Bush wins praise for answering questions

January 23, 2006

Here’s a story in which the headline speaks volumes: “Bush to Take Unscripted Audience Questions.” Seriously, I didn’t write that; it’s the actual headline on a major AP national story. The lede, too, is unintentionally hilarious.

Move over, Oprah. President Bush is making himself into television’s newest talk show host by making audience participation a feature of his appearances.

Bush has been taking questions from audience members in recent speeches, and the White House says none has been prescreened. The sessions are not open to the public, but instead limited to invited groups.

So, let’s get this straight. The president is being praised for answering a few questions from private audiences, made up of people who receive private invitations. I’m not picking on the AP reporter; I’m just amazed that we’ve reached a point in which this is newsworthy. Talk about your soft bigotry of low expectations….

To be sure, the fact that Bush is willing to engage in some Q-and-A is encouraging. The White House insists the questions have not been scripted, and I certainly hope that’s the case. But it’s hard to get excited about the president breaking out of his “bubble” when the questions, practically all of which have been positive and/or flattering, come from invited guests who are there because they’re predisposed to agree with everything Bush has to say.

One gets the impression that these Q-and-A sessions have become more common simply to allow Scott McClellan to say, “See? The president interacts with regular Americans all the time.”

Once again Bush is like the dead beat dad that brags about paying his child support. When will people realize that he is an idiot, just like they are.

  • I say when will the news people tell the story the way it is. Bush will never take questions from unscreened people.

  • Byline: NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press Writer

    Hey CB,

    Over at the Daily Kos, Ms. Pickler is a well-known Republican shill. Enuf said.

  • What a brave and fearless preznit. Pathetic. Given his poll numbers, the headline should read:
    Bush – afraid to speak with most Americans.

  • Q-and-A from religiously devoted Bushites is no more than a Catechism.

    For an example of a famous Catechism check here.

    This series of questions followed by doctrinaire answers sounds very much like the “town meetings” Bush has held all during his (stolen) presidency.

  • I know I saw a story about this recently that quoted some of the “unscripted” questions, but I can’t find the link. Any help there would be appreciated.

    As best as I can recall from memory, the questions sounded anything but unscripted. One went something like this: “given that revealing secrets about our surveillance techniques compromises national security, what are you going to do to prosecute those who leaked information to the press about it?”

    Now, maybe they really are unscripted and just come out that way because of the screening process. But until we know exactly how Jeff Gannon was able to get daily press passes for 2 years, I think it would be naive to believe the administration is telling the truth that they are unscripted.

    Come to think of it, when would it not be naive to think the president is telling the truth about anything?

  • Over at the Daily Kos, Ms. Pickler is a well-known Republican shill. Enuf said.

    Well, sort of. I’ve taken issue with many a Pickler article over the years, but to her credit, this story wasn’t horrible. She did, after all, mention right up top that Bush’s “sessions are not open to the public, but instead limited to invited groups,” which is the key detail that readers needed to know.

    The problem, as I see it, is that the story seemed necessary to the AP in the first place. In this case, I blame Bush more than Nedra.

  • As best as I can recall from memory, the questions sounded anything but unscripted. One went something like this: “given that revealing secrets about our surveillance techniques compromises national security, what are you going to do to prosecute those who leaked information to the press about it?”

    Your memory is pretty good. Here’s the transcript of a Bush event in Kentucky from two weeks ago. The question was:

    They’re starting an investigation in the Justice Department about the — looking into this, where these leaks came from. Is the Justice Department going to follow through and, if necessary, go after the media to take and get the answers and to shut these leaks up?

    I’m not saying it was scripted, but it’s fair to say that if it were scripted, the question wouldn’t have been much different.

  • This reminds me of Jon Stewart’s analysis of Bill O’Reilly’s ground rules for his interview with the president, such as, “He wasn’t given the questions before hand”: “That’s the least you can do and still call it an interview.”

  • No, sorry, CB–I think it IS time to pick on the AP reporter and any other reporter who swallows this crap whole. We can’t stand still for journalism like this because it makes Bush’s theatrics seem okay, business as usual. Sorry, none of us, surely, should accept that and “reporters” should be called out on it. Every time, without exception. I realize shame is an emotion they may no longer be able to feel but we’ve got to at least point out to the public that this is not the way a president answers to the public. I don’t even think these hermetically sealed events should be covered at all. When their talking points don’t get out so easily, they will have to find another way.

  • Since when do we care about what Scotty says? He’s got to have either a lot of drugs to sleep, or a Dorian Gray somewhere, with the blather he spouts…

  • Saw the speech. It’s like listening to fingernails on a chalkboard and trying to comprehend what he is trying to say.

  • One gets the impression that these Q-and-A sessions have become more common simply to allow Scott McClellan to say, “See? The president interacts with regular Americans all the time.”

    The problem, as I see it, is that the story seemed necessary to the AP in the first place. In this case, I blame Bush more than Nedra.

    Talk about the soft-bigotry of low expectations! Sure, Pickler did not willfully lie by saying that the Q-and-A was open to the public, but her piece was pure puffery: Bush as new TV show host! Wowee!

    To me, it is irrelevant that she mentioned that the sessions were private, since she did not place that in context by giving critics any opportunity to comment, and by concluding that some questions were “tough.”

    The key is to step back and ask why the story is news in the first place. Why is it being written?

    The answer is that Bush has been accused of being “in a bubble” and refusing to either listen to public criticism or respond to public questions. Given the context of the story, any ethical journalist would have mentioned the criticism against Bush and given the critics an opportunity to respond to Bush’s new appearance technique.

    Pickler utterly failed (or in her mind, succeeded). Not only did she not report the long-standing criticism of The Bubble Boy’s isolated existance, she allowed the White House to paint the picture of Bush as a naturally open guy who had recently been pressed into making awkwardly scripted speeches:

    It’s a throwback to the folksy style on the campaign trail that helped him win re-election and a departure from the heavily scripted speeches that were the norm last year.

    See? Pickler spins Bush’s isolation as a recent phenomenon. While any informed person would know that nothing was more canned than Bush’s campaign stops, where unapproved persons were not even permitted to approach the area, Pickler paints Bush’s campaign as a free-wheeling, back-slapping affair where Bush chatted with the locals at each stop.

    The White House has grown so comfortable with the format that most of his appearance Monday at Kansas State University scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET was reserved for Q-and-A with the audience.

    Oh, yes, they are SOOO comfortable with the format that sometimes the staff even leaves for Air Force One before realizing that Bush has stayed behind to get in just one more question from a curious citizen.

    Puh-leeze, this is complete b.s. The time between Pickler receiving the talking points fax from Dan Bartlett and firing this one off was approximately 60 seconds.

  • I’m not sure if the issue is whether Bush wants to field unscripted questions from unfiltered crowds as much as whether he is capable of doing that very thing. The bubble, afterall, may be protecting us from Bush as much as protecting Bush from us.

  • Politically Correct-Karl Rove should be sitting on a stool on stage with puppet Bush on his lap. Rove’s hand up you know where making the dummy move while Vice-Criminal Cheney is off in the wings talking into a mic providing a voice and ideas to the dummy, Shrub-O the talking chimp. I hope there will eventually be a day when I get to see one or all of these bastards in cuffs and orange jump suits.

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