[mobglob-discuss] [Fwd] Too Much - Weissman & Mokhiber

Tue Feb 25 18:30:13 PST 2003

Subscribers,  An interesting recap of what a press scrum is like for the
the critical thinkers coverging on the White House...Forward here for your
information....    Best regards,  Tom
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  ----- Forwarded message: -----From: Robert Weissman <rob at essential.org>
To: "corp-focus at lists.essential.org" <corp-focus at venice.essential.org>
Subject: [corp-focus] Too Much

Date: Tue, 25 Feb 2003 18:26:49 -0500

Too Much
By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

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=92t 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.

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, http://www.multinationalmonitor.org. They are
co-authors of Corporate Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the
Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press;
http://www.corporatepredators.org

(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

This article is posted at:
http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2003/000146.html
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