WP/Froomkin: "Bush's Lie"

[Rose Siding]

It's not necessarily a huge deal in itself, but with credibility a paramount issue for the White House these days, it's worth noting that when asked about Treasury Secretary John Snow's future last week, President Bush could easily have ducked the question, or told the truth -- but instead, he chose to lie about it.

Lying is probably the one word mainstream journalists are the most averse to using when recounting what the president said -- even when they know he's not telling the truth. The act of lying requires not just the presentation of false information, but an intention to deceive. Reporters -- and, particularly editors -- are notoriously resistant to ascribe such volition without ironclad evidence.

But there's really no other way to describe what Bush said Thursday. Press secretary Tony Snow's widely-quoted explanation that Bush's statement was in some way "artfully worded" is just plain wrong.

It may not have been an important lie. And there are some mitigating factors: It was, after all, a personnel matter and there was some possibly legitimate concern about the financial markets. But it couldn't be more clear that Bush was being intentionally deceptive.
.....
Several White House correspondents dutifully reported Snow's explanation -- but neglected to note that it doesn't wash.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

[norml]

1. Mister President,

Your Pants Are On Fire.

[depakid]

2. The man's a pathological liar

and by extension so are the members of the media who report his lies uncritically.

Bush falls off his bike two years ago, and claimed it was because there were puddles from a recent rainstorm- so people went and checked the meteroloical records from Crawford- and lo and behold- no rain in the two preceding weeks!

Yet the so called "mainstream media" just goes along with it- instead of posing the rational question- what would motivate a person to lie about something so inconsequential and mundane?

[The_Casual_Observer]

3. Which one???

[Jane Austin]

4. Did you see him in that interview with David Gregory at the Mexican

border?

He was sitting there grinning and laughing when Gregory asked him about his low, low apprival numbers.

Gregory asked him why he was laughing.

To which bush answered, reflexively it was so fast, "I'm not laughing".

Amazing. We were watching him laugh as he said, "I'm not laughing".

He doesn't know how not to lie.

[jrw14125]

5. some caller said it best on npr:

getting information out to the public should not be a riddle. we shouldn't have to parse through language to guess what they're really trying to say.

i say, either tell the truth or refuse to answer the question. there are no other viable options.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. The link no longer goes to the column about the lie - here's new link

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/06/01/BL2006060100995.html

This link worked just a minute ago.

(edited to add link)

[Rose Siding]

7. Thanks- I sent Dan this Newsday report about another lie

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2318917