FOR CAROLE COLEMAN
For Carole Coleman, thanking her for her interview with George Bush:
Dear Ms. Coleman:
Just writing to thank you for doing your job as a journalist in your interview with President Bush this week. Even though our President seemed intent on sustaining his position as, well, "big dog" (as in, big dog can interrupt you, but you can't interrupt big dog), you continued to ask some of the hard questions that our home-grown press corps is too cowed to ask. For that, you should be commended.
It is a sad day when U.S. citizens must turn abroad for truly hard-hitting questioning of our President. That said, thank you very much for your service to folks on this side of the Atlantic as well.
Sincerely,
Brett Marston
Send your own, here.
For context, see here and here.
MORE (Monday morning): Thomas Nephew has some thoughts on the interview here. In response to the substance of Bush's comments in the interview, Thomas writes:
This kind of thing may play well on the Dallas evening news, but you'd think that after Abu Ghraib, American self-congratulation on our virtuousness is not exactly subtle, effective public diplomacy overseas.
Effective public diplomacy is not this administration's specialty.
2 Comments:
She still let him off the hook. He may have come off badly, but he got away with not answering the tough questions. Journalism is the collection of facts, not a debate in which points are scored for making your opponent look bad. Leave that to the legal system.
I don't see how she let him off the hook. A television interview with an irritated president is not going to be a fact-finding mission about the underlying facts, it's a chance to see how Bush reacts to and answers the questions. While she could have challenged some of his answers, she made the alternative reasonable choice of asking new questions. I think Coleman did OK.
Post a Comment
<< Home