From The Washington Post, 5/12/04:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17316-2004May11.html
Bush Prefers the Sports Pages
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Tuesday, May 11, 2004; 10:55 AM
President Bush doesn't spend much time poring over news coverage
because it would just muddle his thinking and bring him down, he told
the author of a new, admiring book about his presidency.
In the second of three reports based on his new book,
"Misunderestimated: The President Battles Terrorism, John Kerry and
the Bush Haters," Bill Sammon of the Washington Times writes that Bush
gets four newspapers -- and reads the sports pages. As for the front
pages? He scans and skims.
"Mr. Bush thinks that immersing himself in voluminous, mostly
liberal-leaning news coverage might cloud his thinking and even hinder
his efforts to remain an optimistic leader," Sammon writes.
"I like to have a clear outlook," Bush told Sammon, who is also a
political analyst for Fox News.
"It can be a frustrating experience to pay attention to somebody's
false opinion or somebody's characterization, which simply isn't true.
.. . .
"I don't watch the nightly newscasts on TV, nor do I watch the endless
hours of people giving their opinion about things. . . . I don't read
the editorial pages; I don't read the columnists."
"Yet Mr. Bush regularly monitors the news pages of a select few daily
publications," Sammon writes.
"I get the newspapers -- the New York Times, The Washington Times, The
Washington Post and USA Today -- those are the four papers delivered,"
Bush said.
"I can scan a front page, and if there is a particular story of
interest, I'll skim it."
"Mrs. Bush routinely delves more deeply into the news pages than her
husband, who prefers other sections," Sammon writes.
"He does not dwell on the newspaper, but he reads the sports page
every day," Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. told Sammon.
In an often-quoted January story in the New Yorker, Ken Auletta wrote
about the "declaration of press irrelevance" by the White House.
There's more on Sammon's book in yesterday's column
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14189-2004May10.html.
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Well ain't Iraq a sport?
Harry
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