Very nice…There’s a big reason why Bush chose Williams for an interview instead of who NPR wanted. Cheney used this technique for Meet the Press and made Russert look like a fool. It’s called ” Controlling the Message!”
Ellen Weiss, NPR’s vice president for news, said she “felt strongly” that “the White House shouldn’t be selecting the person.” She said NPR told Bush’s press secretary, Dana Perino, that “we’re grateful for the opportunity to talk to the president but we wanted to determine who did the interview.” When the White House said the offer could not be transferred to one of NPR’s program hosts, Weiss took a pass.
Notice in the Kurtz piece he never talks about Williams being O’Reilly’s chief apologist, but rather prints only his opinions that would seem to make him a good choice for the interview. Here’s Williams comparing David Letterman to John Wayne Gacy, the clown killer, because he called BillO out and said “I have the feeling that about 60 percent of what you say is crap”. (h/t MM for the video) I wish Juan stood up all the time like he does against Kristol on FNS.
Download | Play Download | Play Williams discussing Letterman
Download | Play Download | Play Letterman on O’Reilly
Dan Froomkin has his opinion and it’s a good one.
How much control should the White House have over who gets to interview President Bush? Specifically, should Bush be able to dictate which journalists at which outlets he talks to?—-Given how meticulously the White House picks and grooms Bush’s audiences to avoid any unpleasantness, it should come as no surprise that the press office is very careful about who gets to interview Bush.—
Somewhat tellingly, Williams served as Bill O’Reilly’s sympathetic foil during the Fox News anchor’s bizarre quasi-racist rant last week about his visit to a black restaurant and his observation that, to his apparent surprise, the patrons weren’t running around screaming like addled rappers.
Would other news organizations allow the White House to determine who on their staffs would be allowed to interview the president? Would any responsible newspaper accept such conditions? I hardly think so.
Filed Under: Bill O’Reilly, Dan Froomkin, George W. Bush, Media Bias, Media Criticism
2 Trackbacks To “Bush cherry picks Juan Williams for an interview and NPR refuses“
Bush is shit.
Come on. Juan Williams has always been one of the Republicans’ favorite kind of people- the Black man who lets the White man’s words come out of his mouth, the ever-ready apologist for the vile Beltway “wisdom” who can be portrayed as a liberal because of the color of his skin.
He has made his decision, like Tweety and Blitzer, like Tucker and , well, everybody on TV news except Keith Olbermann, to keep his big house etc. and the devil take the rest of us.
He reminds me of my Uncle Tom. Really he does. No bull he does.
Remember all the town hall meetings Clinton had with the American people? When was the last time Boy King George had a town hall meeting with his subjects? Chimperor only meets with hand picked audiences, and only when he has too.
…Chimperor doesn’t like mingling with the little people.
I hate doing this on any thread–but of great importance tonight is NBC/MSNBC is apoligizing to that dizzy congresswoman Marsha Blackburn (?)from Tenn., for the interview with David Schuster. I am really pissed. Go to www.TVNewswer. click on and then go over to the right hand column for Fishbowl DC, click on and the story reveals itself. Call NBC/MSNBC tomorrow and ask for the new head of MSNBC’s office.
Re: Juan Williams, a waste of space–thank God, at least NPR stood up to the WH.
If Bush could push a button and have everyone who disagrees with him die a horrible linguring death, he would. He would grin while doing it.
Where is Armstrong Williams when we need him, i heard he doing discount these days…..
Juan’s trying to hold on to that paycheck, regardless of whether or not he likes wearing the “House Negro” tag. Ugh
Good of them to refuse the interview, I’m only afraid that they wanted a right wing shill like Neil Conan, Mara Liasson or Cokie Roberts. Can you just imagine the softballs?
Well, Bush is willing to be flexible.
How about Britt Hume?
is this really a surprise? I had assumed they did this all along anyways, and by default they had by shutting out some news outlets with access to Bush?Cheney while granting it to The Sinclair group, WSJ and Faux.
Second choice - Alan Colmes.
There was a time in the distant past when NPR reporters did not also have major gigs with the commercial media too. Now there are all too many who do, and it brings their allegiances and objectivity into question way too often for me. I find the shift most noticeable in the case of Cokie Roberts, who has become much more biased in her “reporting.” Juan Williams falls into the same boat. I don’t trust his reporting to either provide depth or breadth.
