NPR: Bloggers Weigh In on Bush Press Conference

Bloggers Weigh In on Bush Press Conference

The blogosphere is buzzing following President Bush's press conference today to talk about the Iraq benchmarks report. Conservative bloggers seemed to zero in on the questions asked by the media, which were characterized by some as propaganda. Liberal bloggers, on the other hand, focused on what they saw as the president's attempt to spin the situation in Iraq.

"The press was entirely uninterested in asking the President questions, and instead chose to use their airtime to make political statements," Pat Dollard wrote at his blog. "Statements mostly quasi-disguised as questions, but to no rational mind recognizable as anything other than propaganda."

Over at NewsBusters, a site dedicated to "exposing and combating liberal media bias," Ken Shepherd live-blogged the conference, quoting the questions the media asked without any of the answers from Bush.

Meanwhile, Joe Sudbay at Americablog, a liberal site, said President Bush was in "spin mode." (Sudbay also live-blogged the event, focusing on Bush's answers.) "That's all he does. When Karl Rove is in the room directing the Iraq response, we can expect nothing but political machinations."

James Fallows at The Atlantic Online said he didn't know what was "the most contemptible part" of the president's press conference:

But it's going to be hard to top what he just uttered: the most blatant attempt so far to blame everything that went wrong in Iraq on the advice of the military.
Don't have the transcript in front of me now, but the point was: Hey, I asked Tommy Franks if he was ready to go -- including the postwar phase; and he said Sure, no problem. So (says the President), Don't blame me! I was listening to the experts!

3:15 PM ET | 07-12-2007 | permalink

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