Friday, July 11, 2008

Flashback: 2004 Bush Interview that was Banned in America

Logan Murphy, Crooks and Liars: This 2004 interview should be required viewing for every journalism student. I admit that I had not seen this video until today, but apparently over a million people already have and I hope that millions more will watch it as well. If the American press corps and our corporate media had asked tough questions like this of President Bush and his administration during the lead up to the invasion of Iraq, there isn’t a doubt in my mind that public support for it would have plummeted. This interview was done in ‘04, but was never aired in the U.S., and it’s quite possible that it could have affected the outcome of the presidential election that year. Imagine the outcome if a journalist dared to interview John McCain in this way today.

While surfing the net on ‘Stumble‘, I came across an interview with President Bush on Irish television that caused a bit of a storm in 2004. The interview conducted by the tenacious Carol Coleman of Radio Television Ireland was not aired on American television, and Bush’s press officers apparently complained vociferously about the rigorous questioning.

The video shows Bush at the absolute peak of his arrogance — convinced of his own rhetoric about Iraq, flooded with confidence from international subservience to American power, and high off a crushing military victory that reinforced his childish fantasies of American power and preeminence.

The problem was, Coleman was having none of it, and what transpired was a unique insight into the warped brain of the least respected and most hated president in the history of the United States. Read on…

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