Earlier in the week I highlighted an editorial that tied the infamous Bush Bubble in with the Gannon Scandal (how could a White House that screens guests at a mass rally, credibly claim not to know about the background of reporters in its press room?) and talked about how that bubble was an extraordinarily dangerous thing for our country.
Then an awful thought hit me: What if Bush isn't even aware of the Gannon Scandal? From what we know of his news reading and viewing habits; its not only possible but likely.
This could be a perfect oppourtunity to show the country just how cut off from reality their president is. We desperately need to get a reporter to ask him a question about it at a press conference or photo op. His blank look and utter incomprehension will speak volumes.
"Now hold on a sec" I can hear you snorting "How could he not know about a three week long scandal affecting his very press room?" Pretty easily actually: (jump with me and find out)
He Doesn't read Newspapers:: as
Eric Bohlert has documented in Salon, Many major newspapers have yet to print word one about this scandal. But others like the NY Times and W's local paper, The Washington Post, have covered it fairly extensively.
Unfortunately for us however, our fearless leader rarely sullies his hands with newsprint. As He admitted in an interview with Fox news :
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"What's in the newspapers worth worrying about? I glance at the headlines just to kind of (get) a flavor of what's moving," Bush said. "I rarely read the stories," he said. Instead, the president continued, he gets "briefed by people who have probably read the news themselves."
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But then there's TV:
As has been pointed out elsewhere the electronic media has been downright pathetic in picking up this story:
(again quoting Bohlert (but KOS has actually documented this first)
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as of Thursday, ABC News, which produces 'Good Morning America,' 'World News Tonight With Peter Jennings,' 'Nightline,' 'This Week,' '20/20' and 'Primetime Live,' has not reported one word about the three-week-running scandal. Neither has CBS News ('The Early Show,' 'The CBS Evening News,' '60 Minutes,' '60 Minutes Wednesday' and 'Face the Nation'). NBC and its entire family of morning, evening and weekend news programs have addressed the story only three times...
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The problem is, even if they were doing their jobs and reporting this story, Our fearless leader, still wouldn't have seen it. Just like his top aides Cheney and Rumsfeld , Bush has publicly stated that the only news on TV he watches is from the Fox News Network and not shockingly:
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"Perhaps nobody is surprised that Republican-friendly Fox News has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid covering the Guckert story and the embarrassing questions it raises for the Bush White House. Since the story began to take shape earlier this month, Fox News has filled more than 500 hours of programming. During that span the name 'Jeff Gannon' has been uttered just five times on the air, according to a search of the LexisNexis electronic database of television news transcripts. And at no point have the facts surrounding the story been explained to Fox's viewers. (Dependable Republican ally Matt Drudge, who in the past has gleefully trumpeted media scandals, has also been allergic to Gannongate, posting just one link to date on his Web site.)
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Its also likely that his Chief Flappers are all hip deep in the scandal personally; and therefore and probably not all that eager to explain to the president how they screwed up; so they simply don't bring it up.
Add all this together and you have a prefect recipe for obliviousness unmatched since the end of the 2nd Reagan presidency.
If the president seems untouched and unhumbled by failure, is it possible its because nobody bothers to tell him when he fails?