Press Myth or Fact?
They say you can’t get elected if the press doesn’t like you. Candidate Bush: generally affable and well-liked by the press. Gore: Stiff and standoffish, so hated by the press. Gore gets bad distorted press, Bush gets forgiving press (from the SCLM no less), and Bush gets sworn in as President.
Well, if that’s true I wonder what behavior like this will do to his election campaign:
Senior adviser and White House political guru Karl Rove himself popped his head into the press cabin and snarled, “Weenies!” [ to press members who remained in the warm in Air Force One instead of filing out to watch POTUS board ]
Chen described Rove’s demeanor as “mocking disdain. . . . In the same vein, he also offered to take orders for hot drinks and blankets, as press secretary Scott McClellan smiled benignly.”
Shortly afterward, Rove returned, “this time with pen and paper, again asking to take orders for hot drinks. . . .
“In Little Rock, on the tarmac, your pool had a third encounter with Mr. Rove,” Chen wrote. ” ‘Oh yeah, you can get off the plane when it’s 62 degrees,’ he said with a laugh as he walked to the staff van.” [ The Washington Post’s White House Briefing ]
Yeah, class act. Nice to see civility has been restored to the White House.
