Unconnecting the dots

The Bush Administration is desperate to untangle any possible links between Bush and the stock market crash of 2002. As part of those efforts, Bush's PR team complained to news networks that ran split screens of Bush's corporate responsibility speech with the Dow's collapsing ticker.

Former Republican National Committee head and Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes was appropriately contrite. He vowed to refrain from any such displays of "fair and balanced" reporting in the future.

CNN's Lou Dobbs was quicker to pin the blame on the Bush Administration:

[U]ltimately the responsibility is theirs. I really think the White House should have been more sensitive to the fact that that's precisely the way news editors and many viewers react when the president speaks during market hours.

Incidentally, while I write this the Dow is down nearly 200 and significantly below the 8,000 mark. Watch as administration efforts to disassociate themselves from the carnage further intensify.

Posted July 22, 2002 08:48 AM | Comments (1)