Comments on: Picking Bush's Brain

[jmg560]

"But Bill Plante of CBS News did not let McCurry go that easily, asking why he felt he could ever "afford to remain ignorant" of something concerning the president and, even more, "Who does a press secretary work for?"

http://www.diversityjobmarket.com/library/politics/100298mccurry-depart.html

Wow, so Bill Plante asked similarly pointed questions while covering the Clinton White House.

Yeah, Bill Plante, shill for the Democratic Party.

[sanfelz]

Bill Moyers said that "News is what the people {in power} want to keep hidden." Plante asked a question those in power choose not to address.
Another question Bush would not answer is how severely Rove's actions have intensified partisan divisiveness and hindered governance.

[one_american]

The best thing that Karl Rove ever did was to expose liberals for the lying, hypocritical, vengeful, spiteful, partisan fools that they are, and to halt the advance of the liberal / socialist / communist agenda.

I say, great job Karl. Now America sees liberals for who they really are.

[joycewest]

I'd have to agree that any question that begins with the phrase "If he's so smart, then how come ..." sounds rude. But I'd rather see reporters ask rude questions occasionally than allow the president to live in a happy bubble where no one questions his take on events. It would be too easy for reporters to acquiesce to the spin the White House creates if their foremost concern was to be polite. That's what's wrong with the president's press conferences -- there's no interrupting the president, no give-and-take that really challenges his long-winded responses. That entire forum needs to be rethought. Of course, the problem with rude questions is they are more easily ignored, and we'd all like answers. But I'm glad to see someone make the effort.

[centralcal-2009]

I think the question was a legitimate one.

However, I think the timing and manner of the asking says more about Bill Plante than about the folks he was shouting at.

It is just another example of the types of things done by the media that the public by and large doesn't like and that they use as their guide when choosing which news source to watch, listen to, and trust.

[mattcat25]

I see posts here from our right wing wacko friends responding in classic Karl Rove style by attacking Bill Plante, Bill Clinton, and the boogeyman %u201Cliberal media%u201D. The question was %u201CIf he%u2019s so smart, why did you lose Congress?%u201D and, if I may add%u2026What happened to the Republican rile on immigration? Social Security reform? Katrina? No child left spent on? And, of course where were the weapons of mass destruction and threat from Saddam Hussein in Iraq?

Any answers?
Karl Rove has been all talk, and now he walks%u2026

[one_american]

"Ten years ago, I asked President Clinton a question which brought a red-faced angry response."

One can only assume that the question you asked of Clinton was if he had committed adultery and had s-e-x with the White House intern, Monica Lewinski, giving him the opportunity to lie about what really happened.

I can imagine that Clinton would have gotten red-faced and angrily denied it, putting on a show for the cameras, like only a Democrat, and especially a Clinton, knows how to do.

And I would believe you would have quickly apologized and changed the subject, Bill.

[shoebetcha]

Your question was poorly stated and ill advised. It came across as petty and unprofesssional. It sounded like a teenager's response to a taunt. You should know better. Regardless of one's opinion of the guy (please don't trot out this objective journalist nonsense...CBS has long forfeited that trait), it there is no excure for unprofessionalism.

You are obviously no Edward R. Murrow or Walter Cronkite.

[nfwriter9999]

I think Bill Plante is worth any number of GOP paid shills.

If the fifth estate had not been asleep at their posts for the entire 21st century, maybe we wouldn't have sunken into the quagmire we have, in Iraq, in Iran, in New Orleans and in the District of Columbia. What a mess. And the conservatives have no one with whom to share the blame.

No doubt the cretin above feels that Fox News provides some imagined Father-Coughlin-like public service, but I see their role as more of the betrayer of the principles on which the US was founded. The traditional broadcast networks have been only cowardly. Fox was and is subversive.

And I see the entirety of the Bush administration the same. Their entire effort has been focussed on subverting every last department of the government to the purpose of consolidating their power.

Meanwhile every worthwhile service of government has gone to hell. I say blame, Karl Rove, blame George Bush and the father he rode in on (though the elder was never the abject failure the son has become), blame Dick Cheney, blame Alberto Gonzales, and blame all the cabinet members and GOP hangers-on who have walked the walk of shame out of the house on Pennsylvania Avenue.

They have made an unholy mess, and it won't be known for decades whether their brash, self-righteous and thoughtless actions have actually destroyed our government.

[memekiller]

I heard Reagan roped the journalists at a distance to force them to yell questions because it made them look bad. I agree -- if you aren't able to ask a question, have the interns set up a camera and turn it on. Or better yet, get all the journalists together to agree not to televise an event where you can't ask questions. They want something from you, too.

[one_american]

Bill Plante - you are merely another member of the far-left White House press corps political activists.

You are no more an objective reporter than Dan Rather was.

Is it because you think that your little leftist world is crumbling around your ears that you have to resort to yelling a breathless, desperate cat-calling loaded questions to the President?

How smart do you think YOU are for working as a Democrat Party shill at CBS?

How smart could you possibly be, working for last-place-in-the-ratings CBS?

Are the poor ratings a result of you and your liberal cohorts and the non-stop liberal agenda pushing by CBS?

Think about it, Bill.

For once just think about it.

[mattcat25]

The entire problem with this particular Presidential Administration has been the perceived vision instead of the realistic view of the actual facts. Karl Rove was somewhat ingenious in the way he postured the Whitehouse with perception altering propaganda and catch phrases.

Rove is said to be responsible for contributing to the election, and re-election of George W. Bush. Vehement personal attacks against campaign opponents are the Karl Rove trade mark. While working for the elected President Bush, Rove was instrumental in orchestrating the case for war against Saddam Hussein (an evil dictator).

Although, President Bush has called for %u201Creach across the isle%u201D politics from the Democratic Party, Rove and Bush have done nothing from their side to reach out, or compromise on any issue causing a break-down in the functioning of our Congress.

Karl Rove%u2019s obsession with perception management as a substitute for actual governmental administration has $cost the American People more then we will be able to realize for years to come.