Lots has been said recently about Tucker "Dick" Carlson's accusation that Jon Stewart threw softball questions at John Kerry when he interviewed him, and thus had no right to criticize CNN and other major news outlets for going easy on politicans. Carlson and Begala also did a bit of protesting that, in fact, the media isn't easy on politicians; that it was some kind of popular myth.
Salon's War Room runs down some of the tough questions Bush and Cheney have had to endure in their rare television inrterviews..
"Do you think that when he says these things, John Kerry, your opponent, you were in these three debates with him, do you think he knows he's not telling the truth?"
"In light of the CBS document fiasco, do you think you get a fair shake from the network news and the elite media like the New York Times?"
"A guy over at Newsweek said 80 percent in the elite media favors Kerry. That doesn't surprise you, does it?"
"And you're healthy?"
"What's Chirac's problem? He hasn't been a great ally to the U.S. since 9/11. He doesn't want NATO forces to protect elections in Afghanistan. Come on."
"Do you have any theory on why college professors, pinhead press people why they go into the liberal realm?"
"Has the press given [Kerry] a pass?"
"Is it a reality that we could turn on our television sets one day -- Fox News Channel, I hope -- and find out that a nuclear weapon has gone off here?"
"You've said one of the things you were most unhappy about is this issue of the tone in Washington. Let me just run down a list of prominent Democrats for a second here, because I can't remember a time in my life where it's been this bad."
"You're the president of the United States. You're also leading troops in harm's way. This is the leader of the opposition party [criticizing you]. Does that bother you?"
"John Kerry has flipped-flopped his way into a dangerous position [regarding Iraq]. So my question is, If John Kerry were president would he make this country more vulnerable and more susceptible to terror attacks?"
"Now, all this was propaganda. All of this that you didn't ... They say you didn't register in Massachusetts [with the National Guard in 1973]. Is that bogus?"
This brings to mind one of my major policy proposals, so I suppose now is as good a time as any to unveil it publicly. I'm not running for any office, I'm just saying I think it's a good idea. If someone who is in power wants to steal it, go right ahead. A little shout-out wouldn't kill ya though.
So here it is.. I think we should pass a law that requires every sitting president to have a press conference at least twice a month, in prime-time. The pool of journalists from major and not-so-major media would rotate through, with you know, maybe some organizations having permanent people there while the lesser ones made it in every now and then. It would be strictly against this law for the administration to have any voice whatsoever in who got to ask question, what types of questions they were allowed to ask, or whether or not the events took place.
If the president had to miss a conference, he'd better have a damn good excuse and would have to make it up as soon as possible.
Taking it a step further, follow-up questions would not only be encouraged, but a reporter would have to agree to cede the floor before the next question could be asked. And maybe two or three times a year, a randomly chosen group of interested members of the general public would take the place of the journalists.
We need to do something, this shit is just getting ridiculous. Jon Stewart was exactly right when he told Carlson and Begala that they were "part of their [the politicians] strategy." They're all helping each other out, getting each other re-elected and boosting ratings. Everybody gets something. Everybody, of course, except us.
