Re: [CTRL] USAT: Bush, aides boost access of conservative medi

[Prudence L. Kuhn]

-Caveat Lector-

In a message dated 03/22/2001 8:25:29 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

<< WASHINGTON ‹ On his fifth day in office, Vice President Cheney
 granted his first radio interview to Common Sense Radio and its
 conservative host, Oliver North. At his first news conference as
 president, on a trip to Mexico last month, President Bush skipped
 over the major TV network correspondents and turned to Fox News
 Channel's Jim Angle. "You're next," he told the cable network's
 correspondent after wire service reporters, who by custom go
 first at presidential news conferences, asked their questions.

 And this month, when Cheney gave his first vice-presidential
 interview to a Washington newspaper, the outlet he chose was not
 The Washington Post, the capital city's traditional must-read for
 politicians and journalists. Instead, Cheney talked to The
 Washington Times, a much smaller newspaper known for its
 conservative tilt ‹ and its access to important conservatives in
 government. >>

We rather suspected that the Republicans were not willing to fairly represent
all the people of the United States.  Seems we were right.  They are
preaching to the choir, and if folks are smart they will start singing the
Republican/Conservative song.  The "right" is really serious about defunding
the "left."  This time they have the Congress, the Executive Branch and the
Supreme Court held in the palms of their hands.  It's get in tune or go
hungry.  Prudy

http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
 http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
 http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl

To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]

To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Om

[CTRL] USAT: Bush, aides boost access of conservative medi

[MICHAEL SPITZER]

-Caveat Lector-



03/22/2001 - Updated 11:40 AM ET

Bush, aides boost access of conservative media

By Mimi Hall
USA TODAY


WASHINGTON ‹ On his fifth day in office, Vice President Cheney
granted his first radio interview to Common Sense Radio and its
conservative host, Oliver North. At his first news conference as
president, on a trip to Mexico last month, President Bush skipped
over the major TV network correspondents and turned to Fox News
Channel's Jim Angle. "You're next," he told the cable network's
correspondent after wire service reporters, who by custom go
first at presidential news conferences, asked their questions.

And this month, when Cheney gave his first vice-presidential
interview to a Washington newspaper, the outlet he chose was not
The Washington Post, the capital city's traditional must-read for
politicians and journalists. Instead, Cheney talked to The
Washington Times, a much smaller newspaper known for its
conservative tilt ‹ and its access to important conservatives in
government.

In the Clinton White House, newspapers with conservative news or
editorial pages, and broadcasters with conservative programming,
were ostracized.

How times have changed.

West Wing television sets that were almost always tuned to CNN
during the Clinton years are now on Fox News Channel, whose
political talk shows are dominated by conservative commentators.
And after eight years of feeling frozen out, reporters from news
outlets with conservative programming are winning a much
friendlier reception from Bush and his aides.

The shift started on the campaign trail. Bush's audiences
occasionally booed CNN reporter Candy Crowley and held up signs
slamming the "Clinton News Network." Sometimes they cheered Carl
Cameron of Fox News. "It was flattering and unsettling," says
Cameron, whose fellow reporters say he's as objective as any of
them. "It suggested a perception that I would often disabuse
people of."

Now that Bush is in the White House, the reporters warmly
received on the campaign trail are getting more access to top
aides. It's part of a strategy to get more coverage ‹ and more
positive coverage ‹ by spending time with right-leaning and
outside-the-Washington-beltway journalists.

Talking to news outlets with conservative audiences, and to local
newspapers and TV stations, "gives you an opportunity to take
your message unfiltered to voters who are listening," says
Cheney's press secretary, Juleanna Glover Weiss.

Earlier this month, Bush gave interviews to three of the biggest
newspapers that cover the White House ‹ The New York Times, The
Washington Post and USA TODAY ‹ and to The Washington Times.
Wesley Pruden says, editor of The Washington Times, says, "I
think the Bush White House figures they're going to get a fair
shot with us, and I think that's true."

But Bush and Cheney have spent considerably more time talking to
reporters from other parts of the country. Last week, Bush
promoted his budget and tax proposals during an interview with a
half-dozen regional newspapers, including The Indianapolis Star
and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

White House aides say local reporters tend to be less jaded than
their Washington counterparts, and local newspapers are more
likely to print big stories even if Bush and Cheney don't say
anything new. "You get more play, more column inches, more time
on the evening news," Weiss says.

Interviews with outlets favored by conservative voters are meant
to energize the party faithful.

Inside the White House, "now they're listening to me instead of
NPR," North crows, referring to National Public Radio, which has
a generally liberal audience.

In the Clinton White House, press secretaries were sometimes
dismissive of reporters from conservative newspapers and stations
‹ or they ignored them.

Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer says he calls on most everyone
who raises a hand at his televised daily briefings. "I don't
think the press secretary should pick and choose based on an
agenda or ideology," he says. But North says the administration
will turn to shows such as his, which he boasts has "2 million
right-wing radio listeners," to help rally the Republican troops.

North, who was a Reagan aide, says he doesn't "pitch softball"
questions. But when he interviewed Cheney on Jan. 24 and Cheney
noted that the U.S. military has a new commander in chief, North
replied, "Thank God!" He called Vice President Gore's efforts to
streamline the government a "colossal failure" and called
Clinton's energy policy "incoherent."

This month, after Cheney spoke to The Washington Times, the White
House was rewarded with four-and-a-half pages of coverage and an
editorial that began, "There is no doubt that Washington has
benefited vastly from President Bush's first six weeks in
office."

But while conservative talk-show hosts gush, reporters bristle at
the notion that they're playing into Bush's hand. Bush and his
aide