No Answer… No Class… No Decorum… No Diplomacy…
by Pamela LeaveyGeorge W. Bush has never been known for his tact and diplomacy skills, but this one sure takes the cake:
At a recent press conference at Camp David, President George Bush insulted BBC political editor Nick Robinson, the Daily Mirror reports.
Robinson, who has asked Bush pointed questions in the past such as whetherthe president was “in denial” over the Iraq war, posed a question to Bush about whether he could trust visiting British Prime Minister Gordon Brown not to “cut and run” from Iraq.
Bush replied with a dismissal: “Are you still hanging around?”
Later on, Bush poked fun at the bare-pate of Robinson, joking, “You’d better cover up your bald head, it’s getting hot out.”
The respected British reporter shot back, “I didn’t know you cared.”
Bush responded with a cool, “I don’t.” The Mirror reports that Bush then “snorted disdainfully” and “walked away to laughter.”
It’s not enough that Bush refuses to answer a question from a respected member of the international press… Oh No… He throws in a cheesy insult to boot.
No Answer… No Class… Do Decorum… No Diplomacy… Just Insults.
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There is definitely a message here, but I’ve become so desensitizied that I can’t really pick it out.
Is Bush showing that he’s decided that he just doesn’t have to put up with criticism anymore? Or that, fuck it, he doesn’t care what anyone thinks, and he doesn’t care who knows it? Or that he sees no reason to keep faking it this close to the end?
And you notice that this President delivering gratuitous insults barely gets on the radar screen?
I can’t entirely blame Bush for this. It’s a tactic, plain and simple. The questions get too hot to handle, and Bush uses insults he thinks pass for humor to deflect them.
It’s the media that lets him get away with this. I suspect American reporters who might seriously call him on it fear losing their access to these events. After all, didn’t even the legendary Helen Thomas get demoted in the WH press room for actually persisting in asking W substantive, difficult questions on Iraq? (I believe in the official version of the story, she was moved back because she no longer represents a wire service, but who buys that?)
The corporations who own the media have no incentive to encourage or even allow their reporters to actually grill the Clown-in-Chief. After all, BushCo looks kindly on you when you’re a corporation seeking to own more than your fair share of media outlets. Between that and all the business-friendly perks provided by this administration, I see little hope of W ever getting the interrogation he so richly deserves.
As blue aptly points out, both Bush AND the grotesquely complicit American White House press corps are to blame here. Why are the press still laughing chummily at this pathetic behavior?
The headlineon Editor & Publisher, who ran this story read: “Bush Insults BBC Political Editor at Press Conference.”
The publish a lot of news other news venue don’t about publish about Bush. personally I didn’t see their publishing this as laughing about Bush but exposing his bad behavior.