Blog 11

Garick Miller
Professor Louis Loucca
Mass Media/Evolution HUC 120
October 26, 2010
George W. Bush and his influence on Mass media and the Press
George W. Bush had a great impact on the way media is run now in the United States. The First amendment states that the press has the freedom to report whatever they want whenever they want. But in essence that’s true to a certain extent. The press many years made large strides in their reporting and covering and in the late 90’s the media’s influence was significantly high. But that all changed after President George W. Bush was elected to office in 2000. As soon President Bush got into office it seemed like he and his administration were at war with the press.
Now at first there were no signs that President Bush and his administration were going to try to regulate the media so much. In 2000, his first year of his first presidential term, he really was oblivious to the media and how they operated. But that changed after September 11, 2001 when the Twin towers and the Pentagon were attacked by terrorist. After that event the media and President Bush would be in a battle for how much freedom the first amendment really gives. So here is the start of the demise of the American media.
After September 11 the media was in frenzy. Everyone in the media was trying to figure out:
1. What really happened?
2. Who was this done by?
3. Did the government know that an attack was coming?
And the President Bush and his administration seemed a bit overwhelmed by the hoop-la and non-stop questions by the media and what now should be known as pulling a “Bush” was started. What I mean by that is President Bush would be in a press conference being bombarded by hard questions and basically stumbling threw an answers. Or if asked by a reporter he likes (as it will say in this quote from Michael Crowley of the New york Observers) that he what look at them as if are you really gonna ask me that I thought were friends.
“Others said Mr. Bush will glare at a reporter whom he likes personally for asking an unexpectedly tough question, as if it were a betrayal. Viewers of Alexandra Pelosi's 2000 campaign documentary, Journeys with George , will recall Mr. Bush icily, if briefly, turning on her after a grilling about the death penalty.”
Even though Bush at some points looked dumb founded by certain questions the media posed nobody in the media seemed to want to pry deeper into things. One reason being is because at that time when the president was talking about Afghanistan and Iraq and there “Weapons of Mass destruction” people just went along with it. Believing what he said or just be so angry about what happened that he could he could of said a secret society of mole people from Alaska were involved and most of the country would have said lets go bomb Alaska.
But over the span of 2 years (2002-2003) nothing was found in Iraq and Osama bin laden wasn’t found in Afghanistan. So people started to wonder what President Bush was really doing. Was he;
A. Really looking for weapons and had beyond a reasonable doubt that he was gonna find them.
B. That he knew Iraq was involved and in the attacks and maybe he didn’t know for sure if they had weapons of mass destruction.
C. He knew Iraq wasn’t involved but back in 1990 Saddam Hussein tried to mess with his father and this was his revenge plot.
D. Or last and what is looking like would be the case is that he knew they didn’t have jack squat and said fuck were going in there anyway.
But never the less the media still didn’t question him. It was almost like he punked the media into not asking him or his administration any of these questions about what was really going on.
But that started to change in 2004 when the Bush was running for his second term as president. The Iraq war drudged on with no results being seen. This war that was hyped up but the government that everything would be solved and the truth would come out that Saddam Hussein and Iraq was a big part of the attacks, started to show signs that it was all for not.
When the Bush began to be questioned about this is when the media and the bush administration would really begin to go to war. At first his way to combat this type of second guess questioning was to say it was not “Patriotic” to question if we should really be in Iraq. The same tactic used when people would criticize the war and his handling of it was now starting to be waged against the media. This if your against the war or if you question us about the war you’re a traitor tactic definitely started the to definitely shake up the press. Many journalists and pundits who questioned the war and anything that do with how Bush was handling it was swiftly vilified as a Non-patriotic American.
That type of label definitely would scare off anyone from asking questions. That was Bush’s and is administrations go to move.

“While young Americans are dying in the sands of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan, our nation is being torn apart and made weaker because of the Democrats' manic obsession to bring down our commander in chief.”

“I have zero desire, just so you know, to be in the limelight. I don't think it's good for the country to have a former president criticize his successor. You're not going to see me giving my opinions in the public arena, until I start selling my book. I'm going to emerge then submerge.” George W. Bush
These quotes and many others were just some of the many times that President Bush resorted to using this.
But it wasn’t only him doing this to the media. Other media outlets began and were the biggest participators in this practice. The biggest being Fox News Channel.
To Fox news this was like there daily routine to as soon as someone asked something that in their mind was not at good thing to ask they would pounce on you.
“Is it that you hate this president or that you hate America?” Sean Hannity
“With that being said, you are a Democrat. You are saying, "Let's cut and run." And I have to tell you, I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, "Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies." And I know you're not. I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way.” Glenn beck(The CRAZIEST OF THEM ALL!!!)

“Listen, citizens of San Fransico, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead. And if Al-Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead” Bill O’Reilly.
Fox news to be used like this by the Bush administration is pretty ironic. For the simple fact that he was using a media outlet in essence to try to censor the rest of the media. The constant tries to censor or to hush the media did not stop there.
In 2001 even when he did get asked some tough questions the answers he gave never really answer the question as seen here in this excerpt;(also from Michael Crowley)
“Question: Why not give Iraq more time to disarm?
Bush: "This issue has been before the Security Council … for 12 long years."
Question: Why don't our allies want war?
Bush: "Saddam Hussein has had 12 years to disarm … Saddam Hussein is a threat … Sept. 11 changed the strategic thinking … Sept. 11 should say to the American people that we're now a battlefield …. "
Question: Why has world opinion turned on you?
Bush: "Saddam Hussein is a threat … 12 years of denial and defiance …. "
Question: How is your faith guiding you?
Bush: " … the tragedy of September the 11th … the lesson of September the 11th …. "
Question: How much will war cost?
Bush: "Three thousand people died." “
In president Bush’s 2 terms in office he was never really that good in the way he carried himself so that his opponents couldn’t violate him and his image at every turn they got. The Iraq war and Afghanistan weren’t the only mess up’s that he had and then when the media try to question him he got defensive. Hurricane Katrina, one of the worst national disasters in America history. In 2005 when this tragedy happen it took the president bush and his cabinet it took a full 2 days for the president to react in time to send aid. When asked about why it took so long the Bush responded by saying he should take full responsibility.
In 2006 is when the war between Bush and the media war hit it’s peak. This because the New york times ran a article in they’re paper telling that the government had a secret program that monitored the bank accounts of suspected terrorists. The President was very angry about this calling the times report “Disgraceful”. The anger being so much that some people in congress were calling for the Times to be put on trial for treason. But that never came to be the case.
In closing the Bush administration and himself were very influential on how the media is run today. They’re use of scare tactics and slander of anyone who opposed them really the U.S. media back. President bush’s almost censored the media and succeeded to a certain extent. But the first amendment will never go away.











WORK CITED;
BrainyQuotes.com, Web.
Wikipedia.org, Web.
Campbell, Richard . Media and Culture an introduction to mass communications. 2009. Bedford, Print. Saletan, William. Imperial President. Slate.com, Web.
Crowely, Michael. Bush eats the press. New york: The New york observer, Web.