Word: fleischered
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...metaphor from Fleischer's own beloved baseball, it's as if a guy who got to ride on the Yankee's bench for two World Series seasons emerged from the dugout to tell us that Derek Jeter can really hit and field. "After [the press conference] was over," Fleischer writes, "I joined the President in the residence and told him I thought he did great. He felt good too, as he reclined in his chair and lit a cigar...
...When criticizing the umpires though, Fleischer can really throw his back into the task. Make no mistake-to use a favorite White House cliche-he raises important issues about White House reporting. His central point is that the press is biased toward conflict. It is and should be. Policy, politics and the formation of new ideas take place in an atmosphere of conflict. But not all newsworthy events contain stir and angst. Getting the balance right is important. Fleischer's discussion of left-leaning bias is relevant but feels outdated in a world where Fox news and right-leaning bloggers...
...also an incomplete assessment. He offers the critique as a rumination on an important American institution, but Fleischer's not trying to give a full picture of the state of the White House press corps or American journalism. There is no thoughtful examination, for example, of whether reporters asked the right questions or enough of them in the run up to the war. Fleischer gripes about the press, but offers scant insight into how the Bush White House, one of the best message machines in modern politics, used video news releases, local media and direct appeals by the President...
...Recount: As an example of liberal bias in the press, Fleischer asserts that the coverage of the Florida Supreme Court's 4-3 decision to re-start the counting of votes during the 2000 election was reported without modifiers because it favored Al Gore. When the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to settle the election controversy in George Bush's favor, the papers described the justices as "bitterly divided." He cites a Washington Post story the day after the Florida decision as an example, saying the paper made "no reference to a close or bitter decision...
...Well, maybe not in the story that Fleischer cites. But that piece ran on A17, and was narrowly focused on how the Gore camp was reacting. The story about the decision itself ran on the front page, however, and cited "the bitterly divided court." The paper not only used the very expression Fleischer says was missing, but the editors put it at the top of the paper's lead story about the Florida ruling...