Editor and Publisher’s Carl Sullivan noticed an interesting item about previous presidents’ appetite for news and how they compare with the current occupant of the Oval Office.
Sullivan noted that this week’s “50 Years Ago” feature on E&P magazine notes that Dwight Eisenhower read nine newspaper a day.
As the Nov. 21, 1953 issue of E&P explained, “In answer to a question from the floor of the Sigma Delta Chi convention, James C. Hagerty, Presidential press secretary, revealed that President Eisenhower reads nine newspapers regularly in addition to receiving a one-page digest of the news daily.”
(To be fair, some of the DC dailies that Ike read went out of business years ago. Nevertheless, I think you get the point)
Now let’s consider the current president’s habit for keeping up on current events. As Slate’s Michael Kinsley recently noted, Bush likes to get his news “filtered.”
“I glance at the headlines, just to get kind of a flavor,” Bush told Fox News’ Brit Hume in September. “I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who probably read the news themselves.” (probably?)
He added, “[T]he best way to get the news is from objective sources. And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what’s happening in the world.”
If Bush considers his sycophantic staff “objective sources” for news, it actually explains a lot about how this man governs.