Ari Fleischer admits Bush called from a prepared list of reporters

March 7th, 2003, at an official press briefing, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer twice admitted under questioning that the President's staff preselected which reporters to call, and the order, for the East Room Press Conference on the evening of March 6th, 2003. This Press Conference was President Bush's eighth solo news conference since inauguration, and the second formally presented in the East Room during prime time.

Mr. Fleischer responded to a reporter's query over a short gaffe in which the President was heard to say to a reporter, "You'll be there in a moment," upon which he then called CNN correspondent John King and remarked "...this is a scripted...[pause]", after which an outburst of laughter from the press pool could be heard. The president then moved directly onto the next question. An audio excerpt of this gaff is available from this Buzzflash commentary. [*]

See the video of Press Secretary Fleischer on C-SPAN. Go 20m:50s into the briefing for the first question, in which Ari responds by admitting that he prepared the list of questioners during Bush's Press Conference, and then immediately called on the next reporter:

http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/kdrive/iraq030703_whpb.rm

Here is a transcript of that first question:

REPORTER #1: Last night after the fifth time the president looked down at an apparent list of reporters, he smiled and he said this is scripted - (interrupted)

ARI: are you going to complain he didn't call on you?

REPORTER #1: no! no! no! (continues) - which surely suggests he did not write that script, which gave two questions to one network, two questions to one wire service, and one to other big and wealthy media, but left all the rest - including Helen Thomas - ruled out in advance of any chance to ask, and left to serve only as window dressing, and my question is: since you, Ari, are always fair in recognizing us, who was it that wrote that script that the President confessed to, was it Karl Rove, or Karen, or who?

ARI: It was me who gave the president the suggestion on the reporters to call and the president called on all reporters and didn't call on any columnists.

He then abruptly called on the next question.

25m:50s into the briefing he is asked a followup question again by a second reporter. Here is the transcript:

REPORTER #2: First of all, without regard to who the president called on last night, what's the reason for working from a prepared list as opposed to doing it in a more spontaneous manner?

ARI: Because, as you know, for many of the people who've covered the President's pool sprays this is nothing new to you. Uh, the President just thinks it is actually a more orderly news conference, rather than to have the usual cacophony of everybody screaming where the person who gets called on is the person who has the loudest voice. I thought it was actually a very... it was a long news conference, uh, it was a solid news conference, uh, reporters were called from all over the place... uh, many people rushed out and bought new... [screams of "NO!!!" audible in the background] ... well, many different outlets, the president noted that many people went out and bought new shoes. uh president was pleased to have done it.

Not relating directly to this event, as it happened after publication, Mike Allen, of the Washington Post, wrote an article on President Bush's distaste for news conferences quoting White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett saying, "if you have a message you're trying to deliver, a news conference can go in a different direction." He further stated:

"In this case, we know what the questions are going to be, and those are the ones we want to answer," Bartlett said. "We think the public will see the thought and care and attention he's given to a lot of the different questions that are being asked about the diplomatic side and the military side and the potential post-Iraq issue. These are all legitimate questions that he has answers for and wants to talk about."

Unstated is that due to the format other legitimate questions would go unanswered. The article later states that Bush prepared for the press conference "...[from] a memo of about 50 possible topics with suggested answers." A formal Press Conference is traditionally an unscripted event with reporters raising their hand to be called upon at random (or the discretion of the President at that moment in time) in sometimes brutal questioning. Allen's article quotes Robert Dallek, a presidential historian at Boston University, noting that "...citizens lose an important measure of the president when he is shielded from sustained questioning," and further stating, "People don't want to just hear from the press secretary all the time," he said. "They want the real thing -- the horse's mouth."

Unfortunately, when members of the press core pool are selected by White House staff, and further when the White House staff preselects for the President exactly who will be called upon during a formal press conference, 'sustained questioning' and 'spontaneity' are the last words one can use to describe the process. Does setting such a precedent further diminish a Free Press in the United States? Discuss.

[*] Note that Buzzflash is a highly partisan site which promotes positions of the Democratic Party.

Originally published Mon Mar 10th, 2003 at 05:28:45 AM EST on kuro5hin.org

Copyright ©2003 J. Maynard Gelinas.

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