Bush’s dislike for press conferences is notorious at this point. Assigning a motivation for his dislike depends entirely on whether or note you like him. For those who support Bush, his general opposition to press conferences comes from his distrust of the media and a belief that reporters like to “show off” at his expense. For those of us who aren’t fond of the president, Bush avoids press conferences like the plague because he lacks the ability to understand reporters’ questions and answer them in a coherent fashion.
Regardless, Bush will be in the East Room of the White House tonight at 8:30 Eastern. It will be the third prime-time news conference of his presidency (on average — fewer than one a year) and the 12th solo news conference since his inauguration (on average — about one per season). His recent predecessors have hosted several times as many media events at this point in their presidency, but as I’ve said, Bush isn’t fond of the practice.
You can probably imagine all the various controversies, scandals, and crises that will generate queries, so I won’t bore you with a list of questions I hope reporters ask. Instead, I’ll be watching for two things.
First, how “deferential” reporters are towards Bush. The last time there was a prime time news conference, reporters acted as if they were afraid to say anything. They were so docile, one wondered if Karl Rove had drugged them before it began.
The New York Times’ Elisabeth Bumiller noted, months later:
“I think we were very deferential because … it’s live, it’s very intense, it’s frightening to stand up there. Think about it, you’re standing up on prime-time live TV asking the president of the United States a question when the country’s about to go to war. There was a very serious, somber tone that evening, and no one wanted to get into an argument with the president at this very serious time.”
Sure, this turns the idea of an adversarial press on its head, but reporters were happy to roll over and play dead in March 2003. If they want to regain their reputation, they’ll be a little more aggressive this evening.
And two, it’ll be interesting to see how well the White House tries to manage every aspect of the event. At the last event, Bush aides pre-selected certain journalists who would be allowed to ask questions. Bush avoided reporters who may ask “hard” questions and instead went with those who served up softballs. He admitted that the entire event was “scripted” and even asked a reporter if she had a question even though she didn’t have her hand raised.
The White House is obviously nervous right now. Iraq is falling apart and the 9/11 Commission is asking questions that are making Bush uncomfortable. Tonight’s news conference will try and get things back on track. We’ll see what happens.