It has been a tradition at all White House press conferences that veteran correspondent Helen Thomas sits in the front row, gets to ask the first question, and the privilege to make the last press statement.
Not last night. Helen Thomas was snubbed. Completely. Perhaps for the first time in forty plus years.
Yeah, I know. It’s been a tradition. And yes, Thomas has been quite strong in her views concerning Bush (“He is the worst president in all of American history.”), but she hasn’t been the darling of too many presidents anyways. At least every other president honored the tradition, and Thomas, regardless of what she wrote about them.
Until last night.
Sure, one should not really read anything into this, but for me, I think it gets more to the White House attitude and why it has so many problems convincing enough people the upcoming war is truly justified.
Is this just another straw on the Bush camel, or nothing at all? I belive it’s the former.
It’s not a big deal in itself but another indication of how insecure Bush is about being able to articulate his policies in any but the most controlled settings. In the first place he doesn’t have too many press conferences. When he has them he handpicks friendly journalists in advance like yesterday. Even then he did a pathetic job, barely answered any questions properly and mostly stayed with his pre-planned talkingpoints regardless of the question.
It was deeply chickenshit. Helen Thomas is a cantankerous old broad, and maybe not that big a deal. But she was a tradition. I say was because its broken now, it can be re-upped, but its not the same. Bill Clinton took her shots, smiled and enjoyed her. He could take it. GeeDubya can’t take it. In truth, he’s a prickly little snot who has no real dignity, just pomposity. Unless he’s wearing his cute little bombardier jacket in front of an audience pre-programmed to recognize the applause lines, he’s lost.
What a gutless little shit. If he ever had to face a real honest to God press conference, he’d wet his pants.
I have seen a fair number of exchanges between Helen Thomas and Ari Fleisher at his press conferences. They are a kind of comic relief. She makes outrageous charges which he coolly parries, occassionally tossing in a zinger. Sometimes it’s LOL funny.
That sort of game would have been out of place at a serious, somber press conference about an imminent war. For that reason, I’m glad Bush didn’t call on Helen Thomas last night.
P.S. At his press conference today, Ari Fleisher said, in answer to a question, that he was the person who prepared the recommended list of reporters that Bush called upon.
The thing is, Helen Thomas crossed a line. At the last press conference I saw her at, she didn’t even ask a question. When Ari pointed to her, she just started ranting about how the U.S. was going to bomb innocents, etc. This prompted Ari Fleischer to quip, “We now pause our press conference for an advocacy minute.”
This is completely inappropriate behaviour for a member of the press at a formal press conference. She does not have the right to hijack the administration’s attempts to communicate to the public and use it for her own pulpit.
Hard questions are fine. Challenging questions are fine. Not asking a question at all, but just haranguing the government, is not fine.
I’m glad she got put in her place, and I’d feel the same way if it were a Democratic president and some old doddering Republican kept getting up and making speeches instead of asking questions.
This has been the most tightly controlled, unaccountable, inaccessible administrations in recent memory. They seem to think that the press exists only to serve as a propaganda outlet for the White House. Any kind of probing or critical questioning seems to confuse and enrage them. Public criticism of the Smirk is simply intolerable. All in the press must praise the Smirk’s courage and leadership. Freedom of the press is a privelege, you see, and it is earned by abject servility to the Smirk and to his cronies. If Ms. Thomas is going to insist on thinking for herself and forming opinions then she cannot be permitted to be in his presence where she might ask him embarrassing questions with big words that aren’t spelled phonetically on the TelePrompter. Prince George, the Lesser is nothing but a spoiled, pampered baby who thinks that the presidency is all about him and the press are his employees. He is rather like Michael Jackson in the sense that they have both lived their entire lives in such a cocoon of privelege, entitlement and unaccountability that they really have no sense at all of the real world.
If she was just going to ask some outrageous loaded question, it would have spolied the event. It made sense to pass over her. It might be a tradition, it might be wussy, but whatever: it’s the script they thought they needed.
…and apparently the press thinks that press conferences are political stumps whereupon they take the stage to espouse their own viewpoints. Did you watch the press conference Thursday night? Did you hear some of those questions? Some of those questions were so loaded it was ridiculous. It was like they started the questions with 30 seconds of leftist drivel and then got around to asking a question. It’s a press conference for the president, to hear his opinions, not for the press corps to flaunt thier ability to write a “question” that sounds more like a statement. If a reporter thinks he’s so bloody smart, then he can run for office. But no, he’d rather get in his political remarks in the auspicious guise of leading upto a question. Reporters as a group are among the most arrogant, self-important, know-it-alls in the free world, and the White House press corps is the cream of the crop in that regard. It’s nice to see them slapped down once and awhile, reminded that they aren’t the movers and shakers in this world, they just ask the questions of the people who are actually getting things done.
