Wrong Place, Wrong Time -- The Sequel

By: Matthew Felling
Topics: All About Us

(CBS)

CBS White House Correspondent Mark Knoller missed a Bush press conference earlier this month. In this dispatch he shares/vents other frustrations about the logistics of covering President Bush this past summer.

It costs CBS News a fortune to cover the President – especially when he travels. And it sure looks like it didn't get its money's worth this month.

Three times in recent weeks, those of us who were covering the President's trips to Kennebunkport, Maine; Crawford, Texas; and today to Bellevue, Washington were totally out of position for the big stories of the day.

On the morning of Thursday, August 9, members of the traveling press were on the press plane en route to Maine – just as Pres. Bush was holding a formal news conference back at the White House.

We had returned to Washington three days later, but were airborne again Monday morning flying to Waco, Texas in advance of the President beginning a two-week stay at his ranch in Crawford.

So what happens, while we're half-way to Central Texas? The president walks out to Marine One to announce the resignation of his senior advisor Karl Rove.

And again this morning, the President ends his two-week ranch stay and arrives at TSTC Airfield in Waco – to makes his first public statement on the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

But where was most of the traveling press? On yet another press charter just arriving in Seattle, where Mr. Bush would be coming later in the day to do a fund-raiser in nearby Bellevue for Congressman Dave Reichert, R-WA.

Of course, the President's statements get covered whether the traveling press is with him or not. And in these days of cable news channels, live satellite feeds and near-instant transcripts of everything the President says, reporters don't have to be anywhere near him to write about him.

Truth be told, on most presidential trips, many of us in the press corps cover his statements and actions without actually laying eyes on him.

We hear his statements on audio feeds from the White House Communications Agency or see live video transmissions arranged by the TV Networks. We get written reports from our colleagues in the pool with the President and we get transcripts of his statements from the White House stenographers.

More often than not, we're always in the same city with him. So the dateline on our reports matched the place in which the President actually spoke.

But not always. Today, I was signing off my radio reports "Mark Knoller, CBS News, travelling with the President."

Otherwise it would take forever to explain why I was reporting on something Mr. Bush said in Waco - from over 1700 miles away in Bellevue, Washington.

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by judiann22 August 27, 2007 11:21 PM EDT: part 2 to COMPATIONATE CONSERATIVE
/
-MAIL STORY PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION

Countries that have offered Greece firefighting help:

_Austria: Two army helicopters, a transport plane and 20 firefighters.

_Cyprus: 14 firefighting vehicles, 88 firefighters, 29 civil defense personnel, 22 volunteers trained in firefighting and rescue.

_Czech Republic: One helicopter with five-member crew.

_Denmark: Six firefighting all-terrain vehicles that can climb steep slopes.

_Finland: Three helicopters and 25 firefighters.

_France: Four Canadair water-tanker planes and 60 specialist helicopter firefighters.

_Germany: Three CH-53 water-carrying helicopters. Authorities have also offered firefighting units, including experts in battling forest fires, and other equipment.

_Hungary: 18 firefighters, one doctor, two fire engines, backup equipment.

_Israel: 55 firefighters.

_Italy: One Canadair water-tanker plane.

_The Netherlands: Three Cougar firefighting helicopters and 27 crew.

_Norway: One Bell 214 firefighting helicopter.

_Portugal: One Canadair tanker plane, six personnel.

_Romania: One MI-17 helicopter with a nine crew.

_Russia: Two heavy firefighting helicopters, two Mi-8 helicopters and a multifunctional amphibian plane.

_Slovenia: One water-carrying helicopter.

_Spain: Two Canadair tanker planes.

_Switzerland: Four Super Puma water-carrying helicopters.

_Turkey: One tanker plane.; Reply to this comment


by judiann22 August 27, 2007 11:16 PM EDT: where is the COMPATIONATE CONSERVATIVE AND HIS FORCES

A case of US Conspicuious Absence.

This may be an omen and it may fit the Calvanistic desire to blame all disasters on the Almighty and blame death and poverty generally on the End Of the World Religions so in control of the Commander in chief.
The United States has permenent ports in the mediterrainian some of the most sophisticated and advanced technology in the World an inexaustable supply of money and manpower yet not a single bucket of water has been offered tothe dying Greeks to save either themselves of their ancient country by this professed compationate Nation or its leaders.
Last night I emailed the Secretary of the Navy this afternoon sent on the latest update to my republican senator and than I looked what are the 17 nations sending aid. now up to 19 not a single ship or plane from our Navy waiting I am sure for a command. Does the secretary have no emergency powers or is he out on the links with gb the ner-do-well while greece burns.
any suggestions do we have to threaten to push these people over the cliff to do the right thing for us? jd

part 1; Reply to this comment


by mattcat25 August 27, 2007 9:37 PM EDT: It''s been discussed before on Public Eye that this Presidential Administration doesn%u2019t do anything by accident, and that all George Bush appearances are carefully scripted and set dressed to accent the message. I was surprised to see that Bush wasn%u2019t on a dirt road with a dry brush background as he has been in the past when on vacation in Crawford Texas.

Both Alberto Gonzales and President Bush made statements today in front of (some) members of the Press but negated any possibility for questions to be asked. The only significance I was left with in today%u2019s set dressing of George W. Bush%u2019s statement on the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in front of Marine One is that one day very soon, George W. Bush will salute us all and leave in that very same Helicopter for the last time.; Reply to this comment


by memekiller August 27, 2007 9:30 PM EDT: This is an interesting tidbit. Does Knoller literally mean that you show up in a city, SOLELY for the dateline? I remember hearing about this being a standard press trick-of-the-trade after the Blair fiasco.

It sounds like Bush doesn''t announce these things with you out of town intentionally, does he? I mean, it still gets covered.

Thanks for continuing to illuminate us.; Reply to this comment