Restoring Honor & Dignity to the White House

“Prez in Topless Tabloid
London Paper Nabs Rare Bush Exclusive

By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer

President Bush has gone down-market.

After coming to office with a vow to restore dignity to the White House, the president yesterday took a brief sabbatical from that effort: He granted an exclusive interview to a British tabloid that features daily photographs of nude women and articles akin to those found in our own National Enquirer.

Press secretary Scott McClellan broke the news yesterday with nonchalance. "Good morning," he told reporters. "The president had his usual briefings this morning and just recently completed an interview with the Sun, for a discussion of his upcoming visit to the United Kingdom."

A British journalist for a more highbrow outlet was not about to let that slip by unnoticed. "Just to clarify," he asked, "why has the president chosen to do an interview with the Sun? It's a newspaper which publishes daily pictures of topless women."

Such comments are grossly unfair to the Sun. True, its Page 3 is devoted daily to photographs of women and their breasts. True, it this week named "classy Krystle, the beautiful brunette babe" as this year's "Page 3 Idol" and amply displayed evidence of what it called her "vital statistics of 32C-24-33."

But the Sun is so much more than breasts. It is also reporting this week on a woman who is "made of two women" and "is NOT the biological mother of two of the children she conceived and had naturally." Other news items highlighted on the Sun's Web site: "Man begins 12-day sausage, bean and chip bath to promote Brit food," "German saboteurs plotted to bomb Palace with peas in WW2, files reveal," and "Sobbing islanders say sorry to the ancestor of minister eaten by natives."

Bush, meanwhile, has given no solo interviews this year to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Time or Newsweek. And he hasn't given an exclusive interview in his entire presidency to the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe and dozens of other major publications.

So why did Bush choose the tabloid that last raised international attention by publishing topless pictures of Prince Edward's fiancee? It's because the Sun has huge, uh, circulation. "It has a large readership," McClellan said. Indeed, about 3.5 million Britons are said to buy it each day -- all of them, of course, for the articles.

And the Sun is far from the raunchiest of tabloids on fetid Fleet Street. "You should've seen the ones we declined," McClellan said.

Word on Fleet Street is it's an obvious payoff to the Sun's owner, Rupert Murdoch, the conservative publisher behind many Bush-friendly news outlets such as Fox News. Officials at the White House acknowledge that it was a reward to the Sun for its unstinting support of the United States regarding the war in Iraq. (The Sun's pro-Bush stance also got it an interview with Vice President Cheney in late 2001.) But Bush aides also said it was done on the recommendation of Tony Blair, Britain's Labor Party prime minister, who has worked hard to bring the Sun away from its Tory Party roots.

The White House said the interview will appear Monday -- on the eve of Bush's arrival in London -- and far away from Page 3. The interview was conducted in Washington by the Sun's political editor, Trevor Kavanagh, who on Monday penned an article titled "Bush Shows Tax Cuts Can Boost Economy."

Bush often gives foreign media outlets interviews before heading on a trip; this time, he also had a BBC interview and a roundtable with three more sober British outlets, the Financial Times, the Telegraph and the wire service Press Association. But an exclusive interview for a newspaper is a high honor, and the Sun's tabloid rivals are smarting. The Daily Mirror's front page yesterday included the headline "BUSH OFF" and stated: "Mirror poll reveals Britain thinks President is threat to world peace and not welcome here." The Mirror opposed the Iraq war.

Even in the colonies, Bush's Sun interview is bound to create jealousies. His only other one-on-one interviews with print publications this year have been with USA Today, Leaders magazine and Sports Illustrated.

After McClellan's bombshell at yesterday's briefing, this correspondent asked whether the other publications present would get Bush interviews if they ran nude photos. "I hope you're not talking about yourself," McClellan replied.”

“Good gawd man, once again we not only find Violin NOT hiking but he's still trying to make mountains out of mole hills.

You should ask Pheadrus or Treebeard to drag your deadass along on an outting sometime. You'd like hiking. 8)”

“In thinking more about it Violin I do kind of wish we could get back to the good old days when there was dignity in the white house and a man could put his cock in some girl's mouth and consider it none of our bussiness.”

“Yes, I was just thinking ... "that's the Murdoch fishwrapper, isn't it?"

Big Surprise There, Eh?


It also wasn't much of a surprise that Murdoch published Newt Gingrich's book and Gingrich sponsored Murdoch's fast-track citizenship so he could own broadcasting companies in the US.”

“Some people would rather have a president who fucks over the entire country, apparently.”

“Jimmy Carter did an interview in Playboy. Clinton appeared onMTV.

The Sun happens to be a very powerful paper in the UK. Some people think it's endoresement of Tony Blair was a key to his victory.

Bash Bush for something real like retroactive tax rebates to big corporations.”

“How about a non issue?”

“So The Sun has breasts in it.

Its about time they showed a little Bush as well.”

“*GROAN*”

“This is a columnist,right?”

“[bowing at TomT]

We're not worthy! We're not worthy!”

“Hey Nigal, got pants?”