01.23.06
Unscreened Questions
This doesn’t add up. From the story,
WASHINGTON – Move over, Oprah. SEARCH
President Bush is making himself into television’s newest talk show host by making audience participation a feature of his appearances.Bush has been taking questions from audience members in recent speeches, and the White House says none has been prescreened. The sessions are not open to the public, but instead limited to invited groups. It’s a throwback to the folksy style on the campaign trail that helped him win re-election and a departure from the heavily scripted speeches that were the norm last year.
If the audience is by invite only, then the audience is pre-selected. Regardless of whether the President knows exactly what questions will be asked, he and his staff do know who will be there. And presumably he isn’t including someone, say, like Cindy Sheehan or even Paul O’Neill in the mix.
