Question US
President Bush Refused NY Times Requests For Interviews?
Doodlebug October 23, 2009 22:05:28
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Published by Fred Soto• November 12th, 2008 RSS News Feed
An interesting article in the LA Times suggests that President Bush tried to control the media from his inauguration to the bitter end. There have been numerous articles about talking points that the White House would send over to Fox News and Bush has given exclusives to the people at Fox and calls to Rush Limbaugh.
The New York Times, for instance, has had a standing request to interview President Bush since well before I came on this beat in May 2006. So far, no interview — and the reason why is hardly a secret. White House officials are quite open about the fact that we have not gotten an interview because they don’t like our coverage.
Think Progress emphasized the fact that the Bush Administration simply doesn’t like the NY Times coverage. More favorable coverage might be a good start, but from what I understand it is the NY Times Opinion pieces (editorials) that are political in nature. The layout may lean towards the sensational, but what news paper doesn’t?
In fairness, all presidential administrations probably play favorites with the media and will always be more inclined to include sources that are reputable and “not out to get you”. Maybe I haven’t been paying attention, but it seems that this problem is getting worse. Is Fox News in line to get “censored”, as some right-wing pundits claim, or will it simply receive the same kind of treatment that the NY Times did for 9 years?
An interesting article in the LA Times suggests that President Bush tried to control the media from his inauguration to the bitter end. There have been numerous articles about talking points that the White House would send over to Fox News and Bush has given exclusives to the people at Fox and calls to Rush Limbaugh.
The New York Times, for instance, has had a standing request to interview President Bush since well before I came on this beat in May 2006. So far, no interview — and the reason why is hardly a secret. White House officials are quite open about the fact that we have not gotten an interview because they don’t like our coverage.
Think Progress emphasized the fact that the Bush Administration simply doesn’t like the NY Times coverage. More favorable coverage might be a good start, but from what I understand it is the NY Times Opinion pieces (editorials) that are political in nature. The layout may lean towards the sensational, but what news paper doesn’t?
In fairness, all presidential administrations probably play favorites with the media and will always be more inclined to include sources that are reputable and “not out to get you”. Maybe I haven’t been paying attention, but it seems that this problem is getting worse. Is Fox News in line to get “censored”, as some right-wing pundits claim, or will it simply receive the same kind of treatment that the NY Times did for 9 years?
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Top Answer
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All politicians try to use the media to their advantage. Think how hard it would have been to ask Bush a question he would actually understand.View thread
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As for Bush, probably one of the few good decisions he ever made was not doing an interview with the NY Times considering the way some of his press conferences and interviews went.