A friendly lunch

Jan. 30, 2003. 01:00

Beating around the Bush

[...] on Tuesday, The Washington Post reported that Junior himself was meeting with two (unnamed) newspaper columnists and then lunching with "11 anchors of network evening news and Sunday shows."

Is it just me, or does there seem to be something askew with the idea of a President who's about to deliver a speech that will not only be one of the most watched speeches he gives this year, but will also be dissected, cut, folded, spindled and mutilated, analyzed from every possible angle and deconstructed throughout the media for the next several days (or until something else happens to capture our limited-attention spans), asking the people who will be responsible to, at the very least, present the aforementioned dissecting et. al. to come to a friendly lunch with him the day of the speech?

There may be nothing technically wrong with it - but it just seems a bit inappropriate.  While reporters and anchors may be more used to being wined and dined than someone like me, I'm sure it must still have some effect, or else there'd be no reason for the President to do it.