Too Much
by
Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
Dissident Voice
February 26, 2003
For
almost two years now, we have covered the Bush White House with astonishment.
We are astonished by the
simple fact that this President, with such strong ties to the corporate
establishment, has for two years sailed smoothly through our democratic waters,
at a time of rising popular discontent, unemployment, corporate scandals,
national security disasters, and most recently, gasoline above $2 a gallon.
How does he do it?
First and foremost is the
failure of the political opposition.
The Republicans are bought
and paid for.
The leadership of the
Democratic Party is timid, bought and paid for.
So, with no effective
opposition in Washington, the President gets a free ride.
Unless the press puts his
feet to the fire.
Now, the Bush White House
press operatives are, if anything, professionals at ducking, banning, evading
and dodging.
President Bush has given the
fewest number of press conferences of any president in recent years.
The President's press office
is perhaps one of the best in recent years, if you define its job as keeping
reporters at bay.
How do they do it?
Well, first, they keep out
reporters who they dislike.
Remember Sarah McClendon?
She has been a thorn in the side of presidents since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
She passed away last month. Ari Fleischer went to her memorial service.
For more than 60 years,
Sarah McClendon had unfettered access to White House press briefings with her
White House press pass.
But the Bush White House
wanted no part of her, so they refused to renew her press pass in June 2001,
according to John Hurley, a colleague who still runs the McClendon Study Group.
We were denied access to the
White House for a number of months in 2001 -- we were told we told it was about
"national security."
Translate -- we don't like
your penchant for asking about corporate power.
Then, when we beat the rap,
we were told that there was no way that we were going to get a White House
press pass.
Why? Because we didn't meet
the criteria.
What are the criteria, we
asked?
After months of no answer,
we were told the criteria are:
You have to be assigned to
cover the White House daily. Check.
You are accredited by the
House and Senate gallery. Check.
You are willing to undergo
the required Secret Service background investigation. Check.
Check, check and check.
So, we meet all the
criteria.
Why don't we get a pass?
More months have passed.
Still no answer.
But we are welcome at the
White House, we are told, no problem, just call ahead every day so that we can
clear you in. No problem.
So, we call ahead every day,
and we get cleared in.
Unless the day is like yesterday,
when we e-mailed our handler at the White House to get cleared in, are e-mailed
back telling us that we were cleared in, but then when we get to the White
House, we are told we are not cleared in. Sorry. You'll have to wait until you
are cleared in.
Yesterday, Ari Fleischer's
press briefing was scheduled at 12:15. Ari starts his press briefing then. We
are left waiting at the White House gate until 12:40. We get in. Take a seat,
and Ari gets to us, and skips over us.
So, first they ban you.
Then they leave you stewing
at the gate.
Then they skip over you.
And yesterday is not the
first time we've been through that scenario.
If you get in, and if Ari
calls on you, he limits the number of questions you get.
The Fox News reporter gets
four, five or six a day. We get zero, one or two.
If Ari takes your question,
he more often than not evades the question.
And if pressed, he dodges
the question.
Like today. Here's the
exchange:
Question: Ari, two things.
Ari Fleischer: We're going
to -- the one question rule has to be in effect because I'm going to have to be
in the Oval Office at 1:05 p.m. [Unless you're from Fox News.]
Question: Okay. The
Washington Post reported yesterday on its front page that "many people in
the world increasingly think that President Bush is a greater threat to world
peace than Iraqi President Saddam Hussein." Why do you think that millions
of people around the world hold that view?
Fleischer: I don't think
that -- number one, the President is going to do what he thinks is right
representing the American people ...
Question: But why do you
think millions of people hold that view?
Ari Fleischer: I'm not in a
position to judge it ...
This is typical Fleischer.
He first starts talking about the American people -- the question was about
people overseas. Then when pressed, he says -- I'm not in a position to judge
it. Evade and dodge.
Toward the end of the press
conference today, a reporter from South America raises the question of
President Bush bribing foreign governments to side with the United States
against the will of their own people on war with Iraq.
This is obviously happening,
and has been reported just today by the Associated Press and USA Today, among
others. The United States is sending billions of taxpayer dollars to countries
like Spain and Turkey, where more than 90 percent of the people oppose the war.
We bribe their governments to turn against the will of their own people.
And the President talks
about exporting democracy?
Anyway, the South American
journalist wanted to know whether the President was seeking to buy the vote of
Mexico in the United Nation's Security Council's upcoming vote on war in Iraq
by promising some "sort of immigration agreements like amnesty or [a]
guest worker program."
"Think about the
implications of what you're saying," Fleischer responds. "You're
saying that the leaders of other nations are buyable."
Even for the laid back White
House press corps, this was too much.
They break out in laughter.
Ari walks out.
End of press conference.
** See C-SPAN’s video of the
press conference. After the video buffers, forward to about 28 minutes to get
the context of Ari’s big lie:
http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/edrive/iraq022503_whpb.rm
Russell Mokhiber is editor of
the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor
of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The Hunt
for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common
Courage Press, 1999; http://www.corporatepredators.org).