NPR's On the Media is my can't miss moment every week. Bob Garfield, a columnist for Ad Age as well as co-host, has been consistently, along with Brooke Gladstone, his co-host, the best media critic going. I urge you to find this program and make it a ritual...it's the gift that keeps on giving. Here's a bit of the transcript of him saying buh-bye to Scotty.
BOB GARFIELD: And I'm Bob Garfield. The shakeup of the White House staff has been widely dismissed as minor cosmetics, but one very visible change is the departure of the Bush administration's chief cosmetician. Presidential Press Secretary Scott McClellan resigned on Wednesday, perhaps to spend more time with the truth.
SCOTT McCLELLAN: This relationship is built on trust, and you know very well that I have worked hard to earn the trust of the people in this room, and I think I've earned it.
BOB GARFIELD: That was McClellan in a press briefing last year. And he's right – he could be trusted by the press corps. He could be trusted to tap dance, change the subject, refuse to answer and otherwise dodge any question that challenged the administration on presidential leaks, weapons of mass destruction, war casualties, Hurricane Katrina and other issues of the day - in other words, a politician's spokesman just loyally doing his job. It isn't easy being press secretary for any president because every presidency is afflicted by mistakes, scandals, political calamities and run-of-the-mill embarrassments. But it was McClellan's miserable lot to be fronting for a boss in a political tailspin, a President at pains to reconcile his own assertions to the American people with ever more well-documented reality. The results in the briefing room, day after day in front of that weary blue drape, were brutal.
SNIP Much more at the link
http://www.onthemedia.org/transcripts/transcripts_042106_duerespect.html
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