raveneye

Maybe by his mom . . . .

I think it's high time that the U.S. initiate some real press conferences like in the U.K. It really is pathetic the way it is done here.

jwoody

I'm sure the PM thinks of the press conference as the easy bit. It's during 'Question Time' in parliament when he gets the difficult questions.

You do have a parliament type thing over there, don't you?

Does the president attend there?

...and answer questions?

Sorry for the slight threadjack but I've been curious about this for as long as I've been reading this board.

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shakran

It's not that the media is afraid of Bush. It's afraid of not getting interviews with him ever again. In the corporate world that is today's media, ratings mean everything. Now, picture a scenario where, say, NBC pisses Bush off and Bush decides he won't talk to NBC again, but ABC and CBS have been lobbing softball questions. Bush will still talk to ABC and CBS, but NBC never has the president beign interviewed by them again. The fear is that the public will switch over to ABC and CBS because, hey, THEY'RE covering the president and NBC is not.

I personally think that's stupid. First I give the viewers more credit than that. Second, I don't think any president would have the balls to turn down one of the networks. He'll act like he would, but. . . If NBC runs a story about something Bush has done, and Bush refuses to comment, and NBC says "we tried to talk to the president but he refused to talk to us about this issue." then that only makes the president look bad. Makes him look like he's trying to bury the issue and in the mind of John Q. Voter, why on earth would he do that unless there was something nasty about it that Bush doesn't want us to know?

And jwoody, it depends on the president. This one has been remarkeably inaccessible to the media. He doesn't generally appear before Congress unless it's a state of the union address (at which time the protocol is that the senators/representatives can't ask him questions anyway), and he is only rarely trotted out for reporters to talk to - usually only when his numbers are in the toilet and one of his handlers smells a specific benefit to doing so.

He's also rather famous for trying to direct how interviews will go - you may have seen the incident where he got into it with an Irish reporter because the Irish reporter had the unmitigated gall to ask him questions and expect answers rather than mumbling evasions.

djtestudo

Our system is set up completely different then England.

I don't know how much you know about the American system, so I apologize if this isn't new info

Basically, there are three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. All three are seperate. The president is the head of the executive branch. Unlike in England, he is not necessarally a member of the legislature; he can, in theory, be any citizen (natural-born, over 35, etc.). He is elected seperately as well, and has no power within the legislature. He can, however, ask to address Congress, but is only required to once a year, and that is simply a speech.

Hopefully that helps a little.

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jwoody

I see. A bit like an elected queen but not at all really when you think about it.

Thanks.

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djtestudo

I guess that's one way to look at it

The difference is that in America the president has a LOT of power running the government, as he approves laws and appoints judges (both of which go through the legislature as well).

Let's put it this way. I know there are at least a few countries with parlimentary governments that also have seperate presidents, but mostly as a ceremonial role, while in America the president has offical power.

The "Prime Minister" in the American government would probably be equivilent to the Speaker of the House of Representitives, which is a legislator and is elected essentially by the majority party. Their power, however is soley within the legislature.

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"Final thought: I just rented Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine. Frankly, it was the worst sports movie I've ever seen."
--Peter Schmuck, The (Baltimore) Sun

Stompy

Most everything is staged when it comes to the government.

The president doesn't write his own speeches or make his own decisions.

They rehearse any and all interviews. That's why so many important questions are avoided (or the completely wrong answers given) during live sessions.

If the president has ever come to your town, or into a building near you - you'll know that everything is rehearsed. Back in 1996 when Clinton came to our High School... his actions or interactions with people were all scripted. People who asked questions were predetermined before the event began, and they had to submit their questions for approval.

The students who submitted questions were pulled out of class so they could be told not to stray from the submitted questions. "If the president says this, you ask this.."

It was very strange.

Then they made it look like he randomly picked people.

It's all a big scripted scene.. and a big reason why many people don't realize this is because they haven't been so "lucky" to have him visit them.

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