Bush, Off the Record

Your liberal media:

President Bush has been holding informal off-the-record sessions with major news organizations over the last several days.

Starting Thursday, he began meeting with groups of about a half-dozen reporters from newspapers, television, news agencies and magazines. They have discussed a variety of issues including the war in Iraq, said a reporter who attended a session.

The meetings, which the journalists have agreed not to describe publicly, have been in the White House residence. They come as several news organizations have assigned new reporters, who had no relationship with Mr. Bush, to cover the White House.

David Bohrman, the Washington bureau chief for CNN, one of whose reporters attended a session, said they were a good idea.

"Most of the time, the environments that our reporters deal with the president in are very structured, very managed, and they rarely get to just kick back and have a conversation," he said. "I think there's a lot of value in it for both sides."

What a bunch of idiots we have in the press. There is no value in an "off-the-record" fun-in-the-sun meeting with the President. It is designed for only one purpose: to butter up the press to an unpopular President. You're being spun you imbeciles!

There's no reason-- none-- for the President to ever be off the record. If he speaks to a reporter, it is news. If he speaks about the war in Iraq, it is news.

This is precisely how half the Washington pundits ended up at the center of the Plame investigation-- reporting to the American people on issues they were involved in without even a hint of disclosure.

It would be one thing if the President had a personal relationship with a journalist-- if they hung out for fun. But these are media events, but in a backwards universe in which the media doesn't report on them.

Yet after five years, these guys can't figure out how they've been manipulated? What fools.