I agree that this administration does like to put out a tightly controlled message. So do congressional Democrats. Christ, you’d think the only words Gephardt or Daschle knew last year were “Medicare”, “social security” and “prescription drugs.” Everyone sticks to their talking points, it’s the way of things these days. What’s more shameful, IMHO, is the way that the individuals of the press used the national exposure to get 30 seconds of face time stumping for the left wing slant on the issues and then just toss in a question at the end to make it look legit.
Seems only fair, since the Prez was making speeches instead of answering questions.
I have to disagree with RexDart. I don’t think a press conference is a forum for the President to air his views. He can speechify anywhere he wants, with prepared text and no questions. Press conferences, however, are for the people, so that they can make the President answerable, not for his views, which we are generally aware of already, but for what he is doing and why. He is, after all, an executive, not a ruler. We ask him, through the press, what he’s doing, and he explains himself. Then we decide (sooner or later – in this case not soon enough) whether he gets to keep doing it.
The press conference Thursday was a sham, a lame excuse for Dubya to tell us what’s what without actually answering any questions. As for snubbing Helen Thomas, His Fraudulency was just afraid to face her. He would have had to think on his feet. And we all know how good ge is at that.
You know, its funny how opinions can differ. I would say exactly the same thing about the Clinton administration. They never answered questions from anyone that didn’t already support them. People that did manage to raise questions ended up with IRS audits. The Clintons had absolute control over the media and what was reported. Has Hillary every opened herself up for objective questions? Never. Never will either.
Comparting Bush accepting questions from Helen Thomas is like saying Clinton should have had to accept questions from Anne Coulter.
Your argument that Clinton “took shots” from Helen Thomas is laughable. She is a liberal who considers Bush the worst president in all of American history.
BTW, what are your criteria for a “real honest to God” press conference? Helen Thomas not asking the first question illegitimitizes the whole thing, does it?
The Helen Thomas of now is not the Helen Thomas of the past, that is for sure. Her performances at the daily briefings has been interesting, but in a way, sad. She used to ask questions aimed at the heart of issues that people cared about, but in her old age, she is simply spewing invective. At this particular press conference, such would have been drastically inappropriate.
The idea that Bush is somehow afraid of her is silly. He called on a long list of anti-Bush, anti-war journalists who asked questions, often loaded, against him. He had several key points that he wanted communicated. He communicated them clearly, and that was the point of the press conference from the administration’s perspective.
I find it amazing that people criticize Bush, on the probable eve of war, for tightly controlling the message he is sending. This press conference was not for the people, it was directly aimed at France and Russia. If no one else saw it or got the message, France and Russia got the message. The idea that Clinton did not tightly control the media at times of importance (or that any administration doesn’t) is only held by those outside of the political system. Insiders praised Clinton as one of the best at doing exactly that. Even those who disagreed with his policies respected Clinton’s ability to tailor what the media heard and reported.
If the final decision to go to war is made, there will be a press conference for the people of the US. Thursday night’s press conference was all about the UN, not the voters. If you rewatch the press conference in that context, it will become obvious why he answered some questions and brushed aside others.
I don’t know whta media everyone else was watching when Clinton was POTUS, but the media coverage I saw was an eight year long feeding frenzy of phony scandals, sexual investigations and unrelenting hatred by the right. The Smirk, by contrast, has received only the most fawning and protective coverage imaginable. If Clinton had ever lied and/or fabricated evidence the way Bush has admitted to, he would have been crucified by the press. The Smirk gets a pass because, well, he’s kind of stupid and he can’t be expected to know when he’s telling the truth and when he isn’t. Bush’s case for war has been extremely shady, self-serving, ever changing, specious, unconvincing and often flat-out dishonest. I want a reporter who is going to be right up in his stupid, smirking face. I want an old lady who will take him off-script and expose his ignorance. I don’t want the press to treat his scummy little invasion as though it deserves any respect or dignity. I want press corps that can detect bullshit when it emanates from a podium. Anything that can embarrass the Smirk or ruin his scripted little press conference is a very good thing and we need a lot more of it. I wish we had a thousand Helen Thomases.