If a president gives a chancellor a back-rub in a forest…

July 22, 2006

The AP ran an item yesterday about the now-infamous massage Bush gave German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the G8 Summit earlier this week. The AP didn’t actually do a story about the incident; it did a story about blogs laughing at the incident.

An impromptu back rub that President George W. Bush gave German Chancellor Angela Merkel is now massaging millions of funnybones.

A 5-second video and series of photographs recently posted on YouTube.com and various blogs show Bush surprising Merkel at the G-8 Summit by quickly rubbing the back of her neck and shoulders. The chancellor immediately hunches her shoulders, throws her arms up and grimaces, though she appears to smile as Bush walks away.

The video has been one of the most popular clips on the Web and spawned countless remarks on the particulars of etiquette for world leaders.

In other words, the president’s frat-boy tactics aren’t necessarily enough to prompt a story in the Associated Press, but dissemination of the video of those tactics is.

Indeed, the AP story about online interest in the incident got me thinking: hasn’t the media downplayed the massage story a bit?

Consider a quick tale of the tape.

* The Washington Post didn’t mention the incident at all in its news coverage, but the story did get three paragraphs in a column on page A17 on Wednesday.

* The New York Times also didn’t mention the story in its news coverage either, though Maureen Dowd devoted a couple of sentences to the “impromptu shoulder rub” in her column this week.

* The LA Times devoted three sentences to the incident in a broader news story about the summit.

* According Lexis-Nexis and Google News, major papers such as USA Today, Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, and Philadelphia Inquirer didn’t mention the massage at all.

The exception to this trend was the Scripps-Howard chain, which ran a full-length news story that ran in several papers, including the San Francisco Chronicle and the Seattle Post Intelligencer. But even that story highlighted the fact that “the incident didn’t get a lot of play on major TV media.”

Why is that? It was an unusual “diplomatic” event; there’s clearly considerable public interest; and there’s even video and still shots for the media to obsess over. Why blow it off?

If a president touches a chancellor at a G8 meeting, and it’s widely ignored, does it still weird you out?

Yes, it really weirds me out. This is really all the proof anyone needs to realize that it’s not worth reading American newspapers. Just think Bush Good, non-Bush Bad.

  • If only there had been a BJ. The media would have picked it up and we’d have an impeachment on our hands.

    Bush has absolutely no understanding of human interactions.

  • Uh…wasn’t your original take on the Bush Backrub pretty much the same as the AP’s???

    If I remember correctly, I was one of the first people in your comments section to say that the story had legs, and that it showed not just stupidity on Bush’s part, but real character flaws.

    The fact that people are watching it over and over again and telling their friends about it isn’t just because it’s funny, it’s because it’s creepy. And the more you watch it, the creepier it gets.

  • the corporate media is utterly invested in an evil way of protecting the fuhrer … how many other stories and the fuhrer and his goons has the corporate media totally ignored ? or changed in order to benefitt the fuhrer ? the greatest example of course is the absolute supression of the fuhrer, after being informed of the twin towers/911, sitting in his chair for seven minutes reading my pet goat. boy that sure is an example of the ‘liberal press’ isn’t it ? of course that’s a total lie … it’s the corporate/ repiglican press now … and when this reality of the fuhrer was actually reported via michael moore’s movie then that same ‘liberal media’ attacked him for exposing the fuhrer. this is exactly what hilter’s medid did .. we don’t have news now … we have propaganda.

  • Maybe it wasn’t in the news because it wasn’t newsworthy. Heck I used to do that stuff all the time and as soon as my sexual harassment suits are settled I intend to do it again.

  • I guess at least he did lift her shirt and kiss her belly…

    bubba, did I miss an important story or did you mean to type didn’t?
    Signed.
    Rege
    The King of Typos and Bad Editing

  • This is due to the successful PR managed by Karl Rove and company. they have convinced the media that Bush may act idiotically but he is always acting with good intentions, he is a good straight chrisitian man. So if he gives a massage to a female head of state, it just reflects, according to them, the easy going president. Now stop and think about it for a minutez- what if Bill Clinton did this? Even before Monica Lewinsky days? I bet you it would have gotten different type of coverage. Why? Because Bill Clinton came to office with a baggage–Jennifer Flowers and so on. Journalists should start behaving with objectivity. The media response also remind me about Stephen Colbert address–the address did not get press coverage but the intensity with which it was covered in blogosphere got. My take is in either case, it is great-got the coverage about an incident that could have been swept under the carpet by main stream media.