I usually agree with Froomkin, but this statement boggles the mind:
The obvious answer to the first question is yes, without a doubt. We’ve been seeing this repeatedly for the last six years. The answer to the second question depends upon whether or not you think there are any responsible newspapers left.
sconset @ 6:
Poor old Marsha. If she really did work closely with the families of the fallen, she could have retaliated with the real name of the most recent casualty from her district. Stupid t**t.
“..O’Reilly fired back last night on his Fox News show — with Williams at his side. Here’s a video clip. Williams to O’Reilly: “They want to shut you up. They want to shut up anybody that has an honest discussion about race. . . . They want to marginalize you, Bill, they want to shut you up. . . .”
Uh,no Juan-they want Bill to come to terms with and apologize for,his own witless ignorance.In the “some of my best friends are black” equation,YOU Juan,are Bill’s best friend.
Which upon reflection,is the perfect role for you.
Good for NPR, refusing the cherry-picked interviewer. I would love to hear Dubya interviewed my Diane Rehm. She does the best two hours daily in broadcast news and information, and she doesn’t let her guests get away with not answering questions.
It’ll never happen.
interviewed by Diane Rehm.
What could possibly be learned by interviewing Bush?
Isn’t that kinda like paying him to speak after he retires? I mean, why would someone do such a thing?
On the Letterman clip, did Billo actually say “M-One-Six” in reference to the British agency “MI6″? Doesn’t anyone vet him on these factoids he likes to randomly pop out in his blatant attempts to sound erudite?
BTW, I used to feel compassion for Juan Williams. However, he has sold his soul for the filthy lucre that seems to be the raison d’être of the Right.
Sigh… Why can’t we impeach Bush and Cheney? … and Gonzales? …and Rice and Rumsfeld?!?! To me, impeachment of this criminal cabal is far, far more important than poor, pathetic, preening Billo.
Juan Williams. The definition of “sell-out”. He used to sound halfway intelligent on NPR about 10 years ago, but now he’s just pathetic. NPR (Nice Polite Republicans) has gone corporate-neo-con now as well…don’t get me started on Cokie Roberts or Mara Liasson…ugh…
xoites defends Constitution @ 7:
Although in all fairness…
Remember that Twilight Zone episode where everyone in town has to scrape and bow before that little boy or else risk being sent to the “cornfield”?
If I could send the entire GOP to that cornfield…
I think Bill Moyers would be the only reasonable choice for a Bush interview. If Bill Clinton can take on Murdock pawn closet case Chris Wallace, Bush should be willing to go on with Moyers.
Question:would any other news organization allow the white house determine who is allowed to interview the president?
Answer :just tune into any propaganda conference with the president and golly gee he picks who, in fact may question him.I guess the free press can’t think of any way to randomly pick questioners in the white house press room.That would be demeaning to our leader
Juan’s a shill. Period.
xoites: you write what I try to say 99% of the time. So right. I mean ‘correct’.
Curtilingus @ 20:
Excellent point. All the guy does is get petulant when asked a tough question that throws him off his talking points.
pinkobait @ 24:
That episode is the perfect analogy for how the press has rolled over for Bush and his cronies.
You know, I went to an Irish funeral the other day and was surprised that a drunken fist-fight didn’t break out. Huh.
O’Reilly is a real piece of work.
C&L is covering my pet peeves today. First, the Fox-lite Toady Show with Matt Lauer. Now, it’s the conservative NPR. People’s thinking NPR is liberal is a kind of mass hypnosis. Listen to Talk of the Nation. It’s wall-to-wall Republican propaganda. And the man whose ego can be seen from space, Scott Simon, is another who makes believe we’re lucky to have Bush as president. Simon also gets all nostalgic and ooky for Richard Nixon. Tom Ashbrook does a very conservative call-in show in Boston. NPR’s been banging the drum from the beginning for the invasion, the occupation, the embedded journalists, the eternal fake war. Love Terry Gross, though. And Wait, Wait. And KCRW podcasts. The rest is dreck.
Juan says Billo’s being on Letterman waslike being invited by John Wayne Gacy?
I thought it was more like that French movie “The Dinner Guest” when these people each invited an idiot to a dinner party so they could make fun of them all night…
nice cries of “Uncle tom” and “House Negro,” wheres the “oreo” or other thinly veiled racist quips? Juan williams calls out the conservatives every day on fox news, its a shame he doesnt act “black” enough for the likes of C&L’s most likely almost all white audience. (you do realize that having an expectation as to how a black person should act or think is inherently racist right?)
