Bush Seeks to Bypass News 'Filter' on Iraq

Oct. 25 -- — To the Nixon administration, CBS anchorman Walter Cronkite was the problem. So was his counterpart over at NBC, John Chancellor. And the White House didn't much care for ABCNEWS anchorman Frank Reynolds, either.

Officials didn't like the way that the networks were covering the war in Vietnam, and so they invited local anchors from around the country to come to Washington for a series of one-on-one interviews with the president, bypassing the national media.

Now, as President Bush's approval ratings sag, partly under the weight of negative Iraq reconstruction news, his administration may be taking a page out of the past presidential playbook. Facing reelection next year, Bush has been relentlessly touting positive news from Iraq, and giving interviews to reporters from local television and newspaper groups.

"There's a sense that the people in America aren't getting the truth," Bush said recently. "I'm mindful of the filter through which some news travels. And sometimes you just have to go over the heads of the filter and speak directly to the people. And that's what we will continue to do."

But though most agree Iraq is no Vietnam, critics say the current campaign seems like another case of blaming the messenger.

"If the politicians are arguing about the press coverage, it usually is a sign that there's something wrong with the policy," said Tom Rosenstiel of the Project for Excellence in Journalism. "They're doing whatever they can to try and change the nature of the coverage because the facts aren't going their way."