Newsweek: Rating the Roadshow (Putin KNOWS about CBS)

[kskiska]

March 7 issue - It was meant to be a heart-to-heart: just the two presidents and their translators, sitting alone inside the historic castle that overlooks the Slovak capital of Bratislava. Four years earlier, in another castle in Central Europe, George W. Bush looked Vladimir Putin in the eye and saw his trustworthy soul. But what he saw inside Putin last week was far less comforting. When Bush confronted his Russian counterpart about the freedom of the press in Russia, Putin shot back with an attack of his own: "We didn't criticize you when you fired those reporters at CBS."

It's not clear how well Putin understands the controversy that led to the dismissal of four CBS journalists over the discredited report on Bush's National Guard service. Yet it's all too clear how Putin sees the relationship between Bush and the American media—just like his own. Bush's aides have long feared that former KGB officers in Putin's inner circle are painting a twisted picture of U.S. policy. So Bush explained how he had no power to fire American journalists. It made little difference. When the two presidents emerged for their joint press conference, one Russian reporter repeated Putin's language about journalists getting fired. Bush (already hot after an earlier question about his spying on U.S. citizens) asked the reporter if he felt free. "They obviously planted the question," said one of Bush's senior aides.

more…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7037620/site/newsweek/

[KittyWampus]

1. Putin Sees Things Just Fine. An Americans Are Slowly Getting Clued In

[VegasWolf]

3. Yes, and someday, in the distant future, conservatives will finally

figure things out.

[Tigress DEM]

34. It's really bizarre to trust a Russian President more than our own.

But if Putin had been in the old style Russian ways of response, Bush would have started a war with that crap.

I believe Putin showed considerable restraint.

[Rose Siding]

2. "They obviously planted the question"

Hilarious to see a bush aid accuse anyone of planting questions.

[VegasWolf]

4. I wonder what mumbled, disjointed response boosh came up with.n/t

[Tigress DEM]

35. Like with Indian Sovereignty under US?

Well sovereign is having sovereignty - two sovereignties relating together.

[patdem]

5. "They obviously planted the question"....Guckert anyone?

"Thank you. Senate Democratic leaders have painted a very bleak picture of the U.S. economy. Harry Reid was talking about soup lines. And Hillary Clinton was talking about the economy being on the verge of collapse. Yet in the same breath they say that Social Security is rock solid and there's no crisis there. How are you going to work -- you've said you are going to reach out to these people -- how are you going to work with people who seem to have divorced themselves from reality?"

[despairing optimist]

13. "If I wanted planted questions, I'd invite the Gardening Channel."

Someday we'll have a president who will utter those words. Just not now.

[Tigress DEM]

36. But was Putin sleeping with his press boy?

Or don't the press in Russia go that extra mile and a half to make sure they get the scoop?

[Frances]

6. I thought the article was misleading

because the thrust of it was that Bush's trip to France and Germany had thawed relations.

From what I can tell the French and German politicians were cordial to Bush. However, none of their policies have changed as a result of the visit. Indeed, the European governments are feeling that they are getting more powerful and that the U.S. is getting weaker (gross domestic product, the dollars flowing from the U.S. down a rathole into Iraq, etc.). As a result, the Europeans are moving confidently in their own direction.

Also the article contrast the cold reception Bush received from the ordinary people with the warm receptions previous presidents have received.

While Bush did not personally fire the CBS reporters, indirectly he has control over the media. GE(NBC), Viacom (ABC), Murdoch (FOX)all scratch Bush's back and he scratches theirs.

When China and Europe are safe and secure and the U.S. is going bankrupt the way Russia did at the end of the cold war, people will ask, "Why didn't anyone tell us what was really going on?"

[Gman]

7. PUTIN GRILLS BUSH ON DAN RATHER (Drudge)

PUTIN GRILLS BUSH ON DAN RATHER
Sun Feb 27 2005 14:51:38 ET

George Bush knew Vladimir Putin would be defensive when Bush brought up the pace of democratic reform in Russia in their private meeting at the end of Bush's four-day, three-city tour of Europe. But when Bush talked about the Kremlin's crackdown on the media and explained that democracies require a free press, the Russian leader gave a rebuttal that left the President nonplussed, TIME magazine will report on Monday.

If the press was so free in the U.S., Putin asked, then why had those reporters at CBS lost their jobs? Bush was openmouthed.
</snip>

Get this:

<snip>
Later, during the leaders' joint press conference, one of the questioners Putin called on asked Bush about the very same firings, a coincidence the White House assumed had been orchestrated. The odd episode reinforced the Administration's view that Putin's impressions of America are often based on urban myths fed to him by ill-informed aides. -- Gman's emphasis
</snip>

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash3pt.htm

How fucking arrogant! The whole world sees what is going on here and calls Bush on it and they just say they're ill-informed and believing urban myths. Are Bush and his people in denial or just plain stupid?

[LiberalVoice]

8. stupid nt

[stepnw1f]

16. Who's in that Picture? (nt)

[LiberalVoice]

21. Hunter S Thompson nt

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

12. "...urban myths fed to him by ill-informed aides."

Pro-jeck-shun!

[dave123williams]

25. But - they're ill - informed! They don't watch Faux!

[Tigress DEM]

37. Somebody please tell our Emperor he's stark raving naked.

[HockeyMom]

14. Poodle or Cowboy?

I guess Putin wants to be neither.

[Rex]

20. What do you expect from drudge?

Matt worships the media whores he so wishes he could be. Must be rough on a media whore flunky. In a way I bet Drudge and Bush have a lot in common. For example; they both slept with Gannon.

