Morning Show Wrap
N E W Y O R K, June 25, 2004 —
-- A product of Noted Now and The Note
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Leads
All the morning shows led with violence in Iraq.
Dan Bartlett
White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett did the morning show rounds and answered questions about next week's NATO summit, "Fahrenheit 9/11," and Cheney's explicative to Sen. Leahy yesterday on the floor of the Senate.
On next week's NATO summit, Bartlett told ABC's Diane Sawyer that President Bush is confident NATO members will "heed the call of Prime Minister Allawi" to help train new Iraqi security forces.
Asked whether he intended to see "Fahrenheit 9/11," Bartlett quipped, "I'm busy these days and I doubt that will elevate to the top of my movie watching list. If I wanted to see a good fiction movie I might see 'Shrek.'"
He continued, criticizing Moore: "Mr. Moore has made it a habit of his not to pay attention to facts. And he comes from a very extreme ideology which he in fact opined that we shouldn't have a military response to 9/11 and bin Laden. He's outside the mainstream."
Asked specifically about the scene in which Bush condemns terrorist attacks then quickly segues to his golf game, Bartlett invoked the golfing traditions of presidents past: "I think any American can appreciate that the burden that a President, whether it be President Bush, President Clinton or previous presidents -- General Eisenhower played golf -- are always asked to comment on things going on in the world, but they have to go on with their personal lives as well," Bartlett said.
On CBS' "Early Show," asked about reports that Rep. Porter Goss is being considered as the next head of Central Intelligence, Bartlett said that "Those reports are very premature... The President has made no decision and is interviewing several candidates."
And of Cheney's use of the f-word earlier this week in the Senate, Bartlett said of Cheney and Bush: "I'm sure they're talking about that this morning, but I don't think it warrants the woodshed," referring to Diane Sawyer's term.
Michael Moore
"Fahrenheit 9/11" Director Michael Moore appeared on the "Early Show" and managed to get under CBS' Hannah Storm's skin when he called the CBS Evening News (and its peers) "propaganda" and wouldn't "move on" as Storm urged him to do during his criticism of the media. Moore also defended his decision to literally put thoughts into President Bush's head above video of Bush reading to kids in Florida on the morning of Sept. 11. "Sure" it's fair, Moore said. "First of all, it's satire. The thoughts I'm voicing in his head are my humor. Actually, I think it's very generous that I'm even assuming he had thoughts in his head."
Clinton and Kerry
NBC's Jamie Gangel took a look at Kerry's campaign of late and argued former President Bill Clinton has knocked Kerry off the political center stage with his book tour. Political consultants Carter Eskew and Mike Murphy both said that Kerry is lucky that this book tour will be short one, and the Republican Murphy repeated the BC04 line that the less Kerry is on the stage the better he seems to do. Gangel wrapped her package by surmising "I am sure John Kerry would like a little less Bill Clinton."