Prez in Topless Tabloid

[Theophylact]

London Paper Nabs Rare Bush Exclusive

By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 15, 2003

President Bush has gone down-market.

After coming to office with a vow to restore dignity to the White House, the president yesterday took a brief sabbatical from that effort: He granted an exclusive interview to a British tabloid that features daily photographs of nude women and articles akin to those found in our own National Enquirer.

Press secretary Scott McClellan broke the news yesterday with nonchalance. "Good morning," he told reporters. "The president had his usual briefings this morning and just recently completed an interview with the Sun, for a discussion of his upcoming visit to the United Kingdom."

A British journalist for a more highbrow outlet was not about to let that slip by unnoticed. "Just to clarify," he asked, "why has the president chosen to do an interview with the Sun? It's a newspaper which publishes daily pictures of topless women."

Such comments are grossly unfair to the Sun. True, its Page 3 is devoted daily to photographs of women and their breasts. True, it this week named "classy Krystle, the beautiful brunette babe" as this year's "Page 3 Idol" and amply displayed evidence of what it called her "vital statistics of 32C-24-33."

But the Sun is so much more than breasts. It is also reporting this week on a woman who is "made of two women" and "is NOT the biological mother of two of the children she conceived and had naturally." Other news items highlighted on the Sun's Web site: "Man begins 12-day sausage, bean and chip bath to promote Brit food," "German saboteurs plotted to bomb Palace with peas in WW2, files reveal," and "Sobbing islanders say sorry to the ancestor of minister eaten by natives."

Bush, meanwhile, has given no solo interviews this year to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Time or Newsweek. And he hasn't given an exclusive interview in his entire presidency to the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe and dozens of other major publications.

So why did Bush choose the tabloid that last raised international attention by publishing topless pictures of Prince Edward's fiancee? It's because the Sun has huge, uh, circulation. "It has a large readership," McClellan said. Indeed, about 3.5 million Britons are said to buy it each day -- all of them, of course, for the articles.

And the Sun is far from the raunchiest of tabloids on fetid Fleet Street. "You should've seen the ones we declined," McClellan said.

Word on Fleet Street is it's an obvious payoff to the Sun's owner, Rupert Murdoch, the conservative publisher behind many Bush-friendly news outlets such as Fox News. Officials at the White House acknowledge that it was a reward to the Sun for its unstinting support of the United States regarding the war in Iraq. (The Sun's pro-Bush stance also got it an interview with Vice President Cheney in late 2001.) But Bush aides also said it was done on the recommendation of Tony Blair, Britain's Labor Party prime minister, who has worked hard to bring the Sun away from its Tory Party roots.

The White House said the interview will appear Monday -- on the eve of Bush's arrival in London -- and far away from Page 3. The interview was conducted in Washington by the Sun's political editor, Trevor Kavanagh, who on Monday penned an article titled "Bush Shows Tax Cuts Can Boost Economy."

Bush often gives foreign media outlets interviews before heading on a trip; this time, he also had a BBC interview and a roundtable with three more sober British outlets, the Financial Times, the Telegraph and the wire service Press Association. But an exclusive interview for a newspaper is a high honor, and the Sun's tabloid rivals are smarting. The Daily Mirror's front page yesterday included the headline "BUSH OFF" and stated: "Mirror poll reveals Britain thinks President is threat to world peace and not welcome here." The Mirror opposed the Iraq war.

Even in the colonies, Bush's Sun interview is bound to create jealousies. His only other one-on-one interviews with print publications this year have been with USA Today, Leaders magazine and Sports Illustrated.

After McClellan's bombshell at yesterday's briefing, this correspondent asked whether the other publications present would get Bush interviews if they ran nude photos. "I hope you're not talking about yourself," McClellan replied.

[wallie_x]

Bush's Sun interview is bound to create jealousies. His only other one-on-one interviews with print publications this year have been with USA Today, Leaders magazine and Sports Illustrated.

And the way the press has treated him I don't blame him for not doing interviews.

If he says: poe-tae-toe, people find offense.
If he says: poe-tah-toe, people find offence.
Which goes to prove what?
That you can't win with a bigot?

[Chuckiechan]

There is a new trend in the Republican party regarding news interviews. They are going to the little papers who will quote straight, (and copyright) preventing the cutting and pasteing to "adjust" the meaning of a story. They get the rights to sell the story to CBS, New York Times, LA Times, but a copy of the original is available to the public for reference should a "re-read" be necessary.

It's a great tactic for batteling the worst of the liberal media.

In fact the phrase "down market" tells it all: the tabloids just aren't good enough. "Here let us help 'adjust your meaning for you'..."

BTW: I think in Britian the tabloids are the main source of news aren't they?

[shahani]

Bush has no class.

[wallie_x]

"One man gathers what another man spills."
From the song: "Saint Steven" by the Greatful Dead

[no1_vern]

First thing I thought of was:

"WHY would anyone want to look at Bush TOPLESS ??!

[wallie_x]

Chuckiechan sez:

BTW: I think in Britian the tabloids are the main source of news aren't they?

The unlying premise behind this is that we Americans are hopelessly ethnocentric enough to think 'tabloid' equates automatically with 'trash journalism'.