Wednesday, September 14, 2005

HELL FREEZES OVER!


President Bush has done something he's never done before -- admitted fault. Yesterday the president said that "the extent to which the federal government didn't do its job right" in response to Hurricane Katrina, he takes responsibility.

This rare admission is undoubtedly an attempt to stem plummeting poll numbers and a continuous barrage of criticism that the president was slow to react to the disaster.

The most unmerciful example of the beating President Bush is taking in the press is this week's Newsweek: "How Bush Blew It." Newsweek ranks response to Katrina as a "national disgrace" and asks: "How could the president of the United States have even less 'situational awareness,' as they say in the military, than the average American about the worst disaster in a century."

Newsweek portrays a White House in which aides are afraid to give bad news to a "cold and snappish" president who trusts his guts and boasts that he doesn't read newspapers:
...it is not clear what President Bush does read or watch, aside from the occasional biography and an hour or two of ESPN here and there. Bush can be petulant about dissent; he equates disagreement with disloyalty. After five years in office, he is surrounded largely by people who agree with him. Bush can ask tough questions, but it's mostly a one-way street.
According to Newsweek, Bush's staff had to assemble a DVD full of network news coverage of Katrina before the president realized how serious the disaster was.

Since that epiphany, the White House has launched an all-out public relations campaign. The president has practically moved into New Orleans. He'll be giving a televised address from Louisianna tomorrow night. And the administration even tossed FEMA Head Michael Brown overboard.

Then, there's this administration's hallmark: news management. Earlier, NBC got into a battle with authorities on the ground. Now, there are reports that authorities threatened to pull credentials from a San Francisco Chronicle reporter. Despite such heavy-handedness, Fox News and NPR Commentator Juan Williams says the White House's efforts to manage the news are "not working."

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