  • Rege, looks like I am trying to steal your crown and throne. Yes, it was supposed to be “didn’t” (referencing le affair Putin).

  • Yet another example of our bought-and-paid-for MSM ignoring yet another event that would have brought howls of rage and calls for impeachment if Bill Clinton had done it. It’s Rupert Murdoch’s world now, and Rupert doesn’t allow anything that might hurt the Presidunce to get before the public if he can help it.

    And if he can’t help it he makes a joke about it so everyone just shrugs and grins and says, “Oh, that George. He’s such a goof.”

    The injustice of it all just makes my skin crawl sometimes.

  • I’m in the MSM and I can tell you that we who work in the newsroom don’t even dare speak of these perverted stories for fear of discipline or retribution, or being labeled as a “liberal” intruder.

    This is among the lesser of the bizarre stories we should be writing that we don’t.

    What about the Nevada gubernatorial primary candidate who is a former dominatrix who says she was once hired to supervise George W. Bush on Victor Ashe, and that it clearly was not the first homosexual tryst for either man?

    What about Margie Schoedinger’s court case in Texas alleging George W. Bush raped her in 2002 (I think)?

    These are/were real, named, on-the-record people who say they were party to the conduct, not the unnamed sources and OTR “White House officials” with second-hand or anonymous or perceptual-based accounts the AP so adores.

    Do you think if the names were Bill Clinton and anyone in any sort of tryst, let alone homosexual and adulterous, it would go unmentioned in the press? No claim, no matter how unfounded and obviously partisan motivated (Gennifer Flowers, Whitewater, etc.) failed to make A1 of every newspaper in America.

    Try making a Nevada candidate or Margie Schoedinger-type claim today involving Bill Clinton and watch how fast it moves on A1 of every paper. Who doubts me, here, including any of you trolls from the radical right trying to sit on your hands right now?

    So much for our objective, unbiased media, huh?

    P.S. Who sees a smile on Merkel at any time? I don’t. Either a smile is now a matter of subjectivity, not objectivity, or the AP chooses to lie and most of America chooses to believe lies and not their own eyes. Chooses….

  • Oh, and isn’t it interesting that the AP chooses to subjectively analyze and make conclusions about the look on Merkel’s face yet fails to mention the remarkable, zombie-like lack of expression on Bush’s?

    How can anyone conjecture any motivation with those out-to-lunch eyes? My best guess, honestly, is he was so stoned he had no idea what he was doing or why until he realized she was pissed. I would say his appearance at the end is an “Oh shit! Why did I do that?” look if I ever saw one.

  • Thanks, Jay. I’m not alone in what I see.

    Yet another relevant story the MSM chooses to ignore is information about Bush taking his own sealed toilet with him on trips. His stools and urine are returned in special transport to the White House.

    Is someone afraid of his poop being trapped and analyzed, as I think I read our own CIA has been known to do on occasion to other world leaders?

  • The phrase in the story from AP that really shows how bad the apologists the “liberal media” have become is, “…though she appears to smile as Bush walks away.” This is just disgusting on so many levels.

    If this was someone’s assistant or a secretary who had been treated in this manner, the person who was doing the sexual harassment might use such a defense. “Hey, after I grabbed her boob, she smiled as I walked away.” Of course, the reason the person who smiled might just be trying to save face, or her job, at that particular moment.

    Angela Merkel, though not a secretary and not trying to save her job, was probably quickly evaluating how to act after her initial, truthful reaction, and in the interest of comity smiled since she was dealing with another elected leader. Or, maybe she smiled because she really didn’t care, but the fact that she might not care doesn’t excuse Bush’s inappropriate and boorish (again) behavior.

    When does he become embarassing enough for his supporters?

