Wednesday, December 3, 2003

Give Bush plus, minus marks for trip

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Secrets and lies, or, how President Bush flew in and out of Baghdad unscathed:

President Bush’s spirit-lifting Thanksgiving visit to our troops in Baghdad was a bold and brave move. Air Force One is a rather large target and you can’t expect it to go unnoticed, even under cover of night.

Iraqi rebels supposedly have rocket launchers to attack aircraft, so squeezing that jumbo jet through Iraqi airspace had to be a jittery proposition at best.

So yes, it was brave for the President to visit our troops there.

But from a news media standpoint, the President’s staff dropped the ball big time. While certain reporters were invited to tag along, others were left out in the cold.

The have-nots were told that Bush would spend Thanksgiving dinner at his ranch in Texas and nothing newsworthy was on the horizon. So that’s what they reported, some even going so far as to say what was on the menu at the Bush household for the holiday feast.

Is it good for the president’s representatives to lie to the media, who funnel information to the American public? No, and an apology to the jilted reporters and the American people would be in order.

Granted, the kibosh was on to prevent leaks for security reasons. That’s totally understandable. Even the press agents who misinformed reporters supposedly had no idea of the president’s plans. So they weren’t technically lying.

A senior White House official in the know, however, could have stopped the lies or, better yet, figured a fair way to give all the reporters a fair shot at the story without jeopardizing the security of the mission.

Did the White House pick and choose only reporters it trusted to keep the secret? Quite likely.

Then again, a reporter for the Washington Post was along for the ride, although Bush reportedly thinks the Post has it in for him over the war. CNN was left out but Fox News was there, ostensibly because this was Fox’s turn in the pool. The pool is a rotating group of reporters who follow the president everywhere he goes because the president is always news.

Reporters selected to make the trip on Air Force One to Baghdad weren’t allowed to tell their editors or their families where they were going or why. They weren’t even allowed to file their stories until Air Force One was well on its way back to the U.S. Again, I have no beef with this. Safety should be number one with a risky operation like this.

The Washington Post reporter who flew on the Baghdad flight told CNN Sunday that he was invited on the trip less than two hours before the plane left.

Leaving out CNN was a pretty big mistake, though. It made the Atlanta-based news organization look bad. In journalism parlance, they got scooped.

Fox News, the conservative network in sheep’s clothing, on the other hand, had video from the event and thus more thorough coverage.

At worst, it gives the appearance the president is playing favorites with the press. In fact, the Washington Post reporter was the only print journalist on the trip. What about the New York Times or USA Today?

All the reporters should have had the same shot to be there when the President visited the troops. Press agents could have been vague about the trip, calling it a “big story you won’t want to miss” while laying ground rules for a small media blackout for security’s sake. Maybe the reporters would agree to be “quarantined” after they were told what the event was just before the flight.

Then again, in today’s competitive TV news atmosphere, some reporters might have run to the nearest satellite truck and reported that a big announcement from Bush was forthcoming. Or worse yet, reporters could allege that Bush’s handlers were trying to hide the truth.

The president would have been far better off keeping the trip a total secret from the media. Military journalists could have taped the whole thing from beginning to end, and forwarded the footage to media outlets at the same time. Make the President available for a statement afterwards and everybody goes home happy.

But that wouldn’t give the Bush the good publicity he desperately needs for this war. We still haven’t found the alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We have no proof Osama Bin Laden is dead.

Our servicemen and servicewoman continue to die, and attacks on American civilians are increasing. It’s not a pretty picture to think about sitting at the Thanksgiving table.

Please keep your thoughts and prayers with the mothers, fathers, sons and daughters who are fighting to keep us safe. I’m starting to wonder whether this war is more about oil than terrorism, but I still support our troops 100 percent.

Maybe there’s a quick end in sight to this bloodbath, and for our troops’ sake I hope it comes quickly.