Putin to Bush: You Fired Dan Rather

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60098-2005Feb28.html

President Bush may try to manipulate, work around and undermine the American press -- but he certainly doesn't have as much control over the media as Russian President Vladimir Putin apparently thinks he does.

In an odd exchange during the private meeting that preceded their joint news conference on Thursday, a defensive Putin reportedly expressed his belief that Bush fired CBS News anchor Dan Rather.

Richard Wolffe writes in Newsweek: "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."

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[Canuckistanian]

1. Putin may not have his facts right

But his suspicions are right on the money.

[gWbush is Mabus]

3. well, indirectly, he DID have his facts right

[htuttle]

6. It sounds like Putin understands America better than most Americans

[progressivebydesign]

2. Definitely, Putin knows what's what. He peered into Bush's soul n/t

[aden_nak]

4. First off, Bush shouldn't be bitching about planting questions.

But more importantly, I think what Putin said is more on the money than he realizes. I mean, you can put whatever friendly face on it that you like. But the bottom line is that Dan Rather made one bad decision after an entire career of distinguished journalism, he drew the ire of the NeoCons, and now he is out of a job. Sadly, our government may not have the authority to remove journalists, but it has the means.

[mojavekid]

5. See how Bush hates himself. n/t

[Cocoa]

7. I think he actually asked him about Eason Jordan

I seriously question these stories that it was about Dan Rather.

For one thing, why did it take so long for anyone to find out what Bush was talking about? It happened on Wednesday, and the first explanation I heard was on Sunday.

[Mandate My Ass]

8. Oh this is rich!

Bush was openmouthed. 'Putin thought we'd fired Dan Rather,' says a senior Administration official. 'It was like something out of 1984.' "

Welcome to my world. :eyes:

[pelagius]

9. The nerve of the Russians planting questions in the press gaggle!

Why, something like that would never happen in the White House press roo... uh, never mind.

[jayfish]

10. When Exactly Was The CBS Report "Discredited"?

The memos could not be sourced but were they, or the whole story for that matter, discredited? Looks like WaPo needs to brush-up on "the controversy that led to the dismissal of four CBS journalists"

Jay

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

11. "Bush's aides have long feared that former KGB officers in Putin's inner

circle are painting a twisted picture of U.S. policy."

Who really thinks that Putin is that dumb or out of touch?

I guess I'm still stoned from last night's cold medicine, but these mirrors are making me crazy. Is the Washington Post really this stupid or is it a plant from the Bush Corp. projecting Bush's qualities onto Putin? They both are undemocratic, but everybody knows Putin is no dummy. The whole story reads fake.