  • I’m with Jay also. What really weirded me out about the incident was the look on his face while he was doing it – the total freakish blankness. If someone did something like this as an affectionate prank, wouldn’t you expect to see some kind of twinkle in their eye? Not only does he not have any twinkle, he’s completely dissociated. In a psycho kinda way.

  • I think it’s just avoidance. Take a look at all the “inappropriate” moments from Bush’s trip overseas, and it’s hard not to walk away with the sense that something just ain’t right. Is he drunk? Stoned? Heavily medicated? Mentally ill? Or is it he just doesn’t give a shit anymore? Whatever is going on, it rises above a lack of simple manners. And if you reach the conclusion that there’s something fundamentally wrong about Bush, then you might have to ask some really terrifying questions. Like: Is he really still in charge? If not, who’s running the country? How are we going to get out of this mess? And since there are no easy, happy answers to those questions, a lot of people, including most Washington reporters apparently, would rather change the subject. I know it isn’t easy to think about for too long.

  • If you remember some time back there was a furor in the blogosphere about the Downing Street memos, with virtually no coverage on TV or in the papers. Eventually we saw a few references from pundits to “the famous Downing Street memos” that the MSM had failed to cover at all, begging the question as to if the memos were so frigging famous how come non-blog readers had never heard of them.

    The corprate media are pretty much corrupted, but thanks to the internet these stories come bubbling up anyway. Yet another reason I rarely bother reading papers anymore – the stuff in them is old, incomplete and often pre-filtered by people with whom I have little common interest.

  • anonymous, Great post!

    And whaddya mean the story of Bush’s bisexuality hasn’t been covered?! Go here and search for “Sanctity of Marriage”. Or try here. There, it’s been covered.

    Margie Schoedinge’s rape case? What about here? Or in Pravda? There, that’s covered.

    “anonymous” is right: grounded or not, the mere suggestion in these two stories used to merit “Pope Dies” headlines in our supermarket tabloids, and should at least be investigated by the major dailies.

  • It is a myth that if Bush got a public BJ that he would be impeached. The press would not cover it and the Republicans would not discuss it, and if any of them did it would be to point out that the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal was divisive to the country, and during this time of war we should not criticize the President about minor personal problems in his private life. End of story.

  • I thought this was one of the creepiest things he’s done in public. If Merkel is smiling as he walks away; it’s probably because he is walking away.

  • Ed and anonymous : I now have information overload. I always knew he was a creep, and now I know the possible reason why. YUK!

  • I think Diane nailed in comment #18. The blank look was very disconcerting. Something felt very wrong about that when I watched it, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Thanks.

  • Did anyone besides me notice the photo of Bush on Rawstory yesterday? Where he spoke at the NAACP meeting and was grabbing the guy’s chin?

    I’ve also been wondering what the reaction in the German press was? How do the German people feel about our president gettting so physical with Merkel?

  • The media are now primarily owned by a few corporations, and these corporations are sleeping with Republicans.

    This is why the Bush and Cheney Crime Families have gotten away with murder, mayhem, torture, male prostitutes in the White House, Karl Rove’s malicious lies and intentions, assorted crimes against humanity, the transition of our nation’s wealth to individuals and corporations, the stealing of elections, and the basic dismantling of our cherished freedoms.

    Get it?

  • Stop the bullshit–reason the media is covering Bush—It’s all for Israel good.
    All of our media is rabid zionist jewish. The reporter’s post above–he mentions-any critic of Bush–your out the door. Sure Clinton was OK–he wasn’t bombing the shit out of the middle-east -FAST ENOUGH.
    Just posting Bushit’s youth gets you banned in many sites–like
    HUFF-& PUFINTON. Here goes-and it’s the honest truth–Bush loved to insert lit firecrackers into frog’s ares and watch them blow up!
    This Bushel of shit is really sick–check out Demers or Bundies child hood–sick–weird killers. Bush is getting his kicks from watching Iraq and Lebanon after kills–the blood and all the gore.
    USA has a very sick man at the controlls. Get the FKR out of Washington and into a bodybag….

  • I think we can assume that Bush’s massaging wasn’t sexual. The man doesn’t have a sexual bone in his body. No not one.

