Decelerate the Downfall of the Administration

April 21, 2006, at Cisco, President Bush faces reporters in front row in a meeting which was closed to the public. Who arranged this? Why do the reporters have more rights than the public?

Decelerate the Downfall of the Administration With a brand new White House press secretary Tony Snow on duty tomorrow, one hopes that he can check the down slide, or at least decelerate it. The press’ role is not to interrogate the press secretary daily with the same questions over and over, but for the press secretary present the ongoing issues in a balanced view. The press secretary represents the administration, and has been hammered daily, so to change this battered image is to have a stable and firm presence, not a soft and surrendered attitude. The White House needs stability to keep a healthy rating, whereas the media needs a commotion to keep their ratings high. CNN’s ratings need sensational reporting to rescue the huge ratings slide down. Their job is to keep the audience interested or shocked. They refuse to send even a picture of a tranquil or reasonable daily life of Iraq to the Americans. The number one issue damaging Bush’s rating is the Iraq war. How to fix it? Not by “courting the press” or bribing them with rides on Air Force One in the hope to sway them for a favorable report. Or to give special privileges to monopolize coverage like in Cisco where only the most selective ones faced Bush in the front row, and kept it a non-open event for the California public. People demonstrated on the road, and this was not covered by the lazy entourage press, as they were just following Bush like dignitaries under the grand illusion, and derelict at work. Californians don’t appreciate Bush’s visit in that any national leader would pay attention to the fixing of the California levees immediately after a huge rainstorm and mudslides. But Bush was only sightseeing with his entourage, and made a mockery of himself. While these press is fickle, they must at the end emphatically tell the world that Bush’s rating is still at all time low, as if this is attributed to their alarming the world, this is because they have nothing better or smarter to say, but are whining on and in fighting to build up their reputations as seekers of justice at heart, by criticizing the administration for whatever it can be accused of. As the new press secretary’s era is played out, one thinks that a better journalist will survive the better news secretary and the tricky one who won over McClellan will lose their shine. The right always wins out in the end against trickery and evil. Tony Snow is a pretty justified selection because he is loyal to Bush, just like McClellan, but he must have a way to put all the infightings, self-advancement, and secret agenda into the light. I don’t think he is a corrupt official type to cater to the ruler’s whims, to smuggle some unqualified damaging reporters around just to advance that person’s salary when it is a hard sell for an undesirable poorly-rated news channel.