Bush Vs. the Media: A la Nixon?

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Jan 26, 2001

Remember back when Dick Cheyney, formerly VP candidate and now VP, called some NY Times reporter an "a--hole"?

It turns out that the "Bush Team" is "secretive" to reporters, that is, they are not gushing forth (say, like Slick Willie did) to the press every latest gossip and tidbit of scandal just to get their names in the paper. (Truly, Clinton belongs in Hollywood!). They are just going about their business of running the country and cleaning up the mess Mr. Bill left them. And this "let's get to work" attitude is driving the press crazy! This includes the TV news folks: I can just hear Dan Rather foaming at the mouth because he has nothing Administration-wise to prattle on about for an hour! Hey, is this why the pundits won't leave that Ashcroft stuff alone?

Do you ever hear yourself saying to the news anchors, "Get a life!" ?

That is what Ryan McMaken must have been saying before he wrote his article for "http://www.lewrockwell.com/mcmaken/mcmak..." entitled "End of a Long-winded Era?" about the differences between the relationship between the media and Clinton as opposed to the media and Dubya. Who could forget that Clinton's "goodbye" speech on Thursday night, January 18, 2001, (which interrupted the FOX horror movie "Scream 2") was supposed to be his last, but then he goes right out again on Saturday--right before Bush was to be inaugurated--and does it again? Clinton's huge ego aside, don't you think the press sorely appreciated him for it? For what else could they be doing, seeing as how they couldn't believe Dubya's Inaugural speech was only 14 minutes long and had them wondering, "What? It's over? Already?" Do you know just how peeved they were at this? By golly, their analysis of what he said lasted longer than his speech!

Thus, the press is feeling as though they may not have a direct line to Bush the way they did to Mr. Bill. This is certainly not the first time a President did not trust the media. The granddaddy of shutting the media out is Richard Millhouse Nixon. I remember reading in a long ago excerpt from Hunter Thompson's "Fear and Loathing" series of article for Rolling Stone, this one in Houston, Texas, that Nixon's White House Press Corp was under an almost habitual gag order from then White House Press Secretary Haldermann, if they got any news at all. Dan Rather (I forget the name of the book but it was a best seller) said the same thing pretty much; and in another book by an author I forget about the 1972 Presidential campaign between Nixon and McGovern, it was stated that Nixon staffers even abused the press corps, especially (for some reason she comes to mind) Sarah McClendon.

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