Bush holding private chats with Washington reporters

Posted by Jeffrey Blyth on 29 March 2006 at 12:12
Tags: Associated Press, Journalism, United States

They are hardly “fireside chats”. The informal, off-the-record meetings that President Bush has started having with members of the White House Press corps are more like fence-mending.

The meetings, usually in the president’s private quarters or his office, were initiated when Bush’s relations with Washington journalists appeared to have hit a new low.

Although not absolutely new — President Clinton had similar meetings at the time of the Monica Lewinsky scandal — it’s the first time President Bush has done so since he took office.

Journalists who accepted the invitation were asked not to write about the meetings – or what was discussed. Most have limited their comments to saying Bush was “pleasant, thoughtful and frank”.

Not all newspapers accepted the invitation. At least one, the New York Times, said it didn’t see off-the record chats were any benefit to its readers.

“As a matter of policy and practice, we would prefer when possible to conduct on-the-record interviews with public officials,” Philip Taubman, the paper’s Washington bureau chief, said in a statement.

News organizations that have so far accepted the invitations have included The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, The Los Angeles Times and Associated Press.

The newsmen were all served iced tea and soft drinks. No liquor. The meetings lasted about an hour. One newsman, quoted by Editor & Publisher, said it was “a little surreal“.

Tags: Associated Press, Journalism, United States