Journos Joust
Conservatives love to rail against what they see as the big, bad liberal media, andtwo of their favorite targets are Hearst Newspapers columnist Helen Thomas (who once called President George W. Bush “the worst president in history”) and NBC White House Correspondent David Gregory (whose verbal battles with President Bush’s press secretaries are the stuff of legend).
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So it came as somewhat of a surprise to see the two of them go at each other Monday night at a National Press Club panel discussing media coverage of the White House.
Responding to a question posed by host Marvin Kalb, Thomas agreed that White House reporters were merely stenographers for the Bush administration and said that they acted as “lapdogs” for the White House.
But Gregory sharply disagreed. “I don’t accept that premise at all, I really don’t,” said Gregory. “I think it’s wrong. … I think the questions were asked.”
“They were not asked,” Thomas shot back, later adding that “reporters were never skeptical enough. … Every reason for going to war in Iraq has turned out to be false. How can we tolerate that?”
“You made arguments to Ari, which is your role,” said Gregory, referring to former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. “You didn’t ask questions.”
When Kalb interrupted to say, “We’re not mad at you, David,” Thomas took exception: “I’m mad at you!”
Gregory said, “The country was for this war, Congress was for this war and some of the Democrats running for president were for this war!”
But both Gregory and Thomas, along with the other panelists – former CBS anchor Dan Rather and New York Times reporter David Sanger – could agree on one thing: The Bush administration has not been friendly to reporters.
Thomas bemoaned the Bush administration’s “sinister secrecy” and Gregory said that “the president decided early on that the press was a monolith to be kept at bay.” He added that the White House viewed the press corps as “like the bar scene in Star Wars: this freak show that had to be dealt with.” Rather lamented efforts to “manipulate the press.” When asked if he had access to the president, Sanger said “certainly not.”
After Sept. 11, said Rather, “politically partisan supporters of the administration saw an opening.”
“If you question, if you dig,” said Rather, describing the post-9/11 atmosphere, “we’re going to hang a sign on you that says ‘Unpatriotic.'” This, said Rather, “put fear in every newsroom.”
“We did not live up, as a whole, as a group – and I don’t exclude myself – to the highest standards of American journalism … because we were afraid.”
