Ari Fleischer on "the grid in front of" the President

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Daily Kos' Meteor Blades points to a rare moment of television candor last night, as Ari Fleischer explained to Bill O'Reilly how and why the White House determined which reporters were allowed to ask questions at Press Conferences (i.e.: only establishment journalists seated by Fleischer "in the grid in front of" the President -- not "dot coms and other oddballs who come in there"):

Indeed. It was extremely important to the White House that only "reporters" such as NBC's David Gregory, CNN's John King, Fox's Jim Angle and friends be allowed to ask questions -- because they could be relied upon to stay within the approved White House script. And that's exactly what they always did.

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(Everything about the Bush Administration was especially "packaged" for American consumption. Most of it was fake. The White House press conferences were fake and non-journalists were even allowed into the press room to ask pre-arranged questions of Mr. Bush. The Bush town hall meetings and his video conferences with the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan were pre-arranged with rehearsals of questions to ask. Bush even had a fake town built in Iraq so they could show the press how safe it had become. - Chimp)
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