility.
A representative of the White House recently called Neal Shapiro, president of NBC News, to discourage that network from broadcasting interviews with Ms. Kelley about the book on its “Today” program and on its MSNBC cable program “Hardball With Chris Matthews,” a network executive said.
The book is filled with all kinds of salacious charges, including a report that George W. Bush used cocaine at Camp David. Is the book accurate? I haven’t the foggiest idea.
But there’s something unseemly about the White House pressuring independent broadcast journalists and insisting that they ignore a story. Naturally, as far as Bush’s aides are concerned, Kelley’s book is wrong. Fine. But shouldn’t NBC’s decisions about covering the book be left up to NBC?