Bush: No Respect for Press or the People

David Shaw reflects on the Bush Administration's "screw you" attitude towards the fourth estate:

I'm still not sure what to make of the easy White House access granted to James Guckert (a.k.a. Jeff Gannon), a conservative "pseudo-journalist" (to use Rosen's term) who asked Bush biased, softball questions at news conferences and who doubled as a male escort whose nude photos were posted on the Web. But I'm reasonably certain that any explanation of his easy access will not involve a persuasive argument that the Bush administration is committed to the societal benefits of a free and unfettered press.

Early in Bush's first term, Andrew Card, his chief of staff, said that journalists "don't represent the public any more than other people do."

To the Bush administration, journalists are not surrogates for the American people; they're just another annoying group of lobbyists, special-interest pleaders seeking not the information necessary for citizens to make intelligent decisions but only the journalists' own ego-gratification, career advancement and ideological advantage.

To see just how Bush loves to give the press the finger, let's recall his philosophy about the press: "You're assuming that you represent the public. I don't accept that."

If the press doesn't represent the public, who does? The President? With his ever-shrinking "mandate"? The Bush Administrations "fuck you" attitude towards the Press--and by extension, the American Public--is only now being discussed, as reporters are finally awaking from their stupor to realize they've been conned and scammed into being Presidential lapdogs.