Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

If you are willing to endure the annoying ad required for a 'Day Pass', you can read my brother's article at Salon, Mr. President, will you answer the question?. Here's the start:

George W. Bush has held far fewer solo news conferences than any president in the modern era. And when he does meet with the press, he avoids direct answers so brazenly that there is scant little value in it anyway. It's time the White House press corps did something about it.

How? In interviews, a half dozen of the best White House correspondents of the recent past have offered up some suggestions for the reporters who will be covering Bush's second term. And one place they can start is by reminding the public of a number of important, outstanding questions left unanswered about Bush's first term.

The article gives sober advice to White House journalists about how to try to shame the White House into less infrequent press conferences, and how to ask the sort of direct questions that are harder to fog out of.

I suspect, however, that the two things are in fact contradictory: if the press starts doing less of a lap-poodle act at press conferences, there are going to be fewer press conferences, not more.

But it's a nice article.