# John Nichols at The (Wisconsin) Capital Times – Pampered Bush meets a real reporter

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John Nichols at The (Wisconsin) Capital Times –

Pampered Bush meets a real reporter – commentary on the interview
King Georgey faced when he was in Ireland. [root]
bq.
After the interview was done, a Bush aide told the Irish Independent
newspaper that the White House was concerned that Coleman had
“overstepped the bounds of politeness.”

As punishment, the White House canceled an exclusive interview that
had been arranged for RTE with first lady Laura Bush.

Did Coleman step out of line? Of course not. Watch the interview (it’s
available

on the www.rte.ie Web site
[in
RealVideo]) and you will see that Coleman was
neither impolite nor inappropriate. She was merely treating Bush as
European and Canadian journalists do prominent political players. In
Western democracies such as Ireland, reporters and politicians
understand that it is the job of journalists to hold leaders
accountable.

The trouble is that accountability is not a concept that resonates
with our president. The chief executive who gleefully declares that he
does not read newspapers cannot begin to grasp the notion that
journalists might have an important role to play in a democracy. And,
if anything, the hands-off approach of the White House press corps has
reinforced Bush’s conceits.
[End the War on Freedom]

The reason Presidents don’t normallly meet real reporters is that the reporters know that if they do their jobs, they’ll never get another interview or press conference.