  • I wonder what this ass does in private to Merkel or when he met with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet. Groping? Flashing them?
    I’ve always known this man is a liar and a moron, but now it shows he’s also a CREEP.
    Poor Laura. Poor United States. Poor Planet Earth.

  • Is bush gay?
    http://mindprod.com/politics/bushismsgay.html#GAY

    I personally think the strain of keeping a lid on 9-11 is getting to him.
    Who among the world leaders he is meeting is unaware of the situation?
    Most are probably curious at least, and asking questions.
    Has anybody seen Cheney since he got booed off that ballfield?
    Or Rumsfeld for that matter ?
    The cat is out of the bag, they are all heavily sedated and/or FREAKING OUT.
    They know what’s coming.

  • So what else is new. Reagan was so gone by the last two years of his term that he spent most of his time watching westerns on television. Nixon, at the end, was drinking so heavily that military commanders had orders not to obey any orders that came after midnight from the WH.

    George Bush is just one of the undead. If you ever got a chance to shake hands with him you would be able to see it in his eyes.

  • To be fair to the media, it’s not like he got drunk and shot someone in face. If an american leader did something like that, I’m sure there’d be no end of investigations.

    /sarcasm

  • “Bushwhacked” takes on a whole new meaning for Congressman Al Green.
    Merkel got bushrubbed.
    Iraq got bushoccupied.
    and our Constitution got bushraped.

    It’s violation of boundries, all the way down.

  • impeach the fucker…he may or may not have committed any “high crimes or misdemeanors” but he sure has proved to be a buffoon and totally incompetent…the founding fathers meant for impeachment to be used for this very reason: to throw idiots out of office!

  • It wouldn’t have surprised me one bit if the First Lady had walked across to Blair House, rang the bell, and asked Dick if she could borrow one of his shotguns. I shoulf think that a 12-guage Mossberg would do nicely. We could call it “The Bush Buckshot a’la Bobbitt” procedure.

    No—wait—that would put Cheney in the Oval Office. Strike the previous suggestion, please….

  • For me (and others, clearly), the really creepy part is the look on the creeps face: drugs or whatever, he’s clearly in some sort of a trance.

  • LOL, Steve, I could see Laura doing that.. She really has killed a man … a boy who broke up with her … when she ran her car into his.

    Ed, I’m sorry for my crack crack if you were serious about the posts you linked. The Pravda link made me think you were mocking.

    I know the source of one of your links: the Jackson Thoreau story on Margie Schoedinger. I know this journalist. He is a solid professional who writes under a pen name on stories displeasing to the MSM, so he doesn’t derail his career. Google his and Schoedinger’s name and you’ll find two or three stories. There also is a straight news story in a local paper, whose reporter discovered it in routine court checks.

    To see the real rape lawsuit, go here to the online court records and type her name into the search engine. http://ccweb.co.fort-bend.tx.us/search.asp?cabinet=civil

    Really, who in the world gets this much U.S. media confidentiality, and coverup, of all the misdeeds of him, his family and his top aides?

  • anonymous – I was serious. As an old Haight-Ashbury typ (composter of “Gimme that old Communism”) I take Pravda seriously. Seriously, I’m joking. But the links were serious. Bush is a consumate shit.

  • my bad – “typ” should be “type”, and “”composter” should be “composer”

    teach me to come here when I’m tired and it’s so damn hot out

  • Ed, I thought you were referring to communism decaying on the ash heap of history. Welcome to the bad typists club.

  • The German press came up with some revealing catch phrases to describe Bush’ grabbing Merkel.

    Blitz-Massage: literally lightning massage. Conveys images of quaint WW-II massages of Poland and France.

    Liebes-Attacke: Love attack.

    texanische a second Massage: Texan one-second-massage

  • NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me had fun with it “When they suggested he should be more Clintonesque he apparently took it the wrong way…”

  • If you haven’t seen it yet, you must read the Rude Pundit’s take on the incident:

    …First look at his eyes, those dead, cold eyes, like Karloff’s Frankenstein’s monster…

    This being a generally family-rated site I won’t quote any more, but it’s well worth a visit.

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