:evilgrin:

[DBoon]

43. Urban myths as opposed to what Drudge says?

give me a break. He is the LAST person to talk about spreading urban myths.

[IndianaGreen]

9. Putin has a better grasp of what is going in here than we do!

Bravo!

[Tigress DEM]

38. Umm, speak for yourself.

;-)

[bvar22]

41. "Putin has a better grasp of what is going in here than we do!"

Agree!

Putin survived (thrived) for 20 years in the KGB.
Putin has seen weak and stupid before.
I'm sure he is way ahead of the crawford simpleton.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

10. Richard Wolffe is sticking his toe in the water.

Hope he knows what's up.

[aneerkoinos]

11. Yeah, Putin KNOWS

He fucking ended the corporate media power in Russia, so he knows perfectly how things work. That corporate media sings the songs of the owners and corporations and silences others.

State owned media content and spin can be influenced by democratic means, but not corporate media once deregulated and let loose.

[stepnw1f]

17. Bravo!!!

Reaction to the fascism plaguing the US, although I question whether we are united anymore.

Watch others run from "US capitalism".

[NNN0LHI]

23. Thats what Fox news tells me anyway. Not sure I believe it though n/t

[Tigress DEM]

39. Chilly for Bush warms my heart. Here's what I told FAUX>>>

FAUX News: That's what people who know what is actually going on in the world call your news agency. FAUX News as in a FAKE which is somehow designed to look like the real thing.

Your website currently (2/25/05) says that anti-bush protests in the European Tour were "small" so how many protesters do you need before you consider it a "large" protest?

Per Http://www.StopUSA.be/home

On Monday 21 February more than 4,000 people demonstrated as a result of the visit of Bush to Belgium

Per http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_world_story_skin/475797%3fformat=html

About 12,000 protesters, many carrying banners reading "Bush go home", "No. 1 Terrorist" and "Warmonger", marched through the German city of Mainz on Wednesday, but were mostly kept away from the visiting US president.

Per: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2000142.stm

More than 100 separate protests, involving more than 200 diverse groups, are planned during his visit to Germany.

In Berlin, the 10,000-strong force of officers will be the highest number ever deployed for a post-war state visitor.


Per http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1381528.stm

Thousands of people (3000-4000) have marched through the streets of the Spanish capital, Madrid to protest against the policies of President Bush, who is due to arrive there on Tuesday at the start of a European tour.


It seems to me that your FAUX News reporting of the protests at the Inauguration were simularly underdone.

[madrchsod]

15. i`m sure that pootie poo gets up to date

info of everything that bush says and does. and where does he get this info? russian agents and maybe cia spooks who are fed up with bush killing off their agency?

[Rex]

18. Planted questions? What about Gannon?

These people are so hollow! No wonder EVERYONE on planet Earth is turning against us. Yet these Repuke ASSHOLES will just sit around and wait for the rapture. Happy little clams they be.

[sarcasmo]

Good slam from Putin on Bush, would love to see Putin B*itch slap him

[sarcasmo]

19. Good slam from Putin on Bush, would love to see Putin B*itch slap him

[mmonk]

22. Glad to know someone knows

what's going on in America.

[dave123williams]

24. Like it wasnt Bush's people who applied the appropriate pressure...

Freeps've been publicly GLOATING about having gotten Rather fired; Bush lies through his teeth yet again...

[robbedvoter]

26. Dick Cheney is known to make calls to CNN asking for shows to be cancelled

guests not to be invited...
Wes Clark confronted Judy WoofWoof with it in an interview.

That's the reason I was attacked all through the war by guys like Dick Cheney for being an armchair general, because they knew I was against what they were doing. And they were right. And now we see why everybody should have been against it.
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0402/12/ip.00.html

[wrate]

27. This proves it: It takes one to know one. n/t

[teryang]

28. A twisted picture

What about the anthrax that was sent to major journalists and Congressional leadership to make sure they tow the repression and war party line?

[intheflow]

29. "...Putin... painting a twisted picture of U.S. policy...."

Or calling an ace an ace.

[Kire]

30. "we didn't criticize you"

well, you did now

bravo

[agincourt]

31. He may be a velvet dictator,

but that was a 62 million dollar response. Another good one would have been to say "My friends can't afford to buy the press for me, like yours can".

[jbnow]

32. I know CBS was set up

by administration insider...but not that they had anything to do with the actual firing. (Though they may have assumed it would be the natural order of things in these politically correct days)

I assumed the set up was to create a diversion...from the truth of the story to the questionable documents.

If so Putin was wrong in his exact point...but certainly not in essence. Our "free press" is a joke, but that is at least as much the failure of the press as it is the atmosphere of this administration isn't it?

That the most critical of the press lost their hard passes to briefings (for fake security reasons...unless Helen and Maureen are secret terrorists), that they have such faux "town meetings", that they pay press and give fake news "releases" and actor reporters, that they change science and health facts to distort the truth...all these things and more are reflections of their unfree press...

but they didn't get CBS people fired. (Did they?)

[magellan]

33. Why is it that most of the people who see through BushCo

...live OUTSIDE our country?

Ah well. I'm no great fan of Putin, but he's Russia's problem. We've got Ba-Bush**-ka.

[Kimber Scott]

40. Planted the question? NOBODY would do THAT!

:eyes:

[Hobarticus]

42. "Do you feel free...cuz if not, we'll invade!"

Yee-HAW!!!

WTF is this? Answering a question with a question, right out of a Toby Keith song?

How embarrassing...