George reads a newspaper article

December 26, 2006

Yes, it’s come to this. Expectations for the president have fallen so low, the New York Times devoted an entire piece to Bush’s recent claim that he read a newspaper article.

Is there hope for newspapers after all? Readers may be abandoning the printed versions, but over the last couple of years, at least one person seems to have started reading them, at least sometimes. He lives in the White House.

President Bush declared in 2003 that he did not read newspapers, but at his final news conference of the year last week, he casually mentioned that he had seen something in the paper that very day.

Asked for his reaction to word that Vice President Cheney would be called to testify in the C.I.A. leak case, the president allowed: “I read it in the newspaper today, and it’s an interesting piece of news.”

If the president had read something in the newspaper, it is a break with his admitted habits. In September 2003, Bush told Fox News’ Brit Hume, “I glance at the headlines just to kind of [get] a flavor for what’s moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are [sic] probably read the news themselves.” (“Probably”?)

For that matter, Bush talked to the Washington Times’ Bill Sammon a year later and boasted about his news-consuming habits, or in this case, lack thereof: “I get the newspapers — the New York Times, The Washington Times, The Washington Post and USA Today — those are the four papers delivered,” he said. “I can scan a front page, and if there is a particular story of interest, I’ll skim it.”

(When most of us see a newspaper article that we think might be interesting, we read it. When the president sees a story of particular interest, he’ll “skim” it. How reassuring.)

With this in mind, when Bush casually mentions having read something in a newspaper, it’s literally newsworthy. Talk about your soft bigotry of low expectations.

I would like to ask the humble question- why was he getting news about his VP from the papers anyway?….

Seems like inadvertent confirmation that the VP ain’t under the president’s control… (after all, if you were called to testify at a trial, might you not mention it to your boss before he reads about it in the paper?)

  • Reality has a known liberal bias, and Reality has been so anti-BG2 for the last three years that it surprises me not at all that Boy George II avoids it, at least in the corporate media filtered form of newspapers, as much as he can.

    You realize that Bill Clinton and Al Gore read all four of these newspapers (well, maybe not the W. Times) which BG2 occasionally ‘skims’. (Skims, now there is an elastic term. Most people mean by that they have read at least the introductory and concluding paragraphs. I suspect that BG2 just looks for words he can pronounce, which means he reads practically nothing.)

  • Shorter Bush: Why should I learn things and make educated choices, when I can just decider everything?

    We are ruled by a world class nit-wit.

  • “When the president sees a story of particular interest, he’ll “skim” it.”

    Hey, don’t be too hard on him. I’m sure he’s keeping himself well informed on “Hagar the Horrible”.

  • I think he has begun reading/skimming papers in response to the criticism about his library. Now that we know he reads, the library is above reproach. Except for the funding.

  • Just like with college, W hopes to get the Cliff’s Notes version from his staff. The fact that he says is reading things in papers these days might mean the staff is providing him with less and less info, as proven by him reading about Cheney being called as a witness in the papers. It brings to mind the comment CB wrote about a while ago about how no one likes to bring the Decider bad news. With so much bad news to tell, maybe no one is telling him anything. The bubble continues to shrink …

  • Asked for his reaction to word that Vice President Cheney would be called to testify in the C.I.A. leak case, the president allowed: “I read it in the newspaper today, and it’s an interesting piece of news.”

    If the president had read something in the newspaper, it is a break with his admitted habits. In September 2003, Bush told Fox News’ Brit Hume, “I glance at the headlines […]

    Let’s not get overly excited; there’s no contradiction here and no new habits. The possibility of Cheney’s being called to testify was mentioned in the headline… 🙂

  • Now that I know Georgie is such an intellectual giant, readin’ the newspapers and all, ah’ll be waitin’ in line to give him some millions for his lahbrary.

  • Don’t they get the WSJ at the White House? I find that amazing.

    Of course, USA Today *does* have all the sports scores.

  • Having met (and been interviewed by) Kit Seelye, I think her whole point here to mock the president’s changing stories, not to sincerely highlight any suddenly-acquired reading habit.

    But I could be wrong.

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