Bush and Newspapers

While you’re reading this morning’s newspaper you can review George Bush’s comments on reading newspapers in The New York TImes. The note changes from 2003:

…when he told Brit Hume on Fox News that he glanced at the headlines, but “I rarely read the stories,” because, he said, they mix opinion with fact. He said he preferred to get his news from “objective sources” — like “people on my staff who tell me what’s happening in the world.”

Since then he has thrown references to reading the paper into various statements, such as:

In rejecting calls to fire Donald H. Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, he said: “I hear the voices and I read the front page and I hear the speculation, but I’m the decider, and I decide what’s best.”

Steve Benen quotes a previous story in the Washington Times on how Bush just skims the news:

“I get the newspapers — the New York Times, The Washington Times, The Washington Post and USA Today — those are the four papers delivered,” he said. “I can scan a front page, and if there is a particular story of interest, I’ll skim it.”

Laura Bush and Tony Snow have been trying to cover for him:

Still, despite his statement in 2003 that he did not read the papers, his wife, Laura, said last week that she and her husband had read the morning papers for years. “We’ve done the same thing since we first got married,” she told People magazine. “We wake up in the morning and drink coffee and read the newspapers.”

Tony Snow, the president’s press secretary, said in an interview he was certain Mr. Bush read the papers, though he was not sure which ones.

So, Tony Snow doesn’t know which papers Bush reads and it’s not clear that Laura Bush knows who she wakes up in the morning with as her husband does not appear to be the one who reads the newspapers daily. The Washington Times article noted above suggests that it is more Laura who reads the papers:

“Since I’m the first one to see him in the morning, I usually give him a quick overview and get a little reaction from him,” Mr. Card explained. “Frequently, I find that his reaction kind of reflects [first lady] Laura Bush’s take.”

Indeed, the president often cites articles that Mrs. Bush flags for greater scrutiny, even when he has not personally slogged through those stories. Mrs. Bush routinely delves more deeply into the news pages than her husband, who prefers other sections.

“He does not dwell on the newspaper, but he reads the sports page every day,” Mr. Card said with a chuckle.

Apparently Andy Card had a better idea of what Bush reads than Tony Snow does–the sports page. We also know that Bush uses “the Google” to search “the internets.”

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