About billo and his rants…
I don’t have a problem with this particular rant of his and I think it isn’t an issue to push for us progressives. What he was doing was talking to his base .. which happen to be made up largely of racists. To me he says ‘hey racists in the audience, open your eyes - people of color aren’t all bad apples”. You have to start a discussion somewhere. So I’m with Juan on this.
raker @ #32
Makes me long for Michael Krasney from San Francisco’s KQED or Larry Bentsky from Berkeley’s KPFA…
Williams is the Clarence Thomas of NPR, a sell out who lives for the favors of White Conservatives by legitimizing their positions by uncritically restating their talking points.
Even the White House knows he’s a gutless suck up.
I’ve been teetering about Juan Williams for a while now but finding out that he’s a defender of O’Reilly tips his bus over int the abyss of suck-up journalists. I honestly think that the big reason the GOP has dominated politically over he last 30 years is because the damn journalists want to be famous and they want to hang out with the rich and powerful people they cover - with backside kisses. I can handle anybody who’s not willing to be channeled into a well-worn political rut but if you want to claim the iconoclast laurel crown, championing the likes of Bill O’Reilly ain’t going to help. William’s toga is so poorly draped that is ass is free to the wind. Juan, at least suck up to somebody with a brain!
And I’m glad to see that I’m not the only one who can’t abide Neil Conan. Pisses me off, I haven’t been able to listen to
Talk of the Nation since he took over. AndMara Liason lost my confidence when she joined up with the GOP during Clinton’s impeachment.
If it wasn’t for the Friday News Roundup on Friday morning and Garrison Keilor and the Car Talk guys, NPR would be in danger of losing my pledge money. Hell, Keilor is the only NPR person who you can depend on to not be sucked in by the GOP. Okay, maybe the Whattaya Know guy too..
Milo
John Witherspoon @ 34:
Dude. You picked out 2 comments out of almost 40 on this thread. Nothing like painting with a broad brush. Bottom line. The man is a shill. Period!
The very fact that Bush wanted Wiliams and wouldn’t budge should tell you all you need to know about Williams.
Juan Williams is really annoying. He interviewed Colin Powell some time ago and gave him a free pass. I really disliked him when he did Talk of the Nation during the Florida recount. I haven’t read “Eyes on the Prize,” but I loved the program on PBS. I was surprised to find out that he wrote the companion book for the series. He is extremely frustrating…and, I may be mistaken, but I think he wrote some real favorable stuff about Clarence Thomas during the Anita Hill hearings. He’s a poor excuse for a journalist. No wonder Bush has cherry-picked him. Now if Tavis Smiley interviewed Bush…oh well, it will never happen.
The coward picks his audience:
http://www.ajc.com/opinion/con.....esson.html
From www.answers.com/topic/juan-williams:
“When Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas was defending sexual harassment charges in 1995, Williams was supportive of him in his writings and on television. He also defended Thomas when Williams appeared on Crossfire as a co-host to Pat Buchanan. But Williams found himself the subject of news stories and facing verbal sexual harassment charges from female Post employees. The charges resulted in disciplinary actions and an apology from Williams.”
John Witherspoon @ 34:
Maybe you prefer the more politically correct: Mr. Williams is a black man supporting the policies of a political party, the GOP, which pro actively undermines the interests of the African American at large in exchange of an easy monetary reward. So Mr.
The president of the United States is accountable to the American people — who are his employers and who pay his salary BTW — and as such it is part of his job to answer questions from both the media and private citizens whether he likes it or not. This fucktard must think he is the King of the confederacy, because not only does he refuse any sort of non-preapproved interview, he even wants to bring his own house Negro to ask questions only deemed appropriated by the king in advance.
And then like clock work, we get the merry guys who get their panties all twisted in fake indignation when the sad truth is pointed out, so they go out of their way to build yet another massive straw man argument while trying to hide their intellectual dishonesty behind the canard of racism.
And then it dawns on me… Watching this MO happen over and over again helps me understand why and how we ended up in this race to the bottom downward spiral.
Keep it up idiots, we are almost right over the drain, a couple more circles around it and we will be fully flushed.
Mr. Williams is a house negro not because he fails to do something (”act black” whatever that is), he is an Uncle Tom because he does a very specific thing: shill for his masters.
Juan Williams, Kirsten Powers and Laura Schwartz are horrible. Fox “liberals” are always ready to take a dive
jr @ 45:
Two words: allen colmes.
Gawd, if I live to be a hundred (not quite half way there . . .