President Bush is increasingly holding special meetings with select journalists from the White House press corps. All these sessions are conducted off-camera, but many are also off-the-record.
Why does Bush sit around with some of the most powerful journalists in the American media for hours at a time, holding talk sessions when most of the information cannot be made public?
Raw Story explains :
That Perino quote says it all about how the Bush administration views White House reporters. As a box of tools.Fourteen White House reporters were given a rare hour of access to President Bush on Monday, but the issues they discussed won't be making any headlines -- the session was all off-the-record.
The informal meeting, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, took place as part of a new White House plan to reach out to the press without having to rely on "full-blown news conferences."
"Thursday's effort was one of several recent steps he has taken to amplify his message as he wrestles with his lame-duck status, low approval ratings and increasingly independent congressional Republicans," according to the LA Times.
White House Press Secretary Dana Perino told the paper that the meetings were part of "a desire to be creative to try to provide some access to the president...It was just a new tool we'd like to have in our toolbox."
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