President George W. Bush: Leaker-in-Chief
Robert Paul Reyes
April 08, 2006
The Bush administration, like any self-respecting dictatorship, realizes that controlling the flow of information is a primary means of maintaining and building power.
The mark of a corrupt administration is that it seeks to control and manipulate the media.
Bush's Education Department paid conservative commentator Armstrong Williams $250,000 to help promote President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" law on his radio show, TV program and newspaper column.
Bush's military command in Baghdad acknowledged that it paid Iraqi newspapers to carry positive news about U.S. efforts in Iraq.
Bush rewarded the Fox News Channel for their sycophantic coverage of his administration by giving the conservative network an exclusive interview with Cheney after he peppered his friend with birdshot.
Bush frequently rails against leaks to the news media about warrantless domestic wiretaps and other matters. The president regards leaking information to the press as such a bad thing, that he has launched criminal investigations into who did the leaking.
President Bush hates leaks almost as much as he hates opening a book or listening to a speech by Cindy Sheehan. That's why it was shocking to hear of testimony from Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, that President Bush himself authorized disclosures from a classified intelligence report in an effort to rally support for going to war against Iraq.
The White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan would not confirm or deny Libby's account. McClellan has the most thankless and difficult job in the world: Chief spokesperson for a politician who considers information a commodity to be spinned, mutilated, leaked or destroyed.
George W. Bush did not break the law by authorizing leaks to the press, because the president has the authority to declassify government information. But this incident shows the ruthlessness and hypocrisy of the president.
The mark of a corrupt administration is that it seeks to control and manipulate the media.
Bush's Education Department paid conservative commentator Armstrong Williams $250,000 to help promote President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" law on his radio show, TV program and newspaper column.
Bush's military command in Baghdad acknowledged that it paid Iraqi newspapers to carry positive news about U.S. efforts in Iraq.
Bush rewarded the Fox News Channel for their sycophantic coverage of his administration by giving the conservative network an exclusive interview with Cheney after he peppered his friend with birdshot.
Bush frequently rails against leaks to the news media about warrantless domestic wiretaps and other matters. The president regards leaking information to the press as such a bad thing, that he has launched criminal investigations into who did the leaking.
President Bush hates leaks almost as much as he hates opening a book or listening to a speech by Cindy Sheehan. That's why it was shocking to hear of testimony from Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, that President Bush himself authorized disclosures from a classified intelligence report in an effort to rally support for going to war against Iraq.
The White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan would not confirm or deny Libby's account. McClellan has the most thankless and difficult job in the world: Chief spokesperson for a politician who considers information a commodity to be spinned, mutilated, leaked or destroyed.
George W. Bush did not break the law by authorizing leaks to the press, because the president has the authority to declassify government information. But this incident shows the ruthlessness and hypocrisy of the president.
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