In the local paper or on local news, I have seen nothing about the controversy surrounding an interview conducted by Carole Coleman, of Irish Public Television, with Bush. This interview was a week ago and the blogosphere is boiling. Thanks to Jas. for the heads-up. mjh
Interview of the President by Radio and Television Ireland (official White House transcript)
Pampered Bush Meets A Real Reporter by John Nichols
Carole Coleman, Washington correspondent for RTE, the Irish public television network … is a mainstream European journalist who has conducted interviews with top officials from a number of countries — her January interview with Secretary of State Colin Powell was apparently solid enough to merit posting on the State Department’s Web site.
Unfortunately, it appears that Coleman failed to receive the memo informing reporters that they are supposed to treat this president with kid gloves. Instead, she confronted him as any serious journalist would a world leader.
She asked tough questions about the mounting death toll in Iraq, the failure of U.S. planning, and European opposition to the invasion and occupation. And when the president offered the sort of empty and listless “answers” that satisfy the White House press corps — at one point, he mumbled, “My job is to do my job” — she tried to get him focused by asking precise follow-up questions.
The president complained five times during the course of the interview about the pointed nature of Coleman’s questions and follow-ups — “Please, please, please, for a minute, OK?” the hapless Bush pleaded at one point, as he demanded his questioner go easy on him.
After the interview was done, a Bush aide told the Irish Independent newspaper that the White House was concerned that Coleman had “overstepped the bounds of politeness.”
As punishment, the White House canceled an exclusive interview that had been arranged for RTE with first lady Laura Bush.
Did Coleman step out of line? Of course not. Watch the interview (it’s available on the www.rte.ie Web site) and you will see that Coleman was neither impolite nor inappropriate. She was merely treating Bush as European and Canadian journalists do prominent political players. In Western democracies such as Ireland, reporters and politicians understand that it is the job of journalists to hold leaders accountable.
The White House filed a complaint with the Irish Embassy in Washington over RTE journalist Carole Coleman’s interview with US President George Bush. …
Ms. Coleman, undeterred by the level of bovine excrement, presses on by correctly pointing out that most people find life today more dangerous than they did before Bush came to power. She points out that every day there is some terrorist news, while four years ago, it was always isolated incidents. Mr. Bush, then asks her what was it like on 9-11, and when she has the audacity to start to answer, he again cuts her off by saying “you ask the questions and I’ll answer them if you don’t mind.” What??? Hm, Mr. President, you JUST ASKED HER A QUESTION! Nevertheless, he continued and wouldn’t let her answer. The President rattled off a litany of bombings, all of which had one thing in common, they all had nothing to do with Iraq. Ms. Coleman correctly points this out and says that we feel less safe because Bush has taken the focus off al Qaeda and placed it on Iraq, a very astute point. …
If it is not completely under their control, they simply change the rules until it is. In this interview Bush lied about Abu Ghraib being a result of the actions of a few soldiers, that Saddam had WMD, that Saddam didn’t disarm, that he had the capacity to make weapons, that by blowing up Iraq and bringing democracy to it; terrorism will stop, that he has provided 15 billion to Africa for AIDS, that outside of France, Europe supports the Iraq war, and that he is leading in the face of terror by invading Iraq. That is a lot if lies and misdirection for a 12 minute interview.
On the truth side of the ledger, we see that Mr. Bush does not play fair with open inquiries, [and] that he then is punitive when someone has dared to question him honestly….
The Pluck of the Irish (washingtonpost.com)
The preceding link also has a link to the latest Wall Street Journal poll.
47 percent of Americans believe Bush deliberately misled people to make the case for war with Iraq, compared to 44 percent who think he gave the most accurate information he had. Back in March, it was 53-41 in favor of giving him the benefit to the doubt.
In case you want a taste of the right wing response (and more Republican obscenities) follow this next link. mjh