The President's press conference and the press corps

Betsy Newmark posts:

I agree with the Washington Post. The President should hold more press conferences. And he should call on Helen Thomas every single time. The sight of her sparring with him and interrupting him before he could get a couple of words out of his mouth did more to remind people of what they like about Bush than any of those speeches that he gives around the country that few people hear about because the media will only show a couple of seconds. …

She is so eaten up with her own conclusions about the President that she wasn't even interested in hearing what he had to say. And that was all on display.

Right on, Betsy.

One Newmark reader commented:

I don't understand why Helen Thomas bothers asking questions. She has already made up her mind not to believe the answers.

We could say the same of many of her press corps colleagues including Elizabeth Bumiller (NYT), Dana Milbank (WaPo), and David Gregory (NBC).

Some visitors here usually skip the weekday Churchill Series posts. No problem.

But in yesterday's post, I took a little poke at the WH press corps so I'm including it below.
___________________________________________________________

Churchill’s first wartime visit to the United States occurred shortly after Pearl Harbor. His second visit occurred in June, 1942.

On both occasions Churchill stayed at the White House, to which during his second visit an airmail letter was delivered addressed simply:

Winston Churchill
White House
Washington, D. C.

The envelope was postmarked Denver, Colo., and dated June 21, 1942.

Inside was a single sheet of plain white stationery on which was typed in capital letters:

GO HOME

Churchill returned to England on June 25.

I can't help thinking that if today's White House press corps had been around in 1942 and learned of the letter, the next day we'd have had in the press briefing room:

"Do you really expect us to believe the Prime Minister's departure had nothing to do with this letter the New York Times made public yesterday?"

The envelope and letter are in the Churchill Archives Centre, Cambridge, U. K. You can view photo copies here. (scroll down)

Tomorrow we'll deal with a more weighty matter.