{"id":5520,"date":"2005-10-13T09:51:43","date_gmt":"2005-10-13T13:51:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/5520.html"},"modified":"2005-10-13T09:51:43","modified_gmt":"2005-10-13T13:51:43","slug":"bringing-reporters-into-the-bubble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/bringing-reporters-into-the-bubble\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing reporters into the ‘bubble’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dan Froomkin offered a helpful update<\/a> the other day of one of my favorite TV interviews of recent memory — Irish TV’s Carole Coleman sit-down with George W. Bush.<\/p>\n

Long-time readers may recall that Coleman gave Bush fits<\/a>, interrupting his filibusters and pushing him to acknowledge reality. The president, who had grown accustomed to a certain deference from the American media, was visibly displeased. In fact, the White House was so irritated by Coleman’s rebelliousness, it retaliated against the reporter by filing a complaint with her superiors and against the network by canceling a scheduled interview with Laura Bush. (Retaliation is one of the few things the Bush gang does with real efficiency.)<\/p>\n

This past weekend, Coleman reflected on her testy ten minutes with Bush in an entertaining column<\/a>. The insight into the production of a White House interview — at least, with regards to this<\/i> White House — spoke volumes. <\/p>\n

For example, Irish TV wasn’t allowed to film the interview; White House cameras would record it and loan the tape to the network. Moreover, Coleman had to submit a list of questions and topics in advance, so that Bush could be appropriately “briefed” before the discussion.<\/p>\n

There was also coaching and prodding.<\/p>\n

[A younger male sidekick named Colby] suggested that I ask the president about the yellow suit the taoiseach had worn the previous week at the G8 Summit on Sea Island in Georgia. I laughed loudly and then stopped to study his face for signs that he was joking \u2014 but he didn’t appear to be. “The president has a good comment on that,” he said.<\/p>\n

The taoiseach’s suit had been a shade of cream, according to the Irish embassy. But alongside the other more conservatively dressed leaders, it had appeared as a bright yellow, leaving our Bertie looking more like the lead singer in a band than the official representative of the European Union. It was amusing at the time, but I was not about to raise a yellow suit with the president. “Really?” I asked politely. But a little red flag went up inside my head.<\/p>\n

Then [another aide] announced that she had some news for me. “There may be another interview in the pipeline for you,” she said. […] “We’re not supposed to tell you this yet, but we are trying to set up an interview with the first lady.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Bubble Boy policies never quit.
\n
\nIn this instance, the stagecraft was necessary for one 10-minute interview with an Irish reporter. It included question-screening, suggested (trivial) topics, and a bribe in exchange for cooperation.<\/p>\n

To her credit, Coleman was aggressive, self-assured, and unyielding. The White House was livid.<\/p>\n

“We just want to say how disappointed we are in the way you conducted the interview,” she said.<\/p>\n

“How is that?” I asked.<\/p>\n

“You talked over the president, not letting him finish his answers.”<\/p>\n

“Oh, I was just moving him on,” I said, explaining that I wanted some new insight from him, not two-year-old answers.<\/p>\n

“He did give you plenty of new stuff.”<\/p>\n

She estimated that I had interrupted the president eight times and added that I had upset him. […] “You were given an opportunity to interview the leader of the free world and you blew it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Actually, she hadn’t. It was one of the better interviews<\/a> of Bush’s presidency. If we were really lucky, they’d all be like this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dan Froomkin offered a helpful update the other day of one of my favorite TV interviews of recent memory — Irish TV’s Carole Coleman sit-down with George W. Bush. Long-time readers may recall that Coleman gave Bush fits, interrupting his filibusters and pushing him to acknowledge reality. The president, who had grown accustomed to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5520\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}