When Bush isn't paying journalists to write the news he wants to hear, he's pressuring editors to kill the stories he doesn't want to hear.
Last week we heard that Bush summoned, or commanded New York Times editors to appear in the Oval Office where Bushie attempted to persuade them to axe the Your-government-is-spying-on-you story. This week we learn that Bushie tried similar tactics with the Washington Post. According to Howard Kurtz, the pResident tried to persuade the Post to kill the CIA secret prison story.
One can only wonder how often Bushie actually succeeds in persuading the media to keep quiet about his shady secrets.
Bush Presses Editors on Security
President Bush has been summoning newspaper editors lately in an effort to prevent publication of stories he considers damaging to national security.
The efforts have failed, but the rare White House sessions with the executive editors of The Washington Post and New York Times are an indication of how seriously the president takes the recent reporting that has raised questions about the administration's anti-terror tactics.
I think Kurtz means to say, the efforts have failed in these two instances.
Not exactly a media bragging point. After all, the Times bowed to Bush's will and sat on the spy story for a year. We really have no idea how many times Bushie has successfully persuaded the media to change or kill a story. We do know that until very recently we were living with an embarrassingly docile media.
Hat tip to SusanG at dkos...
Bush Media MSM New York Times Washington Post
