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| Bush-bashers mending their way - for now |
| 2001-09-18 |
Many habitual Bush-bashers are mending their ways this week. Journalists and news organizations once eager to pounce upon President Bush now step to the patriotic beat, unfurling banners of approval and applause. Seven days after the attack, print and broadcast outlets are awash in red, white and blue and are showing a healthy preoccupation with the public good. Celebrity journalists wear flag pins on camera, headlines reinforce national unity, news weeklies offer a more manageable dose of endless information. In the past few days, outraged viewers railed against ABC's Peter Jennings after he said the president was "hiding behind the CIA" and questioned the legality of Mr. Bush's decision to muster troops, implying the president had not been properly elected. ABC correspondent Ann Compton also infuriated viewers when she said "you can run, but you can't hide" after Air Force One was diverted last Tuesday for security reasons. Yesterday, readers' letters in the Los Angeles Times called for the resignation or an apology from TV critic Howard Rosenberg, who took potshots at Mr. Bush in a Sept. 14 column, calling him stiff and boyish, suggesting the president should function as a "national anchorman." Last week, Newsweek's Howard Fineman wrote that Mr. Bush "has yet to find a note of eloquence in his own voice." Mr. Fineman changed his tune, noting the president had become the man voters hoped for, and that "Bush passed his first tests, but like the medieval knight, he's only begun his quest -- and ours -- for security and a new architecture to preserve it." Newsweek's cover yesterday proclaimed "God bless America." Scripps Howard op-ed writer Dan Thomasson, who also initially criticized the president, came clean all together, writing: "I was wrong. Not only has this young president gotten his legs under him, he has convinced even his harshest critics that he has the stuff to lead